Most of us are fond of travelling, even if not travelling we at least love to visit new places and explore them. The whole world is beautiful but I guess dreams, fantasies or imaginations are always better or more beautiful then what reality can be. I dream of travelling the whole world but in this beautiful world there is a world not much real yet so real, it’s a place where dreams meet reality and that place is The Santa Claus Village.
HISTORY :
Yes, the beautiful amusement park located in Rovaniemi, Lapland region of Finland. It was first opened in 1985 and is located nearly about 2 kilometres from the Rovaniemi Airport. The place is actually believed to be the home of our loving Santa Claus. The place is in the Arctic Circle and every year thousands of visitors go to meet Santa Claus there. The ambience of the place is similar to that of what we have always read in our story books. The magical world attracts more than 500,000 visitors all over the world. Although the place is famous all though the year but a month before Christmas, the eyes of the world turn towards the Santa Claus Village, as Santa himself invites his people to his place. December 23rd is another important date of the year when Santa leaves on his mission to distribute presents to his children all around the world.
HOW TO REACH:
It’s not very difficult to reach Santa’s village if you reach Rovaniemi city, as there are available taxi, cars to reach there. It can also be reached with a local bus number 8 or by Santa’s express which leave every hour from Rovaniemi City Centre. It is one of the best known tourist spot and resort in today’s times. It is home to several activity centres, shops, restaurants, reindeer rides, holiday village, igloo hotel etc.
ATTRACTIONS:
There are few things that I have heard one must not miss in the Santa Claus Village, firstly the Santa Claus Main Post-office. It’s a real post office functioned by Posti, Finland’s national postal service but designed like something coming out of the story books, there are people dressed as elves. We can send cards to our friends and relatives at anytime of the year and the elves will make sure that it gets delivered at the time of Christmas. Each letter also gets a special Arctic Circle postmark which makes it unique. There are also Snowmobile Exhibition and Snowmobile Rides available. The Arctic Circle Snowmobile Park has mini-sized snowmobiles which becomes easy even for the little ones to ride. If someone visits at the time when there is no snow they can check out Santa’s Home of Snowmobiles Exhibition, which is another beautiful place to visit paying tribute to snowmobiles. There is Arctic Circle Husky Park where one can try husky sled rides in winter and in summer one can visit the husky park. There are also Reindeer rides available where one can take reindeer rides and in summer times we can meet and feed the animals, which is also a fun thing to do. If you are in Santa’s village you can’t miss the Snowman World. It is a whole world made of snow, naturally. It is full of adventures of ice sculptures in the art gallery, snowman characters and also ice bar to enjoy some good drink.
Photo: Visit Rovaniemi
WHERE TO STAY AND HOW TO ENJOY:
Nothing could be better than the Santa Claus Village’s accommodation. Santa’s Igloos Arctic Circle is the best igloo hotel one can ever live in. In summer, one can experience Lapland’s unreal White light and in the winters one is amazed by the colourful show of the Northern Lights, dancing through the glass roofs. Northern Lights are very popular and people go to see them. It can be the best experience to lie down in an igloo and see the Northern Lights beaming over our heads. The cabins offer the best beds and facilities. There is also Nova Skyland Hotel, which offers comfortable and luxurious apartments. We can also find Arctic Treehouse Hotel which provides a blissful view of the nature. There is Elf’s Farm, where lives animals and birds like sheep, rabbits, goats, hens and rooster. A visitor can mingle with the animals’ farm activities and ski rides can be taken down the snowy hill.
The Santa Park is another beautiful place within the village, where there are elves and the world seems magical with Ice Princess’ Gallery, Mrs Gingerbread’s Kitchen and Magic Train Ride. There is also a Magical line of the Arctic Circle, just in front of the Santa Claus Office. Visitors usually click pictures while crossing it; it shows how far north one has been to. Apart from all the beautiful places to be in the village, one cannot ignore the delicacies. There are few restaurants namely, Nova Skyland’s, Ice Bar and Ice Restaurant, Three Elves Restaurant, Raka’s Restaurant &Bar, Lapland Restaurant Kotahovi.
Lastly it’s important to always bring back a, memory and for doing that this village has numerous shops to shop from. There are shops of the local handicrafts as well as popular Finnish Design Brands, famous gift shops and jewellery shops. Even if a visitor finds it difficult to carry things back home, Santa’s elves will parcel the gift and we will receive it on next Christmas.
It’s a different world altogether where if a person goes will dissolve in its magic. Am sure one can’t even think of going back home while staying there. Of course there are several things to explore there but apart from all these makes this place different from others is the concept. It’s a world which is so different so unreal yet so real. A person can live his dream world of beauty and fancy, A place where we need not think about reality. It is surely a place which both kids and adults will enjoy to the full. We all have that child within us and place like this evokes that child. Cutting oneself away from the world and spending time with our dearest Santa Claus can be the best experience of one’s life and if possible I would surely love to visit this place of my dream The Santa Claus village, where dreams and reality coincide so well. I would definitely want to spend few days in Santa Claus Village, enjoying and getting lost in the dream world, watching the Northern Lights and carry back a lot of memories to cherish forever.
Author Bio :Bhupasmita Das , 21 years student from Barpeta Road, Assam. She is a participant of Monthly Essay Competition, March,2019.
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