Kia ora! Hello!

Santa’s Village is based in Rovaniemi, Lapland - Finland and open all year around and a bucket list item!

10min bus ride from Rovaniemi and a 6min bus ride from Rovaniemi Airport, making it incredibly easy to get to with both leaving on a regular basis.

We went mid December when there was only daylight from 10am-3pm if we were lucky and temperatures were down to -20degrees, which was a first time experience for me. Now I feel the cold easily so I knew from the planning stages that I was going to love/hate spending a week in Finland between Levi & Rovaniemi, but with my 5 top layers, 2 bottom layers, scarf, beanie and gloves I was set to be able to handle the outdoors for a couple hours at most before needing to defrost in a cafe with a hot chocolate.

Some of my favourite aspects of Santa’s Village that we got to partake in are below.

SEND A POSTCARD VIA SANTAS MAIL:

Pop into the post office and chose a postcode from the wide variety available and wrote messages to a couple loved ones, then pop it in the post box. Quite the novelty! Wishing we wrote one to ourselves now that I reject back.

You can also see all the letters that are delivered here to Santa, with a wall of cubbies broken down by all the different countries, and yes Aotearoa New Zealand was in there!

REINDEER SLEIGH RIDE:

Absolutely book this in advance, on the day there was no availability. I booked this end of November so only 3weeks out and there was still a few options left. You get to jump on a sleigh that is lined with reindeer hide and one thrown over you to keep warm - I tried to not get into my head about this but the warmth that came from it stopped me from complaining. We then got taken on a 3km sleigh ride throw the forest with a combination of a walk, trot and gallop. Afterwards we got treated to a hot chocolate, and if you were that way inclined could cook a reindeer sausage.

HUSKY CUDDLES:

This was also booked in advance with no availability on the day for those that didn’t. We got 30mins to feed, pat and cuddle with some of the huskies. You aren’t always guaranteed any attention from them but we managed to get a little bit in. Within the Husky Park there was an older one, named Batman, that was on a line and he was all for the pats and cuddles.

CROSS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE LINE:

This marks the boundary of where the Arctic Circle is, on December 21st it is the shortest day and the sun does not rise. This area was set up with a video camera which can be viewed on the website, allowing you to wave to your friends or family.

VISIT THE ICE AREA

This is a ticketed area where you have to pay to enter, but it was pretty neat to go experience. Within the big igloo there is an ice bar with a DJ, a restaurant, corridors decorated with ice carvings and outside was a maze and a tube slide, which was incredibly fun.

There are also plenty of other things to go and experience, some of them include:

HUSKY SLED RIDE

ZOO

MEET SANTA

MRS CLAUS COTTAGE

If visiting Santa’s Village isn’t something on your bucket list, it should be! A couple days here at most is my recommendation, book in advance for activities, there are igloo’s and cabins available as accomodation on the premises but town isn’t far away, and make sure you book a tour to go see the Northern Lights at night! If you want to save your suitcase space and/or don’t have warm enough clothing there are also rental options in town that looked to be incredibly common to do as we saw LOTS of people in the same outfit.

Haere rā! Goodbye!