Meeting the Real Santa Claus in Finland: Don’t Get Scammed!

So, you wanna meet Santa? 

Maybe to show your kids that he is real?

Maybe to ask him for a peaceful holiday in a 5* resort?

Or maybe to ask for your neighbours to stop having a domestic every Saturday at 7am?

Or maybe you just wanna sit on his lap? 😜 We are not here to judge!

Whatever the reason, make sure you meet the real Santa Claus in Finland.

Because—and this might be shocking, so don’t let your kids read this—there are two.

And not both are real (duh!).

Read on to find out how to meet the real Santa Claus and not get scammed.

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Here’s a little bit about our journey, if you are new here! If you know us, feel free to skip this part.

After leaving our old life in Scotland in March 2022 (it rains too much there), we travelled full-time for almost 2 years. Sounds fancy, doesn’t it? Well, it was. If you think that carrying overpacked backpacks in 45°C heat around streets that aren’t even on Google Maps is fancy. And that’s just 1% of all the fun we had! 😆

During the 2 years we volunteered in Italy and Bulgaria (free travel while learning new skills, anyone?), explored other amazing European countries and backpacked Southeast Asia. Btw, even our secret wedding was more of an expedition than a wedding. 😅

And, of course, we researched and planned everything ourselves, because you gotta keep the budget low, right? If you are like us, you’ve come to the right place, because we want to share all the useful travel tips and info with you!

Excited? Good. Let’s get into it so you can go on your own epic adventures too!

Where can you meet the real Santa Claus in Finland?

Let’s start with the basics.

Where does Santa live?

Surprisingly, not on the North Pole!

That would be a bit harder to reach.

And Santa wants to be pretty available—so that kids (and adults) can come visit him.

Since you are reading this post, you already know that Santa lives in Finland.

Specifically, in a city called Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland.

But he doesn’t just live in a house in the city centre.

Oh no. 

Santa has his own magical village. 

And we’ll tell you how you can get there.

How do you get to Santa Claus Village?

Do you have to catch some reindeer and then type a secret code into the north pole, like in the Santa Clause movie?

Thankfully not! (Btw, do you like that movie? Let us know in the comments below!)

Getting to Santa’s village in Rovaniemi is a lot easier than that. 

You can, obviously, drive to the Santa Claus Village.

You can also fly there. (If flying, remember to collect airmiles to get freebies!)

But neither of those is as exciting as the third option.

You can (and should) catch the overnight Santa Claus Express train!!

Meaning you will go to sleep somewhere past Helsinki (the starting point of your journey).

And wake up in snowy Lapland, ready to meet Santa!

It doesn’t get more magical than that!

We wrote about the whole experience here (COMING SOON), but as always, if you have more questions, drop us a DM on our Instagram, or book a call with us, so we can chat about your travel plans more.

Good thing to know

When taking the Santa Claus Express overnight train, it will only take you as far as the Rovaniemi train station.

Santa’s village, where you can meet the real Santa Claus in Finland, is a bit further out of the city.

But fear not.

You can get there easily catching a public bus.

All info on the bus as well as how to do a whole Lapland holiday without a car is here (COMING SOON), so check it out.

Our bus even came with a disco rave, at 7am! (We were the only passengers and our bus driver was a happy, friendly guy who was clearly loving his work! Btw, we share all our unhinged experiences like this on our Instagram, so make sure to give us a follow.)

What do you need to know about meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland?

Now that you know how to get to the real Santa Claus in Finland, let’s talk a bit about what else you need to know:

• You can meet Santa every day of the year! The man gets no holidays, so be extra grateful for yours, when you go see him!
• Opening times of the Santa Claus Office, where you can meet Santa, differ based on the season – you can check them out here.
• No, you don’t have to be a child or have a child to meet Santa! Everyone is welcome.
• There is a gift shop in the Santa Claus Office where you can buy a souvenir to remember this special moment by (spoilers: it won’t help you do this Lapland trip on a budget though, the prices are rather high).
• You can’t pre-book meeting Santa. Everyone just has to queue and wait their turn. We were lucky and only waited for a bit, but if you are visiting during Christmas, you might want to come at the opening time or consider buying a Christmas Express Pass.

What is meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland like?

Here is the thing. 

If you want to know what meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland is like, keep reading.

If you don’t though, cause you’d rather be surprised and not have the experience spoiled, skip to the next section by clicking here.

Okay, so only spoiler-happy people are here now, right?

Let’s talk about what meeting Santa is like.

Because maybe you imagine it being like in a shopping centre —everyone queues in front of a guy with a fake beard, comes up to him, recites what they want for Christmas, snaps a pic and leaves.

And the truth is, it’s not like that at all!

What meeting Santa was like for us

• We went to see Santa pretty soon after his office opened. We weren’t in too much of a hurry, being in Santa’s village on the 31st March – not the crazy festive season.
• The way to see Santa is pretty long—we are guessing that during the busy times, the queue stretches all the way down. It kinda looks like a path leading to a ride in a theme park—it’s all very Christmas-themed, with little surprises along the way (we won’t share all the secrets, so we don’t spoil it completely for you!).
• There were two small groups of people in front of us, so we didn’t wait too long. But! Right after us, a big tour bus of Asian tourists came in—we were so lucky we were in front of them, otherwise we’d have to have waited for ages!
• Once you get to the front of the line, you will meet an elf who will ask you some basic questions, such as where you are from. This is so that they can inform Santa before you meet him and also so that you are entertained while you wait for your turn (this is where it starts to get reaaaally exciting!).
• Once the people in front of you are finished chatting to Santa, the elf will introduce you, and you can go in to meet him yourself!
• Don’t worry about jackets or backpacks btw, you can drop these off on the side in Santa’s office before you go sit down with him. So if you want to have nice Christmas jumpers or even matching ugly Christmas sweaters in the pic with Santa, you can!
• We won’t share much more – after all, everyone’s meeting with Santa is different. But what you do need to know is that he is a very kind man, who makes sure that every person in your group gets to chat to him and feels seen—it really does feel like a magical experience.

The way to see Santa is so much fun—there is even a Christmas countdown! Let us know how many days it was showing when you visited!

Bonus tip – storing your luggage

If you happen to come to the Santa’s village with big luggage, maybe because you are doing Lapland without a car and this is your stopover on the way further north? (This is what we did—you can read all about our Lapland on a budget trip here).

You can store your luggage at the village so that you are able to explore freely, without dragging a big suitcase around through the snow the whole day!

Where can you store your luggage at Santa Claus Village?

In the locations marked with a suitcase on this map.

Make sure you have the map saved somewhere handy or pick up a paper copy in the information centre when you get to the village.

When we were planning our Lapland trip, we spoke with the Santa Claus Village (how fun is that btw? Speaking to Santa’s staff when planning a trip!) and they gave us these tips for storing luggage:

• Since the village is actually a collection of private companies, they all have their own opening hours and prices, so you should contact them directly/check on their website to find out current info.
• Sunny Safaris (btw, not the best name for a Lapland activities provider, is it? 😬 If you don’t want to make branding mistakes like that, make sure to join us here.) was pointed out as the easiest location, because it has ground floor access, meaning you won’t have to be lugging your suitcases upstairs. The issue? When we were at Santa’s village, the Sunny Safaris didn’t open during the whole day, for some reason.
• Make sure you check the closing time of your chosen luggage storage—not all places in Santa’s village close at the same time, so it might be that you will have to pick your suitcases up a bit earlier before leaving. We had to get ours back about an hour before we got the onward bus to the beautiful northern lights resort further up north.

We ended up storing our luggage in a gift shop upstairs in the Santa Claus Office (upstairs being the key word, don’t get confused with the downstairs Santa Claus experience gift store).

The price was luggage-size dependent and we had to pick the bags up earlier, as we mentioned, but overall, it was great that we didn’t have to worry about the suitcases for most of the day!

How much does it cost to meet the real Santa Claus in Finland?

The good news?

Meeting Santa is free!

That means that if you want to do Lapland on a budget, first of all, read this guide on how we did it—it’s full of money-saving tips.

And second, you can absolutely add meeting Santa to your itinerary and it won’t cost you anything extra!

Can I take pics with Santa?

Here is where things get tricky.

You can meet Santa for free—it’s one of the best activities to do in Lapland on a budget.

But if you want to have a physical memory of the experience?

Say a photo or a video?

You will have to pay.

How this works

Basically, you are not allowed to take your own photos or videos when meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland.

On one hand, it’s great, because it means you can be fully present in the moment, and enjoy the experience.

On the other hand, though, it does mean that if you want a memory of the meeting, you will have to pay. 

Quite a lot.

It’s kinda like the photos that get taken on rides in a theme park. 

A video will be made as you are chatting to Santa (with a sound, so if you want to ask for something naughty, make sure you whisper it to him! 😜) and an elf will also take a group photo for you with the big man.

After you say bye to Santa, you will walk past an area where another elf will show you your photos—you can buy them right there or, using a special code given to you, buy them from home within the next 400 days (that’s an actual number, not an exaggeration, btw 😄).

You can see current prices of photos and videos here.

The thing you might be wondering now, after seeing the prices is: is meeting Santa worth it?

Is meeting Santa Claus worth it?

We’ve been asked this question a few times.

Is it worth meeting Santa, even if you don’t have kids?

Well, the question really is: do you like Christmas?

Cause if you hate it, first of all, not sure what you are doing, reading a post about meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland, and second, you probably won’t enjoy this either then.

If you generally like Christmas, though, and are just curious whether Santa’s village is worth a stop, read on.

Here’s our take:

• Are you heading up north, to Lapland? Then why not stop by at Santa’s village? If you are driving that way anyway, it won’t cost you anything extra.
• If you are not driving and you will have to pay extra for a journey there, may we suggest doing the Santa Claus Express night train? Especially, if you’ve not slept on a train before? That way the whole journey is an experience—meeting Santa is just a bonus at the end.
• Also, if you’ve ever been a kid and believed in Santa, don’t wonder whether it’s worth meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland. Just go heal your inner child (and thank us later. Maybe by sending us a post card from Santa’s post office!).

Isn’t Santa Claus Village just a big shopping centre, though?

We decided to address this concern separately, because we know it’s the most common theme in negative reviews of the Santa Claus Village.

Um, yes it is a business.

If you believe in Santa, stop reading now and skip to the next section by clicking here.

🎅🏻

The truth

Okay, now, we’ve got to tell you something.

It’s not the real Santa Claus Village. 

It’s not even the real Santa.

Say whaaaat?

This whole post is about meeting THE REAL Santa Claus in Finland!

Yes yes, hear us out.

Real one as in not the AliExpres-looking one. (We’ll get to that. Because not all Santas are equal, trust us.)

But it’s still not a magical old grandpa that knows every kid in the world and delivers presents for free every Christmas.

So, keeping that in mind, this whole village could have been set up as some sort of a non-profit charity.

But it would probably also look that way—hundreds of thousands of people wanting to see Santa every year and no way to make money to finance the experience.

So someone decided it should be a business.

The thing is, for you?

It will be what you make it.

The solution

Create the experience you want to have.

You are in control.

If you want to go to the Santa Claus Village and treat it like a shopping centre?

Go on.

If you want to feel like maybe, just maybe, it really is the real Santa and this is a magical place where wishes come true?

Treat it that way and it will feel like it.

We were there in March. 

The festive season long behind us.

Without kids.

And we still had a magical experience.

It 100% is what you make it.

Speaking of commercialised experiences. Here is one that doesn’t make us feel very jolly.

Can I meet Mrs Claus too?

We appreciate that you are fighting for equality in this sexist world and are curious about meeting Mrs Claus too!

You will be happy to hear that yes, you can meet her as well!

The catch?

You will have to pay for it. 😬

Yep, you read that right.

While her husband will sit and chat with you for free, Mrs Claus is expecting a little something something to bother herself with seeing you.

We don’t know how about you, but it doesn’t sit right with us. It doesn’t scream Christmas magic, kindness and generosity, does it?

So, obviously, we decided against seeing Mrs Claus—we’d rather save our money!

Do this instead

If you also want to do Lapland on a budget, don’t waste your money seeing Mrs Claus.

Do go see her house though—it’s the prettiest one in the Santa Claus Village, and, when we visited (the very last day of March), it was the most festive-decorated one too.

It’s a shame though, that such a magical-looking place feels like a bit like a rip-off too.

Oh, and btw, Mrs Claus house is not just a meet-and-greet place. There’s also a cafe, but again, prepare to pay extra for the honour of eating or drinking at Mrs Claus’ house.

Mrs Claus Cottage and her overpriced tasty drinks 😄
Btw, if you want to see a little Instagram vs reality for the second pic, click here 😜

Which one is the real Santa Claus in Finland?

Yeah we know, we made you read through the whole post before telling you which one is the real Santa Claus in Finland.

But was it not worth it?

Did you not learn a lot of info and tips for visiting Santa in his village?

If no, you can complain to us on our Instagram. But remember, Santa might then put you on the Naughty List. 😉

But now, the actual issue of which one is the real Santa.

Because—and this might be shocking—they are actually two Santas living in the Santa Claus Village!

This might be confusing

When we were planning our Lapland adventures, we spent a lot of time on the official website of the Santa Claus Village.

One thing we were super confused about was why there were two locations listed for meeting Santa in the village: 

• the Santa Claus Office 
• and the Christmas House of Santa Claus 

The 2 Santas

We’ve already told you about our experience of meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland.

If you skipped that part, you can go back to it here (but only if you are okay with spoilers!).

The thing that shocked us?

When we were walking around the Santa Claus Village after our meet and greet (we had plenty of time in the village because we were getting a bus up north, to our beautiful northern lights resort—doing Lapland car-free!) and suddenly stumbled upon what looked like another Santa Claus!

It turns out, there really are 2 Santas in the Santa Claus Village!!

It’s what the website shows, but it’s so confusing there, you might assume (as we did) that they are talking about the same Santa.

But no.

There are 2 different experiences.

How to meet the real Santa Claus in Finland

If you are now wondering who you should go and meet, we’ll tell you.

Go see the Santa we saw.

The one staying in the Santa Claus Office.

Which looks like this:

Why?

Not because that’s who we saw.

But because the other Santa (at the Christmas House) felt like an… AliExpress version of Santa. 😬

The fake Santa in Santa’s village

The problem?

Both experiences market themselves as the “official Santa of the Arctic Circle.”

Confusing, right?

Well, as we said, we stumbled upon the second Santa accidentally, and we were not impressed.

Here is why:

• There isn’t any entertaining, magical path leading to this other Santa. Just a corridor with seats
• As you walk through the corridor, you actually see into the room with Santa through an open back door! Or at least when we were there it was open! Talk about spoilers!
• What we saw as we passed was a Santa that just didn’t look as real as the one in the Santa Claus Office. This one looked like… well a dude in a costume
• It looked like there was a similar system of buying pictures and videos with this Santa, but when we were passing, we noticed there was a small camera set up on the table in front of him… on a tripod. It looked a lot less like a professional experience and more like you were meeting a TikTok influencer
• The overall vibe of the place was just simply off, it felt like a shopping mall Santa that everyone has forgotten about

Needless to say, we chose not to go meet this “Santa”.

Obviously, for you, it’s your decision.

If you want, you can go meet both Santas and then compare the experiences. Remember, they are both free, if you don’t want to buy the pics and videos afterwards.

But if you have kids and you want them to believe they are meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland?

1. Make sure you take them to see the real one, the better of the two (in the Santa Claus Office).
2. Make sure you also accidentally don’t take them into the part of the Christmas House where the other Santa is based, or you might get a few questions!

And remember, if you are you confused about any of this, or want to ask more questions about meeting the real Santa Claus in Finland (or any other part of our Lapland on a budget trip), you can book a call with us here.

PS Are you now also wondering why there are 2 Santas, but just 1 Mrs Claus? 😏

Pro tip for Santa Claus Village

We have one more tip for you.

Before you go meet the real Santa Claus in Finland, make sure to check out the official webcam of Santa Claus Village!

We talk all about this unknown free travel hack here, including how you can use it to plan your Lapland holiday better.

Make sure to check out the post before heading to Santa’s village!

Now, a question for you.

If you met the real Santa Claus in Finland, what would you ask him for?

We’d probably ask for an unlimited travel voucher (and a neverending bar of chocolate for Mirka 😄).