- Santa Claus Village
Santa Claus Village is an amusement park near
Rovaniemi in the Lapland region ofFinland .Many people believe that
Santa Claus (or "joulupukki " in Finnish) comes from Lapland [ [http://www.santaclausvillage.info/eng/story.htm "Santa Claus origin"] ] . Santa Claus Village is built to be the home of Santa Claus. Santa Claus village is the most popular tourist destination inFinland with thousands of tourist visiting it every year. The majority of tourists are coming fromUnited Kingdom ,Germany ,Russia ,France ,China ,Japan ,India and other countries. In recent years there have been a significant increase in tourists from the Americas, though tourists from theUnited States are responsible for only 4.7% (2005) of totaltourist visits. InNorth American culture, Santa Claus lives in theNorth Pole , though North Pole is in the middle of theArctic Ocean and there is no land. This opinion is widespread in the world and reflected in manyfeature film andadvertisements aboutChristmas . In majority of European cultures the exact location ofSanta Claus residence is not specified. The Santa Claus Village in theArctic Circle is the main world-wide recognized Santa Claus residence.Location and transportation
Santa Claus Village is located about 8
km northeast of Rovaniemi and about 2 km fromRovaniemi Airport . In the Christmas time the amount of daily flights triples. The majority of international tourist switch their plane inHelsinki-Vantaa airport. The timetable is set up in such a way that delay between the flights is no longer than 3 hours. Also in theChristmas time there are manycharter flights fromSweden ,UK and other countries that fly directly to Rovaniemi. Also there isRyanair flights toTampere which also has regular connection toRovaniemi .There is also a regularbus andtrain connection with all major cities inFinland .Rovaniemi city bus route 8 travels between Rovaniemi Railway Station and Santa Claus Village. The bus trip takes about 30 minutes.
History
Eleanor Roosevelt ,Franklin D. Roosevelt 's wife, visited Rovaniemi in 1950 and she was the first official tourist to the area [ [http://kotisivukone.fi/files/matkalehti.kotisivukone.com/travelrovaniemi/travel306.pdf Travelmagazine of Rovaniemi, Winter 2006-2007] ] . A small cabin was built in her honour. The Roosevelt Cabin is still there next to Santa Claus Post Office.Santa Claus Village featured in the first episode of the 1991
BBC television travel seriesPole to Pole , presented byMichael Palin .Attractions
Arctic Circle
The
Arctic Circle cuts right through Santa Claus Village. A white line denoting the Arctic Circle is painted across the park. Visitors officially enter theArctic area when they cross the line. The line is a very popular photo spot for visitors.anta Claus Post Office
A large variety of
Christmas related items, Christmas cards and CDs are being sold in the post office. All mails being sent from this post office are postmarked with a specialSanta Claus postmark. Visitors can also specify their mails to be sent at the next Christmas, regardless of when they actually visit the post office and send their mails.anta Claus's Office
A Santa Claus's Office is located inside the main building of the Village, for visitors to take photographs and chat with the Santa Claus. However, there is an "office hour" for the Santa Claus and he may not be in the office all the time even when the Village is open.
Other attractions
There are also many shops and restaurants inside the park selling a variety of items related to Santa Claus and the Lapland region. A
Swarovski shop is located in the main building in the Village. (see [http://www.santaclausvillage.info/eng/attraction.htm Details of attractions in Santa Claus Village] )Awards
The Santa Claus Park that is connected to the Santa Claus Village was in 2007 Awarded by Topworld International and placed as the second best Travel Adventure in Finland. So long in 2008, it still holds second position after Topworld invited Travelers to vote for their own Top 10 list over Adventures.
Notes and references
External links
* [http://www.santaclausvillage.info Official Web Site]
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