Day 640 - Rovaniemi, Finland
Visiting Santa’s Village
Happy holidays from Santa Central in Rovaniemi, Finland! I mean being in Lapland, surrounded by fresh snow, we had to visit Santa’s Village. This small town and the Santa Claus Village nearby brings thousands upon thousands in. It straddles the Arctic Circle.
Our car had got us there by mid afternoon. We had been listening in the car for hours to Christmas music on our way to the town so we were in the mood. We had the feeling that if there was a Santa, he could certainly have set up his administrative offices here.
But the marketing of Santa was intense. I found myself both loving the snowy, Christmas landscape and loathing the commercialism. Children giggled on their sleds as parents navigated restaurants, retail shops, cafés, even a low long, two-story mall made of wood festooned everywhere with Christmas lights. Parents, children, and local tourists milled throughout and crammed into the post office where are you could have cards and letters sent directly from the town to Santa, or anyone anywhere else in the world.
There is also a playground among the tall pines, laden with snow and small, duplex cabins of wood that are lined up into the trees. Or visitors can spend a few days among Santa’s elves, and, of course, Santa, himself, who is enthroned appropriately for conferences with excited Scandinavian children. (We never saw the man. Apparently he was on break.)
It’s not that the Santa Claus Holiday Village is horrible. It was a fun place and brought back pleasant memories of snowy, pre-Christmas days when I felt the big day would never come. But … the proliferation of dolls, cards, Santa stickers, sweaters, scarves, gloves, socks, etc. and every other kind of product and food masquerading somehow as Christmas – well, the Finnish have clearly learned well the ways of American and European capitalism and it’s less than savory.
Reindeer hides for sale - hard on Rudolf.
Next, onto the town of Rovaniemi and then back to the Arctic Circle and Lapland, the home of the Sami people.
Road from Rovaniemi to Levi (via Kemi)
The road from Rovaniemi took us through deepening snow and glistening forests; an absolutely beautiful and remote land. Heading farther north we passed through Kemi and onto Levi, a favorite ski resort for locals.
We listened to Christmas music the whole time. After all we really were passing through a Winter Wonderland!
