Santa Claus Village – Magical experience in Christmas Wonderland

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Far in the north, amidst the snowy fells of Lapland, lies a place where the magic of Christmas comes to life every day of the year. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland is not just a tourist destination – it is an experience that makes hearts beat with the warmth and joy of Christmas. I have dreamed of this place since I was little and finally the time came to make this bucket list experience of every Christmas person into reality. In November, the Santa Claus Express, or how we say in Finland: VR, took us on a night train ride from our city Tampere to Rovaniemi to explore this fascinating Christmas Wonderland, where Santa Claus and his reindeer were waiting for us (or vice versa).

SANTA CLAUS VILLAGE – 7 REASONS TO VISIT

MAGIC OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

At the Santa Claus Village, you can immediately cross the line of the magical Arctic Circle, which also means entering the special Christmas area. This symbolic moment is a special highlight for many visitors and it is also possible to get a certificate from the information center for a small fee, laminated or not if you wish. We thought that since we were here and wanted some nice memories of the day, we would get a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle. It’s quite fun, and so this gold-edged certificate with our names on it became part of our Christmas decorations.

MEET SANTA’S REINDEER AND HAVE A REINDEER SLEIGH RIDE

Santa Claus Village wouldn’t be anything without the reindeer! It’s always a pleasure to meet these lovely northern furry snouts and for us these were one of the highlights of the day. The reindeer in the village are located in front of Mrs. Santa Claus’ house and the reindeer take eager visitors on short reindeer rides around the yard as well as longer forest tours. Neither of us have ever been on a reindeer ride, so this was a must-try. There were no forest tours available during our visit, so we only did a shorter ride in the yard. This was also a nice experience and at the end we got to pet the reindeer.

HUSKIES AND OTHER SANTA’S FURRY FRIENDS

At Santa Claus Village, you can meet huskies and other furry friends of Santa. These are all located at the back of the Village and there is a separate entrance fee for these too. We didn’t have time to say hello to the huskies, because unfortunately the husky farm closed at 3 pm. We also skipped these other furry friends, because we have already scratched many kinds of domestic animals many times in our lives and admission would have been quite expensive compared to that. However, this is certainly a wonderful experience for families with children and why not for others too, if you are interested!

HAVE A CUP OF HOT MULLED WINE WITH MRS. CLAUS

The house of Mrs. Santa Claus is located behind the reindeer and the path leading there is like something out of a fairy tale with Christmas lights. The house of Mrs. Santa Claus is actually a small café, upstairs of which it is possible to go and greet Mrs. Claus for a fee of 10 euros. You are not allowed to take photos of the meeting yourself, but after the meeting you can buy a photo package taken by the photographer elf as a souvenir. We left the meeting with Mrs. Claus for another time, because we were not really excited about the entrance fee.

MEET THE REAL SANTA CLAUS AND EXPERIENCE THE CHRISTMAS MAGIC

Meeting Santa Claus is a big dream for many Christmas lovers, and that was our dream too. Santa Claus’s office has a souvenir shop, behind which a stunning magical path to Santa Claus’s office is revealed. In the glow of gift packages and colorful Christmas lights, we followed the marked path until we reached our destination – the queue. There were a couple of others here too. Well, luckily for us, the queue wasn’t too long and we were also lucky when we heard that this meeting was FREE. Clearly the time of miracles is definitely not over. Of course, photography was prohibited here too, but you could buy pictures from the elf photographer after the meeting as a souvenir if you wanted. The price of the photo package (2 photos + video of the meeting) is more or less 50 euros, I don’t remember the exact amount. We bought these shots, because the visit was such a memorable experience for us and we wanted to get something permanent from it to admire afterwards. Let the contents of the meeting remain our Christmas secret.

CAFES, RESTAURANTS AND SOUVENIR SHOPS

In addition to the above-mentioned activities, Santa Claus Village is also full of various restaurants and cafes, where you will surely find something small and large to eat for everyone. We went to enjoy both hot mulled wine and delicious hot chocolate in various cafes and kept our hunger away with fluffy korvapuustis and tasty Christmas tarts. However, if you are really hungry, I would recommend heading to the Santamus restaurant for a hearty lunch. After lunch, you can grab a cool dessert drink at the Arctic SnowHotel‘s pop-up Ice Bar, which is located behind the restaurant.

If you are interested in shopping and souvenirs, there are plenty of boutiques here. However, each boutique is quite similar in style, i.e. full of both local crafts and Christmas-themed souvenirs. On the other hand, we did not expect or want anything else. We happily wandered around looking at these Christmas things and even grabbed a couple of nice things to take home with us. In addition to Christmas shops, Santa Claus Village has design stores from Finnish brands such as Iittala, Marimekko and Pentik.

WRITE TO SANTA IN THE MAIN POST OFFICE

A visit to the heart of Christmas would be incomplete without a visit to Santa Claus’s Main Post Office. This works as a regular post office, but in addition to that, you can admire letters sent to Santa Claus from all over the world and also write your own letter right there. Since we were here to spend the Christmas-spirited day of our dreams and to seek new experiences, we decided to write Santa Claus a nice little letter. The content of the letter will also remain a matter between us and Santa, but this did crown our trip to this place completely.

Tip! You can buy beautiful Christmas-themed paper for writing letters at the post office counter (One A4/1€), so don’t worry if you haven’t remembered to prepare for writing a letter in advance.

A TRUE CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND

Santa Claus Village is a place where Christmas is not just a day on the calendar – it is an experience that lasts all year round. This enchanting place is the perfect destination for anyone who longs for the magic and joy of Christmas in their hearts. Although many things here cost extra and there are plenty of people, a visit is still worth it. Everyone gets to make the experience what they want and experience their own unique Christmas experience. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you can of course come back to experience again and again if you want.

It is wonderful to be from Santa Claus’s fairytale homeland and it is amazing that Finland has such a place that is known almost everywhere in the world. Although I love travel, sun and turquoise sea very much, Christmas is an important time for me – inspired by my own Finnish Christmas traditions.

With hot mulled wine in my hand, delicious Christmas tarts in front of me, I want to wish a Merry Christmas and a fruitful new year of traveling to all my dear readers!

CHECK OUT THE BEST TOURS AND ACTIVITIES OF SANTA CLAUS VILLAGE IN ROVANIEMI:

HAVE YOU BEEN TO VISIT THE SANTA CLAUS IN FINLAND ALREADY? SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE THE COMMENTS AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🙂

<3: Tiina Johanna

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*Photos: Tiina Johanna, blogger