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Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village

In December we visited Finland on a DIY Lapland trip. When I was looking at activities and options for our Christmas visit to Lapland, I knew that we wanted to spend some time doing festive activities while in Finnish Lapland. However, I got a bit confused about the differences Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village. And I couldn’t seem to find a blog post anywhere that really explained the differences to me. So if you’re planning a trip to Lapland, then this post will help you decide which one is best for you. Especially helpful if you only have the budget or time to choose one. So how did we get on Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland?

Table of Contents

Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village

As we built our own trip to Lapland we managed to fit in a trip to both big Christmas destinations. Therefore this blog post is written on our experiences. When we visited the boys were aged 10 and 6.

Inside or Outside

Santa Village is based outside the arctic circle and so consequently the outside activities that are available reflect this fact. Such as popular must-do experiences such as reindeer rides and a husky farm. Although if you are looking to visit Father Christmas this takes place inside one of the many buildings. As it is predominately outside you need to ensure that depending on the time of year you visit that you have the necessary cold-weather gear to really enjoy this location.

Santa Park on the other hand is based entirely inside in the home cavern of Santa Claus. You do not need cold weather gear unless you’re planning on going elsewhere afterwards or if you are travelling from the centre of Rovaniemi on public transport. All of the activities are based inside and it makes an alternative day out to many of the other bookable activities. During winter it can get very cold. When we visited the weather temperature was around -6 to -12. Although it can go down as low as -30. This makes Santa Park a good alternative when travelling with younger kids who are suffering a little from the cold.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – a draw based on your personal preferences

Opening times

Santa Claus Village is open year-round. This includes visiting the big man every day of the year if you want to. Although it is worth bearing in mind that they do a special event on the 23rd of December. Which is when Santa Claus officially leaves Rovaniemi to deliver presents worldwide. Opening times vary throughout the year but in December it is open 9 am to 7 pm. You may find that individual activities within the Santa’s Village have slightly different opening times. For example, Snowman World was open until 8 pm on the day we visited.

Santa Park on the other hand is only open over the holiday season each year. The Christmas theme park is normally from late November to the beginning of January. In 2022 when we visited this was from the 20th of November to the 6th of January. With opening hours 10 am to 6 pm in December. Therefore, depending on the time of your travelling, you may not actually be able to visit Santa Park.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Santa Claus Village wins based on the fact it is opens all year round.

Cost

Probably one of the biggest factors when comparing Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village. And also probably one of the harder ones to work out. On the basis that it really depends on what you want to do. For us it would have worked out broadly equal.

Santa Claus Village is actually free to enter. So you can wander around free of charge although all of the activities that I have mentioned below will have additional costs associated with them. Having visited Santa Claus Village, I think if you are not going to do any of the activities then you will get pretty bored. So I would expect to spend money when you visit. We were there for most of the day and spent 75€ euros in Santa Claus Village and an additional 116€ on visiting Snowman World.

You do need to pay to enter Santa Park. However, all activities are included in the price. There are two different entrance options. We had standard entrance tickets. These cost €42 for an adult and €36 for a child costing us a total of 156€. There is also a VEP package, which includes various extras and lunch. As we decided not to see Santa but instead chose to visit Santa Claus Secret Forest. I do not think the VEP package would have made a difference for us. On our visit, we bought lunch at the same time as booking tickets. It cost 18.90€ for adults and 12.90€ for children for the buffet.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – For us, Santa Park won this. On the basis, you know how much it will cost upfront. There is no concern about getting carried away and spending a fortune. I think it represents good value for money.

Popularity

When we visited we did not notice a lot of difference between the two when comparing how busy they were. If anything I was quite surprised by how unbusy they were. Don’t get me wrong there were lots of people but we managed to move around unhindered and go on most of the activities we wanted to at both locations without too much queuing.

Santa Claus Village is definitely a popular spot for organised tours especially as they tend to jump the queues for certain activities such as seeing Santa Claus and the reindeer rides. I am wondering if we just got lucky on the day we visited. As my gut is telling me that Santa Claus Village is more popular with them.

When we visited Santa Park there were very few thermal branded overalls hanging up in the cloakrooms when compared to normal ski wear. This leads me to the conclusion that it is not often used by organised tours. Good if you, like us were trying to avoid them.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Santa Park wins this as I would do anything to avoid the tour groups when taking the time to build your own trip to Lapland.

Food & Drink

This is the one area where I can not really give a fair comparison. As we did not each have a meal at Santa Claus Village. Instead surviving on some snacks and toasted marshmallows. Although there are lots of different places to eat. Good if you have fussy kids. The map which you can pick up at the information centre will give you details of all of the restaurants available. As well as traditional Lappish food there are also some more fast food-orientated restaurants and various places to pick up a coffee.

In comparison, Santa’s Park only offers one main restaurant. Here you can choose cold snacks from the bar or access the hot buffet. The menu is available at the pay point so you can check before committing. It is a very popular option and I think represents good value. Hot drinks are also available in the bakery along with all sorts of sweet treats for the children.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Santa Claus Village won this on choice. But I suspect Santa Park if we had done a direct comparison would win on value.

Activities

At first glance, you could be mistaken for thinking that they offer the same thing. There are three activities that cross over the two Christmas attractions. These are visiting Father Christmas, crossing the arctic circle and going to the post office. Outside of this, they are very different yet have things for the whole family. So if you need to choose just one then it will be dependant on which your children would enjoy the most and if you would prefer to pay an entry fee upfront for all your activities or as you go. More details of both locations are included in the separate blog posts linked above and at the end of this post.

Things to do at Santa Claus Village

Visit Santa’s main post office and postcards home from the Arctic Circle. Postcards and postage need to be paid for separately and you can send them now or for next year’s Christmas.
The reindeer village is where you can go on reindeer sleigh rides with various distances and prices available.
You can also visit Mrs Claus and have your photo taken with her for €10
If you arrive early, then you will be able to use the free plastic sledges around the snowy area. Although these are extremely popular and it is not possible to hire them, so you may want to bring your own from your accommodation. Otherwise, the Santa House gift shop sells them for 15€ each.
There is also the husky park where you can pet the dogs or go on a husky sledge ride. Husky rides distances and activities come at an extra cost.
Children can try out a snowmobile at the arctic circle snowmobile park for around 15 minutes for €22 each, which is suitable for little kids from the age of four.
You can cross the Arctic Circle either outside, or inside the information centre and get a certificate stamped with the day’s date as a keepsake. Prices from 4.95€
There is an outside playground which the children can enjoy
Plenty of fire pits to toast, marshmallows
Snowman world is also located within Santa Claus Village and costs €28 per person. There are snow tubes an ice slide, an ice restaurant, an ice bar, an ice labyrinth and ice skating available.
As well as all of these things, there are plenty of souvenir shops and restaurants to choose from.
A number of tour operators are also located within Santa Claus village offering various different trips such as Northern Lights hunting and ice fishing. There is plenty of accommodation within Santa Claus Holiday Village itself and therefore it is a popular pickup spot for such tours.

Things to do at Santa Park – Home of Santa Claus

There is a Santa’s post office located within Santa Park where you can purchase postcards and stamps at an additional cost to post home to loved ones. Either straight away or as a Christmas card ready for Christmas the following year
An ice gallery which has various ice sculptures within it and an ice bar. The boys particularly liked the huge ice chair and the ice igloo. There is an ice Princess who will pose for photos.
Santa Park is the only place where you can cross the Artic Circle underground. Again if you would like a certificate you can purchase one of these that’s an additional cost. Or it is included within the VEP package.
Elf school is probably my favourite activity – an interactive theatre experience that takes around 25 minutes. In these theatrical performances, participants learn all about the Santa’s elves and elf skills. At the end of the lessons, you are given an elf hat and elf diploma. Runs multiple times a day.
A virtual reality sleigh ride where you spend 15 minutes delivering presents and flying across major cities of the world. It is an extremely popular experience and can get busy so I suggest you head there first.
At the elf workshop, you will have the opportunity to make some else handicrafts with all materials provided.
Two play arenas where you can play with nets and balls to score points
The bakery where you can ice huge heart gingerbread cookies all included in your entrance fee. Also, a good opportunity to have a hot drink for the adults.
An elf acrobatic show is put on three times a day and lasts around 20 minutes. The elf show was a huge hit with the boys and we timed our show over our lunch which meant we got front-row seats.
There is also a small inside magic train ride that takes you through various snowy scenes and the elf workshop

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Draw. Both offer a wide range of different activities.

Which Santa – Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village

One of the biggest draws of both attractions is the chance to see Santa Claus. This is not something we did at either location so I can not compare them directly for you. After all I wanted to try and keep the magic alive for the boys and I think they would think it strange to visit more than one during our trip! However key headlines for you to do the comparison.

In Santa Claus Village there are two places to visit Santa Claus for free. When we visited we did not see queues outside either location. Which is at Santa’s Office and at Christmas House. Both will have queues in busy times so if it is important for you to avoid these then the best time is early in the day at the opening before the tour operators arrive. Although he is free to visit, if you would like a photo these cost extra and you are not allowed to take your own photos. Prices start at €35 depending on the package chosen. There is no gift for your child when visiting Santa.

In comparison, Santa Park offers the chance to see Santa Claus in his office. It is located towards the back of the attraction and is easy to spot or avoid if you are so inclined. There was a small queue outside when we visited. If you would like a small gift for your child and you need to pay €12 extra which you can select in advance when you book your tickets online. If you have a VEP package then a gift is included. One of the biggest differences is that you can take as many photos as you would like. Or alternatively, if you would like a printed family photo, then this is also available at a cost of around €35.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Santa Park for allowing your own photos to be taken

How long do you need?

We spent around five hours at each location. I felt that we did everything in Santa Park within this time. Although we could have stayed at Santa Claus Village for slightly longer however we had other arrangements. We also didn’t have a sit-down meal at Santa Claus Village which would’ve added considerable time to our visit.

The time you need to visit Santa Claus Village totally depends on the activities that you want to do. I have seen reviews where they were done in two hours because they did do anything. Your visit to Santa Claus Village in particular needs to be considered in line with the other activities you are taking part in on your trip. Such as Huskies or Reindeer so that you do not duplicate. It does also offer shorter distances with each of these which you could fit around other commitments and budgets. I did not see these elsewhere when doing my research.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Draw we found that five to six hours was about the boy’s limit on any one activity. Although I do think we could have stayed longer at Santa Claus Village.

Location

Santa Claus Village and Santa Park are located almost next to each other around 8km from Rovaniemi city centre. Therefore if you’re planning on getting public transport from Rovaniemi city center you would use the same buses.

The Santa express bus leaves from Rovaniemi train station and will also stop at Santa Park. You can find out more information on the Santa Claus Bus on their website. You can purchase tickets on the bus with either cash or cards. It costs 4€ per adult one way or 7€ return and 2€ per child one way or 3€ return. Alternatively, the local bus number 8 bus also calls at both locations. More about the Linkkari bus can be found on the Rovaniemi transport website.

Both locations also offer free parking and both have taxi rank facilities.

Result – Santa Park or Santa Claus Village in Finland – Draw as both are the same.

Conclusions – Santa Park vs Santa Claus Village

I did wonder that when we included both Santa Claus Village and Santa Park on our sixth-day itinerary, we would be repeating many of the activities. But as you can see they are very different places to visit, both with their own fun things to do and their own Christmas magic. If you have the time and the budget to do both and are travelling with children at Christmas time, then I would encourage you to do the same as we did.