The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 5

Travel Lapland

NORWAY

SWEDEN

FINLAND

Saariselka

Tomteland

Oslo

Arctic Circle Rovaniemi

Savalen

Troms o

300 miles

I

n Sweden he’s Jultomte, a

capricious, 3ft-high spirit who

spoils your food if you don’t leave

him a bowl of hot buttered

porridge. In Finland he’s

Joulupukki, an elderly goat man in a

white-trimmed costume who dances for

Christmas leftovers. And Iceland’s 13

Father Christmases (really) include “door-

slamming” Santa, “sausage-swiper” Santa

and “skyr-gobbling” Santa (who has an

unlikely taste for low-fat yoghurt).

When it comes to Christmassy tourism,

the Nordic countries have cornered the

market. It’s partly down to the climate,

with up to 200 days of snow from October

to May in the countries’ north, and 18

hours of daily darkness setting off those

twinkly, hygge-style lights a treat. But the

biggest draw, of course, is the big man.

Santa is (whisper it) an Anglo-Saxon

invader, the portly fellow in red having

displaced gnomish Father Christmas

figures such as Jultomte and Norway’s

julenissen (naughty Christmas sprites)

from the 1980s on.

However, Santa’s long association

with Lapland — a territory that occupies

the northernmost regions of Sweden,

Norway and Finland — has led to a

good-humoured and long-running battle

between Nordic countries for the soul

of St Nick. “You see the rivalry in the

Eurovision song contest,” says Charlotta

Buxton, a Finnish-Swedish culture writer

(the Nordics seldom vote for each other

and try to outdo their neighbours with

outlandish sparkly costumes). “But

Sweden is being unfair to Finland in

claiming Santa. The Swedes have Abba,

Ikea and Greta, after all, and what does

Finland have? Nokia and Santa.”

From a hidden cabin in the snow-

dusted forests of Saariselka, Finnish

Lapland, Finland’s Santa, Joulupukki, a

52-year-old former reindeer herder, tells

me: “Finnish Lapland, in the Arctic Circle,

is my official residence. There are more

reindeer than people in Finnish Lapland,

so that is a telling sign that the real Father

Christmas, ie me, lives here.”

With Santa packages selling like hot

glogg, Joulupukki enjoins readers to

sample the most Christmassy of

Christmases in Finland, although

he warns that his ageing

knee won’t sustain the

weight of grotto visitors

heavier than 50kg.

“The snow is

falling, the lakes

are freezing over,

Our Santa Claus has

special superpowers

SUDHANSHU VERMA, DANIELE ALOISI/ALAMY; JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/GETTY IMAGES

In the battle to own Christmas, the Nordic countries all lay claim to the

man in red — but where does he really belong? Sally Howard investigates

SANTA WARS

and the northern lights are dancing

across the skies,” he says. “It’s magical.”

Camilla Collett has worked at

Tomteland on Gesunda Mountain in

Sweden since 2005 in the capacities of elf,

head elf and head of marketing. The Santa

Claus-themed resort famously features in

the music video to Shakin’ Stevens’s

evergreen hit Merry Christmas Everyone.

“The reason Tomteland Santa is the one

and only Santa is that our Santa Claus

has special superpowers and the other

Santas do not,” she says. “We call this

superpower tomtekraft and Santa teaches

us that in tomtekraft our world is all one:

mythical creatures like trolls, animals

like reindeer, and

you and I.”

Santa packages have

enjoyed record sales for

2021/22, with leading

providers such as

Inghams and Santa’s

Lapland putting the

2022/23 season on sale

early due to high

demand. Despite this,

says Alistair McLean

of the Lapland

holiday specialist

Activities Abroad, the

friendly rivalry between

the various Nordic

Christmas towns drives

down costs on what can

be a pricey seasonal

break (they start at

about £450pp

and rise into

the thousands).

“The

cheapest way

to see Santa

Joulupukki, left,

at his “office”

at Santa Claus

Village in

Rovaniemi,

Finnish Lapland,

above. You can

tour the theme

park on reindeer

rides, below

is on a short break, with a day trip to

Rovaniemi,” he says (Rovaniemi is the

town near Finnish Lapland’s Santa

theme park; entry and visits to Santa

are free, santaclausvillage.info). With a

longer trip to Lapland you get to add

reindeer farm visits, snowmobiling, ice

fishing and, of course, searching for the

northern lights. “There’s much more to

Lapland than the big guy in red.”

Being perceived as the “home of

Santa” brings economic benefits to

Nordic nations, says Professor Michael

Hall, a tourism expert at the University

of Canterbury, New Zealand. “In

northern Finland, where tourism

accounts for 7 per cent of jobs, Santa

has been good news, helping to develop

this remote region’s infrastructure, which

can be used by locals throughout the

year,” he says. For Hall, the Nordics’

success is in harnessing Santa, snow,

reindeers and cosiness to encourage

tourists to consume “the intangible

concept of Christmas” year-round. Santa

Claus Village in Rovaniemi and

Nissehuset, a Santa-sized gingerbread-

house grotto in Savalen, Norway

(savalen.no), are open all year.

So which competing Santa town

should you plump for? Rovaniemi is

ideal for a one-stop Santa experience,

offering reindeer safaris, snowmobile

trips, a carol-singing Santa and

multilingual elves. Sweden’s Tomteland

offers a walk-through Christmas tree

forest, a kingdom of (human) trolls

and horse-and-sleigh rides at dusk to

the sound of tinkling bells (from £28 for

adults; tomteland.se).

Saariselka, a resort village in

northern Finland, is home to the Santa-

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