Chapter 465: Santa Claus Culture

When you walk out of Santa's house, you will see the white North Pole line (66 degrees 33 minutes north latitude) on the ground, on which Santa's house was built. Follow the Arctic Line, and at one end of the line is the world's only Finnish Santa Claus Village post office in the Arctic Circle.

This is one of the busiest post offices in Finland, and it is said that every year it receives hundreds of thousands of letters from more than 150 countries and territories around the world, each of which is guaranteed to be replied to, in addition to holiday greetings, and a story about Christmas.

In the corner of the post office is a table with letters written to Santa by children from all over the world. I heard that if you don't have the opportunity to visit Santa Claus in the Arctic Circle, but you really want to be here, then you can write a letter to Santa Claus, believe it or not, you can give it a try.

Santa's office is located in a spiky wooden building, and at 10:30 a.m., Santa Claus sits here on time to receive children from all over the world, answer their strange questions, tell them stories, play games with them, and send them good wishes.

It is like a mysterious and peaceful home, with strings of bells hanging on the wooden walls, colorful lights flashing on the roof, and a wooden map of the world on the front wall. Kind Santa Claus smiling in an oak chair by the fireplace, his curly white beard hanging down his chest, and his thick white eyebrows almost obscuring the whole pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose.

For 17 euros, you can get a photo with Santa Claus, which is almost all the money that parents have to spend for their children.

Santa Claus receives millions of letters from all over the world every year, and he keeps in close contact with children all over the world, replying to them one by one. The postmark of the reply is "Santa Claus".

Not far from his home is the symbol of the Arctic Circle. Also on the Arctic Circle is his office and post office. As Christmas, he and his assistants were busy picking out gifts for visitors (or sending them directly to the recipient's email inbox if it was virtual).

Opposite Santa's office is the famous Santa Claus Post Office. The philatelic display area is the busiest part of the post office, and all visitors are busy picking up postcards and stamps. Beautifully printed stamps and postcards are a rare treasure for tourists, especially when stamped with the Christmas postmark unique to the Santa Claus Post Office.

People carefully pasted stamps, wrote the names and addresses of relatives and friends one by one, and wrote the best words on the cards with surging hearts.

Santa's own "home", deep in the dense forests of Lapland, with reindeer and Laplanders. Adult reindeer have very striking horns. The Laplanders live in a striking place with roofs that slope to the ground to prevent the snow from collapsing them in winter.

It was warm in Santa's cottage and the fire was blazing in the fireplace. "Santa Claus" is very kind, everything is like depicted in a fairy tale.

Not far from Santa Claus Village, Santa Park is another must-visit for Christmas fans in Rovaniemi. This large, Santa-themed motorized park goes deep into the hills, and no matter what the weather outside, it won't affect your play.

The park's rides are all concentrated in a place called "Santa's Cave". Visitors enter through a long tunnel, and the first thing they see is the elven workshop in the middle. A large number of elves who prepare presents for Santa Claus are busy working there all year round.

In addition to seeing them up close, you can also try to make some small Christmas gingerbread. There are plenty of rides at the Elf Workshop, and kids don't want to miss the fun rides such as the Reindeer Sleigh and Santa Claus Helicopters, the Magic Train that takes you on a tour of Lapland's Dream Country, and the multi-video theater.

The absolutely indispensable protagonist is, of course, Santa Claus. He can be found in the Elven Factory and the Paradise Cafe at any time. In addition to asking him different questions, tourists naturally have to take a close group photo.

Christmas Paradise also has Christmas boutiques, which are a must-visit stop for souvenir shopping.

Located in the Arctic Circle, the Lapland region of northern Finland is a magical land with a unique geographical location and harsh climatic conditions that make this sparsely populated region still magical and fascinating.

Fresh air, pure wilderness, and pristine folklore make this one of the few remaining pieces of land in the world that has not been polluted and destroyed. In Lapland, people forget the tension, anxiety and irritability of the hustle and bustle of city life, and feel the peace, relaxation and freedom that comes with it.

Lapland's unique ecological environment and rugged polar scenery are intoxicating and fascinating.

In May, when spring is already blooming in southern Finland, the world is still a world of snow and ice. In mid-May, it is the "White Nights" season in Lapp. At dusk, before the sun sets, the sunrise at dawn is in front of you, and the sun hangs in the sky until the end of July, when the midnight sun becomes a natural wonder here.

In September, Lapland is a colourful and charming landscape. Standing on the hill and looking into the distance, the undulating land once clad in green has become a huge palette, goose yellow, golden orange, pale green, speckled and layered, nature has decorated itself so brilliantly and magnificently, forming a beautiful and charming autumn color.

After glorious summer days and colourful autumns, Lapland falls asleep in winter. Snowflakes fell quietly, and the earth was covered with clean silver. After the last time the red sun appeared on the horizon at the end of November, it disappeared silently into the night and did not rise again until mid-January.

This long, dark and long Arctic night without sunlight is called "Camos", which means dark period. In the far north, "Camos" lasts almost 2 months. But in most parts of Lapland, the long nights that lasted for weeks were not entirely dark. Around noon, a bright colored light appears on the southern horizon.

On the horizon, you can often see the magical Northern Lights, a colorful and varied array of green, white, yellow, and red beams of irregular light that can last for hours and then suddenly and mysteriously disappear.

The colorful Northern Lights and snow-capped colors are spectacular.

Rovaniemi is the capital of the northern Finnish province of Lapland, with an area of 101 square kilometers and a population of 35,000, and is the only provincial capital in the world located on the Arctic Circle. Rovaniemi is the gateway to Lapland and the political, economic, cultural and tourist centre of northern Finland.

The name of the city of Rovaniemi is derived from the Lapland dialect and means a grassy hillside or a hill where forest fires have occurred. During World War II, Rovaniemi was badly damaged and almost razed to the ground.

After the war, the city was rebuilt according to the design of the famous Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Today, the architect's designs can be found everywhere in the city.

The Sámi people, Finland's indigenous people, live closely with reindeer, wearing reindeer skins, eating reindeer meat, making utensils and crafts from reindeer skin and bone, and pulling sleds from reindeer.

Buying a whole piece of reindeer skin or reindeer skin crafts in Lapland is, of course, very memorable. Generally, the whole Arctic reindeer skin is about 60-80 euros per piece, and the price varies according to the breed, color, and quality.

The knife they use is called a Finnish knife.

In Lapland, it is this knife that is used, rough and sharp, short and wide, making it easy to hunt.

The Old Marttiini Knife Factory - Built in 1928, the Old Marttiini Knife Factory is a former Finnish knife factory, which has been converted into a knife museum with a showroom for the brand's knives.