Santa's Village

After a relaxed breakfast (we seemed to be almost the only ones in the hotel), we caught a local bus 15 minutes out of town to Santa's Village. Located on the highway across from a truck stop, this small 'outpost' is where Santa goes every day to meet friends who want to visit, and to check out his mail. He lives somewhere north on the Fells, but apparently the actual location is a bit of a secret

The front lodge of the Village contains an information centre, about 10 gift shops (including one which makes famous Finnish hunting knives, just what you would expect in a village set up for kiddies, 3 cafes and some christmas decoration shops. 

After 'cruising' the shops and having a Santa-priced cup of coffee, we went across to see the great man himself. No disappointment here! It was fantastic! Out beyond the front lodge is Santa's greeting hall. 

Apparently in high season, 10,000 people per day pass through, and it is a real production line. One hour in a queue, say "Hi" to Santa, say cheese for your photo, select which photo to buy, exit through the gift shop. 

However, it appears that we planned our visit perfectly, and arrived about two weeks before the high season begins on December 1st. As such it was us, an Indian guy of about 40, the Australian family we met on the plane, and a couple of other families in the entire place. 

After the Indian guy had a really serious chat to Santa (and bought his photos), the boys rushed up for their turn (no queue!). We sat with Santa for about 10-15 minutes. He was a really gentle old soul who spoke perfect English with a slight Finnish accent. The boys were awestruck, staring at the real Santa and initially hardly said a word.  However with a bit of coaxing from Santa they settled in and soon Santa found out all about Australia, Berlin, the types of planes we had flown on, and what they wanted for Christmas. 

Santa also had a nice long chat with the boys about the reindeer, and what they were up to, (currently his reindeer are out in the wild looking for frozen mushrooms and berries to eat). The entire experience was very relaxed. we had our photos taken and then exited through the gift shop. This might be Nicole's favourite photo ever!

Even though it was only about 12:15pm on Friday, the trip had paid for itself already. We all were really excited by meeting Santa and the reaction of the boys was brilliant. They were the perfect age for it, and it was really worth doing!

We wandered around the village a bit more. We found Santa's main post office, and thought we would see what happens here. Inside is the normal post office, and off to the side is the special room where all of Santa's mail is opened. WOW....it is very organised, and the elves are very busy in there. The letters are sorted out into countries, and then each letter is opened for Santa to read. The stamps are collected and bundled up for UNICEF. 

The elves asked the boys where they were from. "Australia" they said excitedly. The elf went over to the box and pulled out some letters from Australia. She opened them, and then the kids were allowed to read the letters from Lachlan in Brisbane and Brittany and Sarah from NSW. It was incredible to see, and to know that every letter for Santa is actually opened!

Here are the boys with 2 of the elves working hard! 

Santa's official address  is

Joulumaantie 1 

93930 Arctic Circle 

Finland 

But there were letters addressed To Santa Claus,  Arctic Circle 

They made it there as well!

     

We got to speak to Santa for about 10 minutes.