War of Santa

Ooops, sorry. We return to posting, um, Tuesday!

Apparently, there is a little battle between the Norwegians and the Finns as to who is the rightful 'owner' of Santa. Is he Norwegian? Is he Finnish? Each country stakes their own claim.

It makes sense to me that he would be Norwegian as the northernmost part of Norway is quite a bit closer to the North Pole than the northernmost part of Finland. Click here for a map as verification. However, I think the Finns have won the battle. They simply 'do' the Santa-thing better. There is a town called Rovaniemi, which lies just south of the where the Arctic Circle intersects Finland. The Finns claim that Santa has set up his headquarters just on the Arctic Circle and Rovaniemi is the place to go to be if you want to be seen with the real Santa.

I'd read online about the Santa Village in Rovaniemi and hoped we'd be able to take the kids one day (since it's closer than Santa's headquarters in Canada, or Colorado, or Minnesota, or whatever other wintery place he's set up shop!) Turned out, we could do it this year, since it was on the way (sort of) to our final destination. I love the story of how Santa's home is near an ear-shaped fell so that he can hear all of the children around the world. I was pretty excited about the stop.

As we drove north of Rovaniemi, we saw big signs for the Santa Park coming up, so we turned in. Santa Park is a cavernous enclosure with an Elf School where you learn to speak Elvish, a ride through Santa's workshop, a post office, a workshop for making your own Santa decoration, ice sculputres, and a musical show. It was really well-done and we took our time to see all of the sights. My pictures don't really do the day justice. . .I could have sworn I took more photos. Hmmm.

The kids by Santa's Sleigh. Don't tell Laney, but she's sitting on a reindeer pelt. The people of the Arctic use reindeer fur as a way of keeping warm -- as seat cushions, in clothes and footwear, whatnot. It's a little morbid, however, if you think that your in Santa's Village and one makes a big deal of his reindeer friends . . .Dasher and Dancer still pull the sleigh. Blitzen? Don't ask.

The kids watching the Elf Musical, which was really fun. Note that they are also eating a very healthy Santa diet.

Santa's Workshop. I only took two pictures (both bad), but it was pretty incredible. It was very much like a Christmas version of those Disney rides at Disneyland. You sit in a little cart that carries through the Christmas world.

We also got a photo with Santa. He also looked unbelievably realistic. We couldn't take a picture though. You know, we had to BUY their picture, which we did, of course. I just don't have a scanner to scan it in. I also forgot to take a picture of the kids learning to speak Elf. It includes making funny sounds with various hand movements to call up the 'magic.'

A great day all around. I was a little confused though. It didn't quite seem the same as the website described. I don't remember the site saying anything about walking though a cavern or the Elf School. When I asked about the letter from Santa, they said that was a different 'company.' Oh, I thought. I'd just have to check the website again, maybe you could only order the letter online.

As we drove out of Rovaniemi the next day, past Santa Park, and a few kilometers further north, we passed Santa's VILLAGE. We had spent the whole day in the wrong place! We were here. Turns out that the folks at EuroDisney had come up to design this new Santa Park, the one we were in, which also explains the Disney 'feel' to the place. You can also see the difference in the website design when Disney's money is behind it.

We'd still had a fun time, even if we weren't where I thought we were. We have an excuse to pass by Rovaniemi again. I really enjoyed it there.

Now, I'm thinking that the Finns will have to begin battling amongst themselves to figure out which is the real Santa Headquarters.

As for the Norwegians, the only real effort I've seen at capturing the spirit of Santa is a giant, faded, air-blown Santa figure wobbling in the breeze. It was attached to a restaurant somplace I don't remember. No contest.