Today was a cold one, -11 to -16 degrees C, but the sun was out and the skies were mostly clear. It was a perfect day to head out to Joulupukin Pajakylä, the Finnish Santa Claus Village. The village is situated on the artic circle line and houses lots of Christmas themed attractions - such as the being the 'official' home of Santa Claus.
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| Our weather |
The car was frosted up nicely:
The drive was pretty uneventful, but beautiful as always:
The first view of the village was the slanted post over the road:
and the Christmassy buildings:
The whole area is hugely commercialised and bit tacky, with 'Santa's Motor Park', "Santa's Pizza and Burger' etc, but overall it's a fun experience.
Our first stop was the visit with Santa
Of course, inside is a huge shop with a mix of Christmas gear, standard tourist items (like "Someone who loves me went to Santa Village" shirts) and Lapland tourist items. The line for Santa wasn't too long and Santa makes sure to speak the language of the kids, which is always nice.
The price of the photos was not too nice, however, €50 (or about $75), and the kids spent the rest of the day comparing the cost of things to that - "Lunch cost 2 Santa Photos", "Its only two Santa photos to go on the ice carts."
We then went for a walk into the Village itself:
including the Santa Claus official post office, where the letters are sent with an official Santa's Village post stamp:
We had to stop for a photo on the artic circle line, where there was also a live webcam:
We also walked through the Reindeer Village:
and Cameron found the perfect place for a snowball fight:
and the kids posed for a great photo:
although Alana was a little worried about the two small holes in the middle bottom - "Who gets to be Santa's balls?"
We stopped at Santa's Pizza & Burger for lunch (which cost 2 Santa Photos) and when we headed back outside it had gotten dark and the park was lit up:
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