Santa Park facts for kids
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Entrance to SantaPark in December 2010
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| Location | Rovaniemi, Finland |
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| Opened | 28 November 1998 |
SantaPark is a special Christmas theme park and visitor attraction located in Rovaniemi, in the Lapland region of Finland. It first opened its doors on November 28, 1998. This magical park is built underground, deep inside a cavern, making it a truly unique place to visit Santa Claus!
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Discover Santa's Home Cavern
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SantaPark is designed to look like Santa Claus's secret home, hidden away right on the Arctic Circle. Many stories say that Santa Claus (or joulupukki in Finnish) comes from Lapland. Because of this, many tourists travel to Rovaniemi every year, hoping to meet Santa Claus himself.
This Christmassy theme park is known as Santa Claus’s very own home cavern. It's open during two main seasons. In the summer, you can visit from mid-June to early August. For the winter season, the park welcomes guests from late November until the beginning of January. There is an entrance fee to explore all the wonders inside.
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Inside SantaPark, visitors can meet Santa Claus in his office. You can even take pictures with him for free! You can also visit Mrs. Gingerbread in her Gingerbread Bakery. Don't miss the Ice Princess in her "Ice Gallery" kingdom. You can even send postcards from the Post Office there.
Your entrance ticket also includes fun places like the Candybar and the Magic Train. You can attend Elf School and explore the Handicraft’s area. If you get hungry, the Kota Café is ready to serve you. There's also a Shopping area where you can find souvenirs. On the main stage, an amazing acrobatics show called "Magic Christmas" is performed three times a day.
SantaPark is part of a bigger group called SantaPark Arctic World. This group also includes other exciting places. These are Santa Claus Secret Forest – Joulukka, Arctic Forest Spa – Metsäkyly, Lapland Luxury, Arctic TreeHouse Hotel, and Rakas Restaurant & Bar.
How SantaPark Began
SantaPark first opened on November 28, 1998, as an amusement park. The idea for the park came from a company called Santaworld Ltd. from the UK. Building the park cost about 6.7 million Euros. Many Finnish companies helped own the park at first, like Finnair and MTV. Even the Ministry of Trade and Industry was involved.
However, the park didn't make as much money as planned at the start. So, in 2002, they tried a new plan. The city of Rovaniemi became involved in owning the park. The new idea focused more on Santa Claus, Christmas, and the unique culture and nature of Lapland.
In 2009, a new company, Santa's Holding Ltd., took over. The main owners became Mr. Ilkka Länkinen and Mrs. Katja Ikäheimo-Länkinen. They decided to focus more on telling people about SantaPark and attracting more visitors. Today, another owner with shares in SantaPark is Lappset Group Oy.
Fun Attractions at SantaPark
SantaPark offers many exciting attractions for visitors. Here are some of the main ones:
- Christmas Magic Show
- Santa's Office
- Post Office
- Mrs. Gingerbread Bakery
- Magic Train
- Elf School
- Elf Workshop
- Ice Gallery
- Undercrossing of the Arctic Circle
- Arktikum museum
You can also find the Toy Factory Shopping Area to buy gifts. The Kota Hut Cafe is a great place to get a snack or drink.
Park Architecture
The theme park is built inside a large cavern. Visitors go down into this space through a big entrance. This underground area was actually first designed to be an air-raid shelter. It makes for a very unique and cozy Christmas setting!
Getting to SantaPark
SantaPark is easy to reach by car using national highway 4. It is about 9 kilometers (about 5.6 miles) northeast of Rovaniemi. It's also only about 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles) from Rovaniemi Airport.
Many flights from Helsinki and other cities in Finland go to Rovaniemi all year. Most international tourists fly to Helsinki-Vantaa airport first. Then they take another plane to Rovaniemi. During the Christmas season, many special charter flights come directly to Rovaniemi. These flights bring visitors from places like Sweden and the United Kingdom.
You can also take bus and train connections to Rovaniemi from most major cities in Finland. For local travel, you can use Santa's Express. This is bus line number 8. It goes from the center of Rovaniemi to SantaPark and the Santa Claus Village. The bus ride to SantaPark takes about 15 minutes.
See also
