As Christmas Eve approaches, the excitment engulfing the Santa Claus village near the Arctic Circle is palpable, as Santa, his elves and Rudolph the reindeer prepare to leave for their around-the-world journey.
With a busy sense of mood at the village, even the snowmen outside Santa's Arctic grotto were manging smiles as the holiday season nears its apogee.
As final preparations were under way in his chamber ahead of his annual whistlestop tour around the world, a typically jolly Santa said he was thinking of the children he will meet.
"My wish is that all children in all the schools around the world would become friends; would help one another, would support one another if there are problems, and therefore become real friends and everybody will be equal," Santa told Reuters Television.
"In this way the world will be more peaceful and a better place for everybody. And I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year," he added, laughing.
Inside the main post office, the year's most hectic period is under way as the yearly flow of around half of a million letters from children all over the world is culminating in the days before Christmas.
Some children have written long wish lists and some just want to find out more about the reclusive man with a white beard.
Santa's helpers are reading all of the letters from different countries and in different languages.
"You are always giving me a present, like sport shoes. Lots of kisses to you, I love you very much", says a letter in Spanish to Santa Claus, that one of the elves is reading.
"Post elf" Annika said that the Post Office's normal operations in Finland were combined with the services required by Santa in the lead up to Christmas.
"In addition to being a normal post office, here at Santa Claus' Main Post Office, we also receive the letters for Santa Claus from children around the world, and then we sort them according to country and we open them," she said.
"Then we read them together with Santa Claus. Each year we receive about half a million letters," she added.
While the elves loaded the magic sack on the sledge, Santa and Rudolph the Reindeer are nearly ready to begin the one night round-the-world journey that sees them visit children everywhere.
Rovaniemi remains one of the main tourist destinations in Finland for foreign visitors.
The Santa Claus village attracted about 310,000 people last year and the top five countries were Russia, Japan, Finland, Germany and Italy followed by China, France and Spain.
15 дек 2013
