Who is Santa Claus? Origin and legend of Santa. What does Santa Claus look like and where does he live? Santa Claus message
Not only children, but also adults want to believe in fairy tales, especially during the Christmas and New Year holidays. And, of course, the main characters of these days are the domestic Father Frost and the American Santa Claus. Both children and adults wait for their favorite fairy tale characters, thinking in advance what gift to ask for, what wish to make.
Dreams Come True! And if Santa is still on his way to you, you can go visit him yourself. Yes, yes, Santa has an address. He lives in the small American town of North Pole, located in the very center of the cold state of Alaska, not far from the North Pole. About 2000 people live in the city.
North Pole - a fairy tale town
On Christmas Eve in the city of Santa, daylight hours are reduced to 4 hours, and frosts reach -30°C. There is snow here for 8 months of the year. This is what it is, the real patrimony of the ruler of winter and frost!
The fairy-tale city has amazing streets - “Holiday Road”, “Snowman Street” and many others with equally magical names.
The lampposts in this city are painted white and red, reminiscent of traditional candies, symbolizing the onset of the Christmas holidays.
Despite its small size and being lost in the snow, Santa's city cannot be considered isolated from civilization. Just 20 kilometers from North Pole is another city, Fairbanks. It even has a university. In the mornings, North Pole residents rush in their cars to work in Fairbanks.
Santa's residence
Right on the side of the highway leading to Fairbanks, on St. Nicholas Street is the residence of Santa Claus. Numerous tourists flock here who want to meet this fairy-tale character and also buy Christmas souvenirs. It's impossible to drive past Santa's house. Painted white with bright red trim and numerous light bulbs, it invites everyone passing by to visit.
Several rooms inside Santa's house are filled with all kinds of toys, Christmas tree decorations and souvenirs. Products made by local artisans are displayed on a shelf with a “Made in Alaska” sign.
Some adults who don't believe in miracles grumble, criticizing the high prices for souvenirs. And children with joyful squeals discover live reindeer near the house, ready to lift into the air a sleigh with Santa Claus and bags of gifts for the children.
In the house itself, children are greeted by a real Santa Claus sitting in a chair. Quiet music is playing, everyone can approach Santa and ask him to fulfill his cherished wish, to receive a gift from the hands of a living fairy-tale hero.
Santa Claus's house has already celebrated its 60th birthday. It opened in 1952, at which time North Pole received city status. Now the house where Santa lives has become world famous.
The Finnish Santa's name is Joulupukki. The literal translation of his name into Russian means “Christmas goat.”
You can recognize Santa by his red fur coat, hat of the same color and white beard.
Until the 19th century, it wore goatskin and had small horns.
Joulupukki has a wife, Muori, whose name means "Old Mistress". Help them with housework gnomes, who live in the “Echo Caves” and monitor how children behave. Before Christmas, the responsibility of preparing gifts falls on their shoulders.
Joulupukki lives in a wooden house built in the forest on Mount Korvatunturi. This place is known as “Sopka-Ears”. It is located on the border with. This is not the only residence of Joulupukki in Finland, but it is to this house that children send their letters with their requests for gifts.
Official address Joulupukki residences: Finlandia, 99999, Korvatunturi. Every year up to 500 thousand letters arrive here. You can also write a letter to Santa Claus at: Joulupukki, 96930, Arctic Circle, FINLAND.
Village location
That Santa Claus lives in an ancient region of Finland, Lapland, all the children on the planet know. This amazing land geographically affects 4 states:
- Finland;
- Russia;
You can find Santa in northern Lapland, whose cultural region is the country of Suomi (Finland). This region is inhabited by Lapps and Laplanders. Santa Claus Village is located 8 kilometers from the city of Rovaniemi.
How to get to Lapland?
You can get to the official residence of Santa Claus “Santa Village” by driving to Rovaniemi by train or by flying to it. It's only an hour's flight from Rovaniemi. This city is the center of Lapland and is considered the twelfth largest in Finland.
Choose your plane ticket right now using this search form. To get into a fairy tale, just enter cities of departure and arrival, date And number of passengers.
At his official residence, Santa Claus welcomes guests all year round.
Rovaniemi has its own airport And Train Station. From the airport to the city you can take an Airport Taxi. The best way to get from the city to Santa Claus Village is by taxi. You can call him at the hotel reception.
The cost of a taxi depends on the number of passengers, time of day, day of the week and distance to be traveled. Children under 12 years of age are not considered passengers. For groups of tourists more than 4 people served "tilataksi". This is a small minibus.
There are also buses in the city, but they run very rarely. At each stop there are special devices that serve as a help desk. Departs from Rovaniemi train station to Santa Claus Village bus number 8. The bus travel time from the station to the village is 8 minutes. The final stop of the bus is in the center of Santa Claus Village next to his shopping center. It is only 100 meters from Santa's office.
Where can I stay?
In Santa Claus Village, built to accommodate guests cottages. They are all located in the same part of the city. Each house has 2 rooms with an area of 37 sq. m. meters. They are equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable stay. You can park your car next to the cottage.
The room has wide bed, folding sofa, wardrobe, table, TV. You can prepare your own food in the small kitchen located in the room. The bathroom has a small sauna. There is Wi-Fi.
You can also stay in hotels in neighboring cities and travel to the village by bus. This way you can visit more interesting places.
To book a room, use our convenient search form. Enter city, check-in and check-out dates And number of guests.
Find out what visa is needed to visit Finnish Santa Claus.
Tours to Finnish Santa Claus
Lapland has an amazingly beautiful nature, reminiscent of a fairy tale. In addition to the Santa Claus village, you can see a lot of interesting things here.
Among the best tours to Lapland are tours of natural areas and reserves, safaris, skiing, and visits to the zoo.
You can relax in Lapland all year round. In the summer there is beauty on the local lakes and rivers, of which there are a large number in these parts. In these places you can go skiing, reindeer riding, and sledding. The Finnish sauna leaves an unforgettable impression.
Official website of the residence
You can find out all the news about the life of Santa Claus in Lapland on the village websites:
On these sites you can write letter to Santa Claus, it will definitely be read.
The birthplace and home of Santa Claus - photo
The residence of Santa Claus consists of several objects, all of which are open to the public and are very popular among tourists. The most important object is Santa Claus post office. Correspondence from all over the world arrives here. Santa's famous reindeer live on a farm in the village and can also be visited.
You can learn everything about Christmas traditions at the local exhibition-museum. IN Santa Claus's workshop They will show and tell you everything about New Year and Christmas gifts, and you can buy souvenirs in the shops.
Tourists visiting the village love to visit Santa Park and the Arctic Park known as "Winter World".
Office
Read about the ski resorts in Finland that you can visit during your trip to see Santa Claus.
Santa Claus's office is the most popular place in the village. More than 500 thousand tourists visit it annually. Every day guests come from all over the world to Santa's office. You can get to the office by passing a long fairy-tale corridor. Santa Claus's office has a massive wooden door. In the office you can take a photo with Santa Claus as a souvenir. There is a belief that if you make a wish at this moment, it will certainly come true.
Santa mail
After visiting Santa Claus's office, tourists head to his mail. There are elves working there, they all have different nationalities. Their main job is to process letters coming to Santa Claus. You can send cards and gifts to your friends and family using mail.
Next to the post office there is a house that is known as Eleanor Roosevelt's cabin. She is considered the first tourist to visit these places.
Santa Park
This unique place is very similar to a fairyland. It is interesting to visit it not only for children, but also for adults. There is Elven School, all year round it reveals to students all the ancient secrets of these mysterious characters. Graduates of the school are issued diplomas of completion. In Santa Park there is also an elf workshop and a calligraphy school.
IN gingerbread In Mrs. Claus's kitchen they bake gingerbread cookies that have amazing taste and aroma. It is very difficult to resist the temptation to try them.
Along with gingerbread, you can also find other Finnish delicacies here, as well as wine prepared with special spices.
IN Ice Gallery bar You can try the “Kiss of the Ice Princess” soft drink. Ice sculptures are located in the gallery halls.
Special train "Seasons", passing through the secret workshop of the elves, takes a tour of the four seasons.
Operating mode of objects
You can get to the village any day of the week. From 1 to 30 November and 7 to 31 May it is open to the public from 10:00 to 17:00. During the summer period from 1 to 31 August the village is open from 9:00 to 18:00. And from January 1 to 6, its operating hours are from 9:00 to 19:00.
What else to see?
In Pilka there is a center created to get acquainted with the forest, its industrial processing and protection.
Educational games for children are held at the center. Near Pielke there is Arctic Museum.
On the hill Ounasvaara, which is located a few kilometers from the center of Rovaniemi, there is a gaming pavilion known as Funpark, a swimming pool, a gym, massage and bowling.
A real ice kingdom - Snowland. Even the tourist hotel there is made of ice. True thrill-seekers stay here for the night. Only a glass of hot mulled wine can save you from the cold. Special unforgettable impressions remain after the Arctic disco.
There are many nature reserves and nature parks in Lapland. One of them worth visiting is "Ranua". This is the northernmost zoo in the world. There you can see not only the most northern animals, but also a large number of different species of birds living on the planet. All the inhabitants of the zoo live in huge enclosures, so traveling around the zoo resembles a safari.
Since 1966, every January in Lapland there has been a famous rally, which runs along icy, snow-covered roads.
- When going to Lapland, you need to remember what kind of climate. Winters here are quite harsh, and temperatures can reach +30C. Your travel wardrobe should be selected according to the season.
- In Lapland good roads, and there is a railway connection between the cities, but public transport leaves much to be desired. You shouldn't count on him. You will have to travel by taxi or rented car.
- In winter, some roads in Lapland closed due to ice. Before traveling by car, it is better to make inquiries about which routes in the country you can travel on.
- Rudolph. He stands at the head of the team and stands out with his glowing red nose. He entered folklore later than others - in 1939.
- Dasher ("Swift").
- Dancer (“Dancer”).
- Vixen ("Vicious").
- Komet ("Comet").
- Prancer (“Prancing”).
- Cupid (“Cupid”).
- Donner (or "Dander", "Thunder").
- Blitzen (or "Bliksem", "Lightning").
When asked where Santa Claus lives, each of us will answer that he lives in Lapland. This fabulous, mysterious country has been known to us since childhood. Does Lapland exist in reality?
Lapland exists, not as a separate country, but as an ethnic territory beyond the Arctic Circle, covering the extreme northern territories of countries such as Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia. In this amazing northern region, in addition to the usual four seasons, there is a mysterious time of midnight twilight, when the sun does not rise above the horizon. This time of extraordinary colors and peace lasts from December to January.
In Finnish Lapland there is Mount Korvatunturi, where Santa Claus lives in the company of hardworking gnomes. The shape of the mountain is very reminiscent of a hare’s ears, hence its name, which means “ear mountain”.
For some time now, Santa Claus has moved to the vicinity of the capital of Finnish Lapland, Rovaniemi. Every day he descends from Mount Korvanturi to his office, which is located in Rovaniemi. The office officially opened in 1985, but even earlier, in 1950, a hut was built on its site, which was later converted into an office. A whole village with an amusement park, workshops, a puppet theater, a shopping center and a main post office has grown around Santa Claus's home, which receives numerous letters from boys and girls from all over the planet. In their letters, the children ask Santa to make their most cherished dreams come true.
It’s always fun in Santa Claus’s office; you can hear the multilingual speech of guests coming here from all over the world. The Christmas atmosphere is present here all year round. The residence of Santa Claus hosts Christmas performances with the participation of gnomes and elves, a year-round puppet theater, international concerts and many other interesting events. Santa's workshop and office in Rovaniemi becomes an unforgettable meeting place for many Christmas friends and goodwill ambassadors from all over the world.
In 1998, the Santa Park themed entertainment center was built here, deep in the Syväsenvaara cave. The year-round Christmas atmosphere present in the park gives guests an encounter with childhood and a fairy tale. The park has four main attractions and many other attractions. Among the attractions are a magical sleigh ride, Santa Claus helicopters, a carousel, etc. In the multi-video center, viewers will see Santa Claus racing across the starry sky on reindeer.
Santa Claus lives in Rovaniemi and is the main attraction not only of this city, but of the whole of Lapland.
The main character of Christmas is, of course, Santa Claus or Father Christmas. The Santa Claus we know today combines many legends and stories that have undergone some changes over time. The legend about him leads us to ancient times, to King Holly. He sat on a goat with a healing cup in his hand and symbolized abundance.
Since the 17th century, he was first mentioned as a "Yule elf" with a large nose and white beard, as well as a red cap on his head. He came down through the chimney when everyone in the house was asleep and gave gifts to obedient children.
The appearance of the name Santa Claus is also associated with the pagan character - Old Nick (nick - “spirit”), who annually performs various pranks to mock people. And in early Christianity, the image of the Yuletide elf was associated with St. Nicholas, a 9th-century bishop. Later, the Yule elf, Old Nick and Saint Nicholas united, taking on the appearance of Santa Claus.
Nicholas was later canonized and is now known in the Christian world as Saint Nicholas the Pleasant. In the Orthodox Church, Saint Nicholas is considered the patron saint of travelers. The Roman Catholic Church honors Saint Nicholas as a saint who helps children and the poor. Saint Nicholas has become the main saint to whom children pray. December 6 is the name day of St. Nicholas.
However, Santa Claus is not his only name, although it is the most common. In Germany he is Santa Nikolaus (St. Nicholas), in Finland - Iolupukke, in Italy - Babbo Natale, in France - Père Noel, in Norway - Yletomte, in Russia - Father Frost, etc. But he has one mission - to give children gifts for Christmas.
Santa's Companions
At first, Santa moved on foot, and was accompanied by one elf assistant, dressed in green clothes and a cap. Then, in the 19th century, the writer and poet K. Moore became concerned with the problem of their transport and came up with a magic sleigh drawn by white reindeer. Later, the number of Santa's elf helpers increased; they help Santa deal with gifts and are certainly dressed in red caps that they inherited from their predecessor.
Stockings over the fireplace
According to legend, Santa Claus flies on Christmas night in his magical sleigh over sleeping cities and, descending through the chimney into houses, leaves gifts for children in stockings, socks or shoes, which they specially leave under the tree or hang over the fireplace.
This symbol was also introduced into use by K. Moore, in the poem “The Night Before Christmas.” But there is another story about this custom.
One day, a family was preparing to celebrate Christmas. But they were so poor that they could not afford to buy a tree under which Santa could place his gifts. And the sad children went to bed, not hoping for gifts, but the next morning they still found them in stockings hung by the fireplace to dry. The children were very happy, and the custom of hanging socks over the fireplace remains to this day.
The children always wanted to know where he comes from and where he spends the whole year from Christmas to Christmas and where he gets his gifts. From these questions grew the legend that Santa lives at the North Pole, where his gift warehouse is located.
But in 1925, there were no reindeer pastures at the North Pole and newspapers reported that Santa Claus actually lived in Finnish Lapland. "Uncle Marcus", Marcus Rautio, who hosted the popular program "Children's Hour" on the Finnish state radio, revealed a great secret in 1927: Santa Claus lives in the Lapland korvatantura - "Ear Hill"
The hill, which is located right on the east coast of Finland, resembles a rabbit's ears but is actually Santa Claus's ear, with which he listens to the behavior of children from all over the world. Santa has his helpers, a group of elves who have their own history in Scandinavian legends.
Curious where Santa Claus lives? Or do the kids demand details about the appearance of a miracle at Christmas? The answer changes depending on who asks the question... It’s better to find out where Santa lives than to figure out where Bigfoot lives. When truth and fiction are closely intertwined, life becomes much more interesting. It's time to plunge into the fascinating world of mysteries!
How to tell children where Santa Claus lives:
Very far beyond the North Pole stands the inconspicuous house of Santa Claus. There is a blizzard and blizzard raging around, but it is always warm inside. An ordinary person will not be able to find a magical path to this mysterious place. In rare moments, the way opens to someone who is open in heart and pure in soul.
Santa Claus's house, although it looks small from the outside, is actually very spacious inside. Amazing smells reign in the kitchen, the fire crackles in the living room, and thick books with records of all the children on the planet are stored in the office. Opposite the child, his good and bad deeds recently are necessarily noted. Before Christmas, Santa Claus carefully looks at the notes and decides who to give what gift.
Of course, Santa would hardly be able to cope with the tasks facing him on his own. Elves, gnomes, deer and other fairy-tale creatures are faithful helpers. Where do they all live? Everyone has their own cozy house, hidden from the prying eyes of strangers under high snowdrifts.
Many passages connect an amazing underground world, in which there is a place for daily miracles. Little fairies live in beautiful dollhouses, high elves can move into the summer greenery of the forest through a magic door at any time, and short gnomes have chosen wooden mansions for themselves.
The only thing is that few people look into the place where Baba Yaga lives. She will be able to take a bag of gifts and hide into the distance in a hut on chicken legs. Therefore, Santa Claus's helpers choose safe places for themselves, hidden not only from people, but also from harmful people.
Every day, hundreds of fairy-tale creatures at Santa's factory create cars, dolls, balls, construction sets, and musical instruments. The toys will be waiting in the wings to fall into the hands of the most obedient and kind children on Christmas night. And the closer this magical time comes, the more little treasures accumulate in Santa Claus's barns. Just before Christmas, bags of toys begin to be filled with the most delicious candies, wrapped in colorful packaging...
Many miracles happen near Santa Claus's hut. No wonder he climbed so far into the snow! Only here you can calmly do the most important thing - preparing a surprise for the kids. So you should behave well if you want to receive the best gift on Christmas night.
Official residence of Santa Claus
From generation to generation, it is secretly reported that Santa Claus flies to visit people on a magic sleigh. Who controls them? Oddly enough, it was deer! At Christmas, they can move not only in the snow, but also high in the sky. Even the names of each reindeer in the team are known:
For the first time, the names of deer were listed by Clark Clement Moore in his poem “On the Night Before Christmas”, publishing the work in the USA in 1823.
Fairy tales about flying deer further strengthen the belief that a man in a red sheepskin coat can work miracles. But what about adults who dream of making their childhood dreams come true? The answer is simple! - Visit the official residence of Santa Claus. It is located in Finnish Lapland on the Korvatunturi hill. From Rovaniemi you need to drive 8 km to get to Santa Claus Village. In fact, the office of an old man with a white beard was built right on the Arctic Circle!
In the village you can find not only the house of Santa Claus, but also numerous workshops, souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. An old man in a red sheepskin coat, generous with kind deeds, receives visitors in his own office. It is here that the 700 thousand letters that are delivered from the Main Post Office during the year by his faithful assistants, the elves, are sorted out.
To delight yourself and your loved ones, you can send a postcard or even a letter from this amazing place on the planet. The envelope will have a unique Arctic Circle stamp on it, which will add value to it in the eyes of others!
The best thing to do is ride through the snow-covered fields on a sleigh pulled by deer or huskies. Fans of driving snowmobiles can take an interest in the secrets of Finnish racers, and then enroll in a local driving school. When the northern lights appear, your heart begins to skip a beat in surprise, and goosebumps run down your spine. What could be more beautiful than the very grace of nature? It’s a pity that such a spectacle is difficult to predict in advance.
Why give up a fairy tale if there is a place for it in everyday life? And even though some children begin to understand with age who buys them gifts for Christmas, their belief in miracles remains with them forever!
