Queensland: Sending a letter to Santa can be difficult as no one can agree on where exactly Santa lives. Several countries are competing to claim Santa as one of their citizens. Finland’s tourism industry suggests Korvatunturi in Lapland is where Santa keeps his workshop, and the link between Santa and Lapland brings in hundreds of millions of tourist dollars.
Danes say Santa is in Greenland. Sweden suggests Mora is the place, and has built the theme park Santaworld. These places certainly look the part with white snow in winter and reindeer. They’re also close to the North Pole.
Not so jolly traditions
They also have old and often quite disturbing folklore about the man in red. Pagan Finns celebrated St Knut’s Day in wintry January by having men in furry jackets, the nuuttipukki, go from house to house with a sack of presents. Except the nuuttipukki weren’t giving gifts and would likely make children cry. They came demanding gifts and would curse bad luck to any household not handing over a present. Eventually the gift-grabbing nuuttipukki became the gift-giving Joulupukki. Like other northern traditions such as the Yule Lads of Iceland, this visitor gave gifts but only to well-behaved children.
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me & my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I’m very glad to see such great information being shared freely out there.