Meeting Santa Claus in Saariselkä
Illustration photo: a lit cabin in a forest at night, not Santa's cabin in Saariselkä.
The short answer
If you are staying in Saariselkä anyway and want a whole afternoon, book this programme: it has reindeer, a sleigh and gingerbread, and the meeting with Santa is its ending rather than its length. If meeting Santa is the reason for the trip, Rovaniemi lets you meet him without booking a programme, at the cost of a long day on the road from here.
The longest of Saariselkä’s four Santa programmes is run by Northern Lights Village, and it is an afternoon rather than a visit. It is called Searching for Santa and lasts two and a half to three hours. Adults pay 159 euros, children from four to fourteen 79.50, and children up to three go free.1
What the afternoon holds
An elf guides the family through it in English. It starts with gingerbread and crafts in the elves’ turf house, moves outside to meet the reindeer for a sleigh ride of about ten minutes, and continues on a heated sleigh pulled by a snowmobile through the forest to Santa’s cabin. There Santa welcomes the family for about ten minutes, and each child gets a small gift. Overalls, boots and mittens are lent for the outdoor part.1
The ten minutes are worth knowing before you book. The price buys the whole afternoon, and the meeting itself is its short, final scene. For most children that is the right shape: the build-up is half the magic, and a small child’s attention is short anyway.
Saariselkä or Rovaniemi
For a family already staying here, a local programme is the obvious choice. For a family choosing where to go because of Santa, the calculation changes. Rovaniemi is 260 kilometres south, about three hours by bus from Saariselkä,2 and it has what Saariselkä does not: a Santa you can meet without booking a programme around him. How that works, and what the paid options there add, is set out in meeting Santa Claus in Rovaniemi.
Saariselkä’s three other Santa programmes, a walk to Santa’s house at a resort, a private meeting in the forest and a cabin visited family by family, are compared in the best Santa Claus visit in Saariselkä.
Levi’s Santa programmes, which are more numerous and differ in the details, are compared in the Levi Santa guide, and the three resorts outside Rovaniemi are set side by side in Santa beyond Rovaniemi. The rest of this resort is on the Saariselkä destination page.
Tours you can book
Searching for Santa: an afternoon ending at his cabin
Run by Northern Lights Village Saariselkä
From €159per person
Length2.5–3 h
See it on the operator’s site(opens in a new tab)
Questions people ask
Can we bring a present for Santa to hand to our child?
No. The programme's own page asks families not to bring personal gifts for Santa to give out, because it would be unfair on the other children in the group. Every child receives the same small symbolic gift. If a present from Santa matters in your family, keep it for Christmas morning rather than the cabin.
How does Santa know our children's names?
From you. Before the day, the organiser sends a questionnaire by email so that you can tell Santa about the children and he can make the meeting personal. On arrival, reception hands the children an invitation letter from the elves, which starts the story. Fill in the questionnaire rather than skipping it: it is most of what makes ten minutes feel like a real meeting.
Is it worth it for a baby or a toddler?
Children up to three go free, so the cost question falls on the adults. Much of the afternoon is outdoors, with a short reindeer sleigh ride and a heated sleigh through the forest, and the organiser lends overalls, boots and mittens. For a toddler, the realistic question is whether two and a half to three hours in the cold is manageable, not whether they will remember Santa.