Eibhlis Gale-Coleman

What if I told you Santa is real? There’s an actual village with an elf-run post office, reindeer in neat little pens, and the white-bearded man we all know and love. It sits on the outskirts of the Christmas capital of the world: Rovaniemi, in Finnish Lapland. I’ve spent the past few winters visiting different regions in Lapland, but nothing quite compares to Rovaniemi's electric nostalgia. It’s a Peter Pan-esque bubble. Six-year-old me has stirred somewhere deep within, and she is triumphant, giggling at the foolishness of non-believers. Idiots. 🎄 Discover the world’s best places to go for Christmas The origins of Santa Claus Village Rovaniemi’s festive tourism origins date back to post-WW2 reinvestments in the city. After almost complete destruction, it was rebuilt with UN aid, and in 1950, America’s First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, announced a visit to admire its restored glory. With just two weeks’ notice, officials constructed a wooden cabin to surprise Roosevelt with an immersion into Arctic Circle life, and it went down a treat. From the 1980s onwards, Santa Claus Village grew around this original construction, and in 2010, the city copyrighted its title as the ‘Official Home of Santa Claus.’ The Roosevelt Cabin, the first building of the Arctic Circle | jremes84 / Shutterstock The branding worked. Every winter, hundreds of thousands of festive tourists flock here, eager to experience the world’s Christmas capital. ‘Tourism is growing by 10 percent each year,’ Sanna