The Bell Still Rings

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Tina Writes

It was a big day so we have split this blog into two. Rob didn’t mention it was my birthday. Having already gone on the Huskey sledding in such amazing surroundings, it was already one of the best but now it was time to go to Santa Village. You could say this was the reason we came here in the first place. To meet the big man himself (this is as close as it gets id say). Maybe some of you don’t know this about me but I LOVE SANTA!. Santa to me is like what I think people who are religious think about God maybe. I am a believer. I still hear the sleigh bell ring. So it was shaping up to be a pretty good birthday.



The bus dropped us at the village. It was snowing pretty heavily but wasn’t too cold at -3. Everything looked pretty special. Big red wooden buildings all lit up with Christmas lights. Signs with Santa on then everywhere. A giant snowman about 40 feet high graced the entrance. We started to walk around the various places. One of the first buildings was Santa’s post office where you could buy post cards and send them from there. I believe they get a special stamp. This wasn’t too expensive with the post cards costing €1 and the stamps €2.50. We also bought our fridge magnet here. Next up was the arctic circle. The point where you cross the line into the circle itself. I think we had probably already done that without realising though. Just over the arctic circle line which is marked really well with a string of lights and big red posts, is a live web cam that anyone can look at online any time, so we message our parents and people and sent them the link to have a look at and did some waving. Of course half of them didn’t see the message until after we moved on so we revisited the web cam bit several times over the next few hours haha.



We came to the main building which had a sign saying Santa was in here. I was a bit confused because a building at the entrance also said Santa was in there. I reckoned it must be something else, since it said Santa’s office and some other stuff was in there too. So we thought we’d check it out a bit later. We continued through the village and came across Santa’s farm which promised Reindeer. The first rinse of the day. Only €15 each and €5 for the reindeer food and €5 for the goat/sheep food. Now I’ve never fed a reindeer. I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually seen one, maybe at a zoo. They loved the food we had which was like a moss. There was about 5 or 6 in the pen. A big one with big antlers that were moulting the velvet off which looked a bit sinister. It was clearly in charge of the others and butted its way in to the food. There were a few white reindeer too which were smaller and seemed a bit scared of the big boy reindeer. Across from these guys were some sheeps and goats. They ate leaves off of some branches we bought. Love a goat so I do, they are very cheeky. Then we made our way around the rest which was not a lot. There was bit for sledging down and some foam sledges so we had a go of that. Some chickens and alpacas and some bunnies.



We decided to go see Santa and headed to the building at the entrance. There was a bit of a queue so we decided to go get food and come back when the day trippers will have headed back to the airport. All these kids were ruining my trip to see Santa! Honestly, you’d think they thought they had priority or something! We then headed for lunch. There was a nice restaurant with a buffet starter, a choice of either beef brisket or salmon for the main and a chocolate cake for about €25 each. It was pretty good actually but still a bit of a rinse. Full up, we headed out again and wandered around some more. We went to Mrs Clauses house but she was having a nap apparently and as she charged something like €30 to visit her, we decided to give that a miss along with the €8 brownie from the café. It was pretty inside though. Then we had a look at the reindeer sleigh ride. I had fancied doing that too but it was so expensive and the queue was massive. It was too much of a rinse for me. We went passed the big building again and once again I said to Rob I didn’t understand why it said ‘Santa’s here’ on the door so we went int to see. It was busy. People were queuing for something so I waited in the queue. I heard the elf say it wouldn’t be until 5pm. It was 3.30pm. What wasn’t until 5pm?!!. I get to the front and ask the elf and she tells me its to see Santa. I tell her Santa is in the building at the entrance. She tells me that’s not the original Santa, That’s a different company. I was confused and dismayed. Appalled! Anyway, we took our timeslot for 5.15pm. Arrrgh, why didn’t we check before we went to lunch! This meant missing the bus we wanted to get back and taxis cost €40 for a 10 minute journey but I didn’t come here, to Lapland, to not see the real deal. I want going to some shopping centre Santa when the main man was right here. So we did some more wandering. Waved to our pal on the web cam. Had a hot chocolate. Looked in the homeware store (yes two homeware stores in Santa’s workshop cause that’s what people want to buy in Santa’s workshop…plates and cutlery) and eventually headed into the see Santa.



It was time. We entered and walked through the corridors laden with wrapped gifts. We came across a few elf doors and looked through their peep hole to see the elves inside doing various tasks (it was really just a video playing) and came upon the Time Regulator which was a very large pendulum swinging between two globes, one turning in normal time and one turning in Santa time. This explained how Santa can do what he does. We then joined the large queue to Father Christmas. It went down pretty fast though. Every step getting more and more exciting. We know its going to be fast, he has too many to see. We reach the red rope separating us from Santa as the people in front meet him. The elf asks us where we have travelled from and unhooks the rope and tells us to lay our coats/bags down. And there he is. He tells us to come sit either side of him and says ‘ah you’re from Scotland yes’. We get our photo taken and he goes onto talk about the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh accents. I mean of course he does, its me talking to him. He tells me he can tell im from Glasgow. I’m sure Rob just confused him though. We said Merry Christmas and off we went. I love bucket list ticks. This was a biggie!

Now here is where Santa Village is smart. It is free to visit Santa. Of course it is. The real Santa cant charge money to visit him. Anyone can go see him. BUT, if you want the photo…….well let the rinse commence. €35 for the photo, printed on cool glittery like paper. €50 for the digital images (two) and the VIDEO. We hummed and hawed. Bought the lot for €80. Years ago when we were in NZ, we didn’t buy our bungee video. It was stupid, I won’t make that mistake again.



Santa Village complete. We thought we had missed the bus back, got a quote from the taxis (€40) and then checked with the hotel there about buses. Turned out there were quite a few different buses to get and there was one waiting there ready to go. Only €4 each! Yay. We were burst! Absolutely done in. It was only 6.30pm! We had got talking to a girl at the village that said she done the Aurora tour the night before. Same night as us, she said they seen the most brilliant display and their guide said he had never seen them so good before but they were out from 5pm to 3am. He even didn’t charge if you didn’t see them. I wish we had taken the guys number and tried to arrange it for tonight in hindsight, but we were so tired. We were asleep by 9pm. Although she did also mention it cost her €180 and she had to travel 160 miles to see them.

There was no rush to get up the next day. Our flight was at 6pm so we slept in, cleaned up a bit and left just before we had to at 12pm. We headed to the place we ate on the first day and had more waffles and hot chocolate and stayed there as long as we could until we had to catch the bus to the airport about 3.30pm. Our flight was delayed by an hour and a half. So we wrote our blog.

What an amazing few days. Such a beautiful place in the snow and so quiet because the snow sooks up the sounds. Rob, who hates the cold has decided he’d like to move here, cause its quiet. Ok Rob. Id like to move there in the winter too and open a small business to make an absolute fortune! I could rent a tiny, crappy apartment out for £250 a night for starters! They lack in restaurants and the Christmas shopping is ok but it could be sooo much better. Anyway, I probably won’t do that. But if there’s something I should do, its probably that.

Merry Christmas everybody. We shall blog you again soon enough though. Maybe Thailand for a change ;p

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