!!!Santa Clause Village

Photos and text by Sergey Rumyantsev,
member of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

23 December 2020

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

Santa Claus Village, Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland

We would like to express our best wishes for Christmas! This celebration
can't be imagined without Santa Claus who lives, as we know, in Finland,
namely near the Lapland city of Rovaniemi. His Finnish name sounds like
Joulupukki. Let's pay a visit to his domain to gain some more festive
mood! The expiring year was not easy for all of us; the global pandemic
has made it almost impossible to travel. But let's enjoy this fairy
atmosphere surrounding Santa Claus! Let it stay with you for long,
support, make you happy and fill you with courage!

These days are the time when elves and other assistants of Joulupukki
finish packing the gifts. We, in turn, are getting ready to release an
extended version of the Lapland virtual tour with more stunning winter
landscapes. In the meantime, we offer you a virtual visit to the
Christmas residence of Santa Claus and a little walk to a snowy forest
near mountain Kuntivaara. And below, you can read about the backstage of
this shooting.

[{Image src='01_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Merry Christmas\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='601'}]

Finland is "the country of thousands of lakes" because when we talk
about this country we recall lakes in the first place. There are no
mountains like they have in Switzerland or Nepal but, at the same time,
the landscape of Finland can't be called totally flat. The main mountain
range is called Maanselkä that is translated as "Division of the Land".
It runs from Norway to Karelia and partly lies along the boundary
between Russia and Finland. The lake scenes of Northern Finland are
accompanied by low picturesque hills.

[{Image src='02_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='479'}]

A 480-meters-tall hill called Kuntivaara is located in this mountain
range, 3 km away from the Finnish-Russian boundary in a secluded place
and is considered to be one of the most beautiful mountains of this
area. The hike to the top of this hill takes several hours, not an easy
task, but in winter one can rent a snowmobile for this purpose. The
summit of Kuntivaara offers a wonderful view of the two neighbouring
countries.

[{Image src='03_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='627'}]

Forests and lakes surrounding the hill are the habitats of different
representatives of fauna. The most numerous of them are swans and other
birds, including those on the brink of extinction. The most common
animal of this area is the brown bear.

Riisitunturi National Park possesses one of the most popular hikes in
the country leading to the top of Riisitunturi hill. The ascent is not
complicated and available even for children.

[{Image src='04_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='415'}]

Along almost all the hiking routes in Finland, there are wilderness huts
allowing to have a rest, make a fire and warm up. Some woods, a saw and
an axe are also available in this hut for any tourist.

The nature of Finland is wonderful at any season but winter is the time
for the active outdoor activity. AirPano team visited the very south
part of Lapland, the area of Ruka Ski Resort. For the Finnish people
accustomed to freezing temperatures, this place is “not truly Lapland”.
But as for any other tourist who is used for a shiny white winter, the
local winter is amazing and hardly seems to differ from more severe
northern regions. We aimed to capture beautiful winter landscapes and
the weather was also favourable: both expeditions took place at the
temperature of 20ºC below zero.

[{Image src='05_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='600'}]

Ruka (Rukatunturi) is the centre of winter entertainment and a
convenient place for visiting beautiful places. It can be a starting
point for snowmobile trips to Kuntivaara and Riisitunturi National Park
located nearby.

Ruka is a genuine kingdom of winter and snow lasting for dozens of
kilometres. Trees are covered with snow caps while on hills, where wind
reigns supreme, snow fully covers both tree trunks and branches. Spruces
are especially beautiful: under the weight of snow, they bend and create
cones, arches and other bizarre shapes. Even the roads are white here as
no chemicals are used and snow is simply swiped away from it.

[{Image src='06_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='359'}]

Around 200 km away from Ruka, there is the capital of Lapland and the
hometown of Santa Claus, Rovaniemi. But we were not that lucky: the
weather played a dirty trick on us and on the Arctic circle, the place
where the residence is situated, the temperature was above zero and it
rained. However, this allowed us to easily visit Santa and even make a
short video. The following day when the weather was fine, Santa's hut
was besieged by hundreds of tourists.

[{Image src='07_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='600'}]

Winter in Finland is not only about cross-country and mountain skis,
Santa Claus and Christmas mood. It is also about snowmobiles, ice
karting and many other fun activities. The most unusual and truly wintry
activity is dog and reindeer sledding.

Perhaps, dog sledding is the brightest impression of this trip: friendly
huskies cheerfully rushed through snow lanes and easily carried us, two
remarkably large men. We want to believe that they did it without much
difficulty: the sled dog history can be traced back around 8,000 years.
This dog type features energy and strenuousness. The inhabitants of the
north prefer dogs to reindeers for riding: dogs don’t need any special
food (such as reindeer moss) and quench their thirst with snow on their
way.

That's the winter adventures that AirPano team experienced in Finland
and we invite you to share these amazing impressions.

[{Image src='08_Santa Claus.jpg' caption='Snowy Fairytale. Lapland, Finland\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='670'}]

\\ \\
[12 panoramas of Santa Clause Village|Geography/Europe/Finland/Pictures/Santa]

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