Santa Clause Village

16 Sep. 2006 Rovaniemi



It was about one hour by car from Visatupa to Rovaniemi. It looked quite a ‘city’ after staying at Kiilopaa and Visatupa. We had a half day till getting on the night train leaving at 9pm. Well, what shall we do? We decided to go to the Santa Clause Village located about 8km north of Rovaniemi. Actually I insisted. I just wanted to see the Arctic Circle line there. My friend had visited there before, but she was willing to visit there again for me. Thanks!

Before going there, we walked around the town center. Rovaniemi is known as the town designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. There are several pieces of his architecture in the town. The public library is one of them. To be honest, I hadn’t known anything about his work till I got there. Anyway, the public library building looked very cool. People in Rovaniemi are lucky to have such a nice library.



Then we headed for the Santa Clause Village. There were few people since it was off season. Frankly, I felt it was cheesy when I got there. Maybe it might have been better if it had snowed, or if there had been more people around. What annoyed me was the cheesy easy-listening type of BGM like you might here somewhere around like in an old shopping mall. Oh please stop that sort of music!

The main attraction would be Santa Clause Office. Of course Santa Clause is there. You can take a photo with him if you wish. All you have to do is paying a lot of money. You can talk to Santa without a fee, but taking photo with your camera is not allowed. Oh, well, I don’t need a picture. I even didn’t know about what I should talk with Santa Clause. I didn’t want to have a meaningless small talk with Santa Clause. That is ridiculous thing to do. I didn’t want to talk as a child, like asking him a present for Christmas. That would be even more ridiculous. So I ended up peeking into the room from behind the wall. I was too dreamy to meet and greet to a real Santa Clause.

You can order the letters from Santa Clauce at the office as well as at the post office next to the office. Or you can send your own Christmas card to be delivered for Christmas Day. I posted a couple of Christmas cards. I have just recalled about that. I think I sent one to myself…I shouldn’t remember it.



And here is the Arctic Circle Line. Yay!

Now it is time to leave Lapland. The night train to Helsinki was pretty gorgeous, modern clean and comfortable. The compartment was only for two with nice bank beds and a sink. They even provided packets of drinking water and socks. On the corridor there were clean toilets with a shower. We still expected northern lights looking up the dark sky, but soon we ell asleep.