By Minu Jain, IANS
Rovaniemi (Finland) : This is the land that spins the Christmas yarn – as delicate as the branches of the birch trees bending with the weight of the snow and as strong as the Santa Claus fable that survives time, modern-day scepticism and frank disbelief.
As the Christmas cheer sets in, in the fairytale white world of Rovaniemi with its trees covered with snow, rivers iced over and houses beckoning with warm lights shining inside, it matters little whether you believe in Santa Claus or not.
For the sceptic and the believer, this is the time to get wrapped up in the magic of the season, in the chatter of children slipping and sliding away on their sleds and in the Santa Claus story that is so carefully nurtured as more than true.
The story slips out of books and into the Santa Claus village, eight kilometres from this town in Finnish Lapland and just across the Arctic Circle, where Father Christmas resides with his elves around him tending to his mail, and to the many visitors. And also in Joulukka close by where elves with pointed noses, pretty red caps and flared skirts keep the magic alive.
“I come to India every single Christmas. I love your country,” booms Santa himself in his den deep inside the Santa Claus village with a time machine slowly circling over his head – and photographers ready to catch the moment.
The next time he’ll be in India will be over Dec 24-25 of course, he says, but the non-Christmas visit will be a surprise one.
Dressed in a sleeveless red jacket, a flowing white full-sleeved shirt, the white bearded Finnish Santa sounds a serious note when he says that his deepest wish is to give something to those in need. And that it is a secular festival to be celebrated by all, Hindu and Muslim.
Ask him about his enviable mail system – which has resulted in Santa Claus’ Main Post Office, Arctic Circle, Finland, getting 11.8 million letters from 195 countries – and Father Christmas’ eyes twinkle behind those famous horn-rimmed glasses.
“Rudy is responsible for my mail system,” he says, referring of course to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer who had a very shiny nose.
There’s plenty to do at the village, covered under a blanket of snow this December. Grab a bite at one of the many cafes, pick up a souvenir, cross the lit blue line into the Arctic Circle, send a postcard home and generally soak in the Santa spirit.
It’s the same spirit that carries the visitor to his forest abode Joulukka where the mystery endures in the dark woods with the snowy paths lit up by flares and elves accompanying the visitor on kick sleighs to ‘kotas’, the traditional wooden Finnish tepee.
The first stop is the kota with the command centre of this Santa hideaway where an elf is hard at work sorting out the smoke post – when letters written by children are thrown into a fireplace they disappear in smoke through the chimney only to find its way into Santa’s chimney where they land with a plop.
A little distance away lies the elf school. Inside the darkened interiors with a fragrant wooden fire blazing away are gingerbread biscuits, pinecone crafts and elves that are many hundred years old.
On one dark Nordic afternoon, when the night lasts through the day and the sun rarely shines through snow-laden clouds, Josephina the elf meets visitors and turns one more page of the Christmas story.
Josephina is one of Santa’s favourite elves, and was chosen because the elf was good and teaches in the school. Nibble away at one of the biscuits as the flames light up the wooden interiors and the snow falls gently outside in the woods, and it doesn’t matter if the story is true or not.
The experience is.
(Minu Jain can be contacted at [email protected])