The 12 Days Of Blogmas, Day 4 – I Believe In Father Christmas

Last week I went to Lapland for a few days. As you may know, Lapland is famous for being home to Santa and on my trip I got the chance to meet the famous man in red.

Before I tell you all about my fantastic visit, I’m going to tell you a story about how I met a Santa imposter when I was a kid. Now how can you have a Santa imposter? You may ask. Simple, the Santa’s you see in grottos over here are not the real thing. I met the real one last week in Lapland.

I must have been around 6 at the time. I got taken out for a meal on Christmas Eve with mum and dad. Now the restaurant we went to had this manager working there who was quite young and very short. Everyone was sitting down enjoying their food when suddenly this man dressed in red came around the tables talking to all of the kids. He was dressed as Santa, but I could tell even at that young age that he was a a fake. There was no fooling my 6 year old self.

Before long it was my turn and he came to our table. As far as I can remember all of the other kids were super excited to see Santa on Christmas Eve. The moment he came up to me I remember saying to him – ‘You’re not Santa, you’re that man who works out the front.’ He was super embarrassed and asked my dad ‘How did she know that?’ My Dad explained to him that nothing gets past me. Besides the Santa that was in the restaurant happened to be very short and very young. It may have been at least 15 years ago, but I remember it like it were yesterday. So there is the story of how I outed a fake Santa.

On my 4 day trip to Lapland, my visit to meet Santa (the real one) was on day 3 of my visit. I was super excited to meet him and the bus picked us all up outside the hotel in the morning. We were driven to this remote location that was covered in snow. The journey to the start of the meet involved being pulled by sleigh in the snow which was very fun.

The first stop on my visit was to see Santa’s Air Traffic Control. The Elf working there explained all about how Santa delivers on Christmas Eve. It was great seeing inside the small cabin.

Before we could proceed further we had to get past the gate which was manned by another one of Santa’s elves. After a quick salute we were on our way with a short walk to where Santa’s reindeers were kept.

Next stop was where Santa himself lives and on the way I got to see the runway where apparently the Reindeer had crashed landed a sleigh full of presents.

Santa himself lives in a really cozy log cabin in the middle of the snow. I was super excited to see him and one of the elves got me to knock on the door where on the other side I saw Santa sitting down in the corner. He’s a great guy, super friendly and very down to earth. Even though I was only talking to him for a few minutes, I felt like I knew him for years. Unfortunately I had forgotten my Christmas list, but I managed to tell him what I wanted.

The trip was magical and I was very happy to be able to have finally met the real Santa and not these fake ones you see all around the place. Santa will be delivering my presents on Christmas Eve and he will be delivering yours too. I can now officially say I am now back to being a believer.