Ho ho ho! With this greeting everyone recognizes Santa Clause, and yes,
we are almost there: little time remains to his arrival! The sledge is almost
ready and is already filled with presents!

There is a great rush in the toy factory and the last ones are almost
ready. Rudolf cannot wait to set off and the elves are working nonstop: there
is no time to waste!

What? You don’t believe it?? Then come with us to
Lapland, to the house of Santa Clause!

 

To arrive in Rovaniem, the capital of
Lapland, you can choose a commercial flight via
It is only a 4 hours flight from Milan, and you are
London or, even better, a direct charter plane.
free to decide the hour of your departure!

You can choose how to fly and That Aviation Italia proposes you such
aircrafts: as Boeing
B737 (with the capacity of 168
seats), Airbus 319 (144 seats) or Airbus 320 (180 seats). If instead you want to fly
with a private
jet, then there are such aircrafts as: Executive
jet charter of the “Long Range” category like Falcon
7 or the Bombardier
Challenger 350/650 or Embraer Legacy
600.

In short, we have various offerings that can
satisfy any of your needs. And once in Rovaniemi, you will suddenly feel
like you are in a magical place.

First of all you already know you have crossed the Arctic Circle,
because it passes through the northern edge of the runway, and because you find
yourself at the airport of Santa Clause (which, in its
importance, is the fourth airport of Finland) located at 2/3 km from its
village and from its park – the Santa Park.

 

The Village, with its origins
that dates back to the visit of Eleonor Roosevelt to Rovaniemi, is a Resort in
the full sense of the term and besides the Post Office, where the letters
written by all the children of the world arrive, every day you can see Santa
Clause and choose between excursion with husky’s and reindeers or excursion in snowmobile. 

Santa Park is only 2 km from
the village and it is proclaimed as the best Christmas theme park in the world.
But, actually it is not just a park and it is also called “the cave of Santa
Clause”. Here you can visit the laboratory of the elves and help them to make
toys to put on the sledge, or to get the Diploma in the legendary school of elves
after attending an important lesson on secrets and the abilities of the elves. Or
you could visit the Ginger Bread Bakery and learn how to make Christmas
cookies…

 

It is also possible to stay directly in the village and we must say that
the solutions are really enchanting…

But for you we have chosen one, which is truly unmissable:

 

• Artic Snow Hotel

We were literally enraptured by the solutions of its accommodations!

It is possible to choose among different types and frankly speaking we
would not know which one is the most beautiful…

• Glass igloo

This solution allows you to
loose yourself in the arctic night and to fall asleep under the starry sky and
have a good possibility of spotting the aurora boreal. The igloo has a good
isolation system, which assures the same temperature as in a normal hotel room,
while the glass roof has electrical heating that will melt the ice and the snow
that forms in its surface in order to guarantee a 360° view.

• Camera SnowHotel

The hotel is a spectacular
building, which is being carved every year in order to be always different in
its appearance. The walls and the surfaces of the rooms furniture are unique;
realized by ice sculptors and illuminated by a wisely built-in illumination.
You can sleep directly on the transparent bed made of ice and snow!

And now, let yourself be amazed by the true origins
of Santa Clause…

Every child knows that Santa Clause comes from the North Pole. He is
bearded and overweight and during the night between 24th and 25th
of December he brings presents to the little ones all over the world,
travelling in his sledge towed by the reindeers. 

But his true story is long and fascinating almost like the legend itself
because, actually Santa Clause was born on the shores of the Mediterranean sea,
evolved in the Northern Europe and took his definitive form as Santa Clause in
the New World and from there he was spread almost in every part of the globe.

In the beginning he was Saint
Nicolas and was
celebrated on the 6th of December with the tradition of giving
presents to the children (this tradition still exists in some European
countries like Germany, Belgium etc.), because he was in charge of watching the
children being good and saying their prayers.

Nevertheless, the protestant Reformation abolished the cult of saints in
the greater part of the Northern Europe and this became a problem: who would
bring the presents to the kids? Baby Jesus would not be able to bring a lot of
presents and especially would not be able to “threaten” the bad children. This
way he was flanked by a stronger helper, who was able to “scare” them.

This way, in some countries of Germanic culture, half-elf half-demon
figures were born – like Krampus or Ru-Klaus (Rude
Nicolas), Ashenklas (Ash Nicolas) or Pelznickel (Hairy Nicolas). They had to
guarantee that children behaved good, threatening them with punishments.

When Dutch immigrants, that were particularly fond of Saint Nicolas,
came to America, they brought with them this tradition that took the name of Sinterklaas, but it was not
very popular among the Americans nor the British.

Then, in the first decades of eighteenth century, different poets and
writers started to engage to transform Christmas in a family holiday, also
bringing up the legend of Saint Nicolas (“The
Children’s Friend” by Arthur J.
Stansbury) who, this time, was described as the one who brings presents with a wagon
towed by a reindeer, but who also can punish bad children.

With the time the reindeers became eight and the wagon was transformed
into a sledge (“A visit from St. Nicolas” by Clement Clarke Moore).

For many years Santa Claus was represented with different features and
with clothes of different styles and colors but only thanks to the
illustrations of Thomas Nast, he was “transformed” into a
corpulent adult, dressed in red clothing bordered with white fur, who comes
from the North Pole with his sledge towed by reindeers and rewards good
children.His “return” in Europe occurred in a sort of inversed migration with
names such as Père Noël, Father Christmas and Babbo Natale, replacing
almost everywhere the previous gift bringers.

Also the famous advertising of Coca-Cola diffused the new
figure of Santa Clause.

Nevertheless, Santa Clause is a wonderful and legendary figure who is
able to instill magical joy in both children and adults.

A warm wish of Merry Christmas from the staff of That Aviation Italia.

THAT!: your broker also at Christmas.