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At home with Santa

Walk into the village that has for ages been called Santa’s home and you would meet the man himself – the real Santa Claus. The only one. And he comes with all the paraphernalia, even an office and his own bunch of elves who run errands for him. You can walk up to him; get yourself photographed; who knows even hitch hike on his sleigh. He has been there forever, the man who makes Christmas special. 

Sometimes I envy Santa Claus. No, not for his guttural ho-ho-ho nor for that fur trimmed goodie bag in which he stuffs myriad gifts. No, I do not even covet his reindeer sleigh or his one-week a year job. But every time I look at his homeland, I conk out of yearning. The lucky man does not have to bother about EMIs or crotchety landlords; he has an entire village almost all to himself. Not just any village, mind it - an airport, a post office and sheets of snow thrown in to make lesser mortals jealous. Rovaniemi is so beautiful that you would assume that the gods might have pulled their easel and emulsion and painted the strokes in burnished gold and shimmering white. How else do you explain a place so gorgeous where the icicles looked carved out of platinum, the reindeers look benign, the statuesque pine converse with the clouds and the Northern Lights add those incredible neon strokes in the sky. They call Rovaniemi Santa’s village, I think it must be the kind of neighborhood probably even gods hanker for.

Walk into the village that has for ages been called Santa’s home and you would meet the man himself – the real Santa Claus. The only one. And he comes with all the paraphernalia, even an office and his own bunch of elves who run errands for him. You can walk up to him; get yourself photographed; who knows even hitch hike on his sleigh. He has been there forever, the man who makes Christmas special. 

Yes, very special; because if it is December you cannot call this capital of Lapland anything other than the Christmas Capital of the World. On an ordinary day, Rovaniemi has more reindeers than human beings, but when it is Christmas, everyone from across the world seems to fly down to Rovaneimi to sleigh on the huskies and sing hallelujahs with the Santa himself. Crowded is not the word, it is the spirit of Christmas and bonhomie that seems to emanate from every snowflake that makes this village seem like a page out of a well-illustrated fairy tale. But as if the white of the snow needed some colours to offset its purity, during Christmas the sky over Santa’s village gets spangled by the Northern Lights that intersperse the darkness of the winter night that stretches to eight weeks when the sun does not rise at all. To compensate, the polar lights orchestrate their own incredible light show that you might not see anywhere else in the world.

When you look towards the sky, your view might get distracted by the delicate ropes of the Lumberjack Candle Bridge that seems to connect the town buildings, the slope of Ounasvaara Hill and the meandering Kemijoki river. Built in 1989, the bridge, which is one of the best attractions of Rovaniemi, is a reminder of the lumberjacks that lend their name to the bridge. Not just the name, the light peeping out of a log cut into two is also a reminder of the lumberjack’s light of olden times. In winter, the bridge is not just the lifeline for traffic, it also serves as a nesting place for thousands of migratory birds who come to roost in the scant space that is lucky enough not to get frozen in the shivering cold that once went down to -51.5 degree Celsius.

But do not dread the snow or the cold! Do not even fret about it. The moment you land, you can rent your thermals, muffs, mittens, wind cheaters and snow boots. You need to be bundled up to have your share of fun in the thick blanket of snow that swathes the entire land. Slip into skiing gear, pick your basics and slide down the slopes – the village is replete with cross-country ski trails. That is not all about snow; at the Ounasvaara Ski resort you can go snowmobiling, dogsledding or even a reindeer sleigh ride. And when you have shed calories racing down the snowy slopes, dig your fork into traditional Finnish smoked salmon or the absolutely sumptuous reindeer meat. If you are not an audacious gourmand and love your rice and dal, well, you might find just that! Some enterprising travel operators carry Indian chefs for their package tours.

If your knees are still wobbly and you want to scrape off all urban grime, take a peat bath or slip into the sauna. If you think the typical Finnish sauna is like the one you would find within any four walls that masquerade as a sauna, think again. In a traditional Finnish sauna, you slip in covered only in your own skin (no clothes, please!) and you beat yourself with birch sticks to enhance blood circulation. Sounds wacky? Ask those who have spent hours in the sauna and they would swear by it.  

But then what is a holiday without something unusual that you could go back home and regale people around the dinner table. Like cruising on the ice breaker Sampo, a ship that cruises through the ice over the frozen Gulf of Bothnia. If you courageous, borrow the thermals and take a dip in the ice holes where the water is below freezing point. The thought might send shivers down your spine, but take the plunge, it is worth every loud sigh! If freezing is your idea of an unusual holiday, add the ice castle in your itinerary. The ice-sculpted hotel maintains a temperature of -5 degree Celsius. The unusual list is not over yet. You can spend a day in Ranua Wildlife Park, the northernmost zoo in the world. When the white forest beckons you, pick the berries, they are the best in the world. Make your own souvenirs with reindeer antlers or jive your night away in the music restaurants that dot the city.    

When the huskies pull your sleigh, the polar lights gleam in the dark sky and the Candle Light Bridge serves as the picture-perfect backdrop, you might envy Santa Claus. The way I do. Maybe this Christmas I should hang my stockings and ask Santa for a shack in Rovaniemi. Perhaps he would not be a crusty landlord and I could slip into my thermals and sing hallelujahs forever.    

      

Published Swagat, December 2007

Contact: Preetivermalal@gmail.com

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