Santa Claus Village is an amusement park and resort complex built on the Arctic Circle line about 8 kilometres north of Rovaniemi. It is the centrepiece of Finland's Santa Claus mythology — a collection of log cabins, activity centres, and accommodation units spread through a pine forest, with the Arctic Circle running literally through the middle of it. You can meet a Santa (there are several), send letters from the official post office, take a reindeer sleigh ride, and sleep in a glass-roofed cabin watching the northern lights from your bed.
The commercial machinery is obvious and the whole thing is designed around photo opportunities, but it is done well and with some genuine charm. The setting — a boreal forest in the Arctic — is real and beautiful regardless of the Christmas theming. In winter the experience is enhanced considerably: the snow is deep, the temperatures are extreme, and the light has that particular blue quality that only exists this far north. The village is open year-round, but summer visits feel thinner without the snow and darkness that give the Santa mythology its atmosphere.