Santa Claus has a nationality of Finland. Santa Claus is called Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus). Santa Claus is an iconic character of Christmas in the Western world. Christmas without this character would be absolutely incredible. The Christmas tree is dispensable, and the Christmas dinner can be skipped, but how can we do without Santa Claus? As an important cultural symbol of Christmas, without him, Christmas would have no vitality, no fun, and people would be in a good mood for the holiday. It will also be greatly reduced. The mythical story touches the hearts of children. There are many versions of the story about Santa Claus spread among European folk. But the story recognized by most people in the world is the story of St. Nicholas from Finland, Northern Europe. Legend has it that in the 3rd century AD, when Christmas was first formed, there was an old man named Nicholas who lived in northern Finland. He had endless wealth and was charitable. He likes to roam around on a deer-drawn sleigh. When he meets poor people, he always generously lends a helping hand to help them tide over their difficulties. Once, on Christmas Eve, he walked through a city and heard that the daughter of a poor family was getting married, but because there was no dowry and beautiful clothes, the bride looked very sad. The old man sympathized with the girl, so in the dead of night, he quietly dropped a bag of gold coins from the girl's window as his own gift. Because it was dark at night and the money was thrown in a hurry, the bag of gold coins happened to fall into the girl's stockings hanging by the fireplace. When the girl got up and put on her socks the next day, she found gold coins. She felt something strange but was overjoyed. With the help of the old man, the girl got married decently and lively. The old man not only often gives gold coins to the poor, he is also willing to give gifts such as candies and toys to children on Christmas Eve. However, he did not give his gifts publicly. He would throw the gifts down the chimney in the dead of night, so that the children would always get an unexpected surprise early on Christmas morning. As time passed, people discovered that these gifts were given by a kind-faced old man with a silver beard, wearing a red robe trimmed with white velvet, a red hat with a white brim, holding a cane, and riding a sleigh. So people called the old man named Nicholas Santa Claus. Of course, Santa Claus doesn’t just deliver gifts to children. For naughty children who don’t listen to advice, he not only doesn’t give you gifts, but will raise his cane and hit your butt twice. Later, in order to give children a beautiful dream and yearning, people used to clean the chimney leading to the fireplace before Christmas, and tell the children to hang stockings by the fireplace before going to bed to receive gifts from Santa Claus. At the same time, for naughty children, adults will always advise them by saying, "Do you want gifts from Santa Claus or a spanking from Santa Claus?" As a result, obedient or disobedient children will go to sleep with eager expectations. When they wake up the next day, when they find their stockings filled with long-awaited Christmas gifts, they think it is really Santa Claus. of gifts. Over time, the image of this happy old elf driving reindeer, pulling a sleigh filled with gifts, and delivering gifts door to door has remained deeply etched in people's memories. Santa Claus has therefore become the most important symbol and tradition of Christmas. There are different opinions about his life and image, but the final conclusion is reached about his hometown. Nicholas was the bishop of the city of Mela in Asia Minor during his lifetime, and was canonized as a saint after his death. Regarding his life experience, some people have speculated that he is a descendant of the god Odin. In Nordic mythology, Odin, the god who specializes in wisdom, art, poetry, and war, is accustomed to riding his octagonal horse in the cold winter to the ends of the earth, punishing evil, promoting good, and distributing gifts. His son, the God of Thunder, was accustomed to wearing red robes and using lightning as weapons to fight with the gods of ice and snow, and finally defeated the cold. People associate this with the clothing and character of the legendary Saint Nicholas, and think that he is a descendant of the god Odin. In fact, the costumes and dramatic image of Santa Claus that most people recognize today began in the 19th century. In 1823, a poet named Kment described Nicholas as a kind-hearted man with a silver beard, wearing a red robe trimmed with white velvet and a white-brimmed red hat in his poem "Impressions of St. Nicholas" , a jolly old elf holding a cane and riding a sleigh. Since then, the image of St. Nicholas has been finalized in people's minds, and Santa Claus, as the incarnation of Nicholas, has also been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the image described by the poet. In the 11th century, Italian missionaries brought Nicholas's relics back to Italy from Northern Europe and built the Nicholas Church in the port city of Bari. Soon Christians from all over the world came to worship this saint. These pilgrims brought the story of Nicholas back to their native lore. Perhaps it is the inconsistency of oral tradition that has led to the many versions of the story today. Although there are different versions of the legend about Santa Claus's life experience, they are all in harmony. What has been debated endlessly is the hometown of Santa Claus. Due to the rise of Christmas around the world, Santa Claus's fame is also growing, so countries that are slightly related to the legend of Santa Claus are scrambling to add nationality to this character who has long been just a symbol. Participating in the debate are Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, and of course the United States. Indiana once insisted that the hometown of Santa Claus is in a small town in the southern part of the state. Danish Prime Minister Schluter also vowed in 1992 that "it has become an indisputable fact that Santa Claus lives in Greenland." The Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany also have their own basis and depict the image of Santa Claus in their hearts according to their "versions."

For example, the Dutch depict Santa Claus as a round and fat old Dutch man, the Swedish depict Santa Claus as a naughty short old forest ranger, and so on. It is said that the Dutch are based on the comedy "History of New York" by American writer Washington Irving. The Santa Claus portrayed in the play is a chubby old Dutch man. The origin of the old forest ranger in Sweden is unknown. The debate stopped until Christmas Eve 1995, when then-UN Secretary-General Gary sent a holiday card to Santa Claus to Rovaniemi, Finland. Because Galli's greeting card played a final role - the United Nations recognized the hometown of Santa Claus is Rovaniemi, Finland. Since then, Rovaniemi, the capital of the Lapland province in northern Finland, has become the most popular city in Northern Europe. Its prosperity is not only reflected in the number of passengers, but more importantly, it has since become the most desirable place for children all over the world. Santa Claus is not far away from us. According to legend, Rovaniemi is not the first hometown of Santa Claus. Santa Claus' first hometown is an ear-shaped mountain in the North Pole, which is the northernmost tip of Lapland, Finland. In 1920, Marcus Rodeo, a popular Finnish broadcaster, announced to Finnish children that Santa Claus lived in Ershan, so he could hear children's wishes. The children were so convinced of this that they sent letters to Santa Claus in Ershan telling them their wishes. But Ershan is too far away, with inconvenient transportation and sparsely populated areas. Letters written by children often reach the lumberjacks in the north and cannot be passed on. By 1950, a lumberjack suddenly had the idea of ??answering letters to children on behalf of Santa Claus. His behavior aroused the interest of other workers, and they followed suit. When the children received the reply, they really thought it was a reply from Santa Claus. So more and more people are writing letters to Santa Claus. This phenomenon finally attracted the attention of the Finnish Tourism Bureau, and in 1970 it began to organize dedicated personnel to provide Christmas mail services. In order to facilitate mail delivery, the Finnish authorities built the Santa Claus Post Office on the Arctic Circle two kilometers north of Rovaniemi in 1985, and built the Santa Claus Village here. Since then Rovaniemi has become Santa Claus’ second hometown. Currently, there are three Santa Claus Post Offices in the world. In addition to Finland, there are also Greenland, Denmark, and "Santa Claus Town" in Indiana, USA. But their scale and popularity are far less than that of Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi receives more than 600,000 tourists every year. Santa Claus Post Office also receives mail from all corners of the world every year. There are hundreds of thousands of letters, and Santa here chooses more than 200,000 to reply to every year. At the same time, visitors here can also send Christmas cards to relatives and friends in their hometown from the Santa Claus Post Office. The precious thing is that the envelopes or cards sent from here are stamped with the special postmark of the Santa Claus Post Office. Rovaniemi Santa Claus Village also has many amusement projects. In addition to taking photos with Santa Claus, listening to Santa Claus telling stories, and sending letters at Santa Claus Post Office, there are also two amusement parks, Christmas Park and Reindeer Park, which you can watch here. "Christmas Play", ride a reindeer sleigh and experience what it's like to be Santa Claus. It is no longer difficult for Chinese children to touch Santa Claus’s beard and express their best wishes to him personally. Beijing Capital Airport has Finnair flights between Beijing and Helsinki every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The departure time from Beijing is 12:10 noon Beijing time, and it takes 8 hours to arrive in Helsinki (if there is any change, please consult the Civil Aviation Administration of China or China National Travel Service). It takes a 55-minute flight from Helsinki to Rovaniemi, the hometown of Santa Claus, and then a 20-minute electric sled ride to Santa’s home. If you don’t have the chance to visit Santa Claus in Finland for the time being, don’t be depressed. You can send Santa a letter to express your feelings to him. The address of Santa Claus is: SantaClausPostOffice/SF96930Rovaniemi/Finland Santa Claus in real life Perhaps the beauty of human life sometimes lies in making up legends and lies, just as the happiness of childhood lies in living in fairy tales. While adults use fairy tales to comfort their children, they themselves often enjoy themselves in illusions that are both true and false. But what adults know best is that although the image of Santa Claus is alive, it is only a fictional image after all. In order for children to see it, someone needs to play the role of Santa Claus. As a result, the "real" Santa Claus really appeared, and there was more than one. During the Christmas season, Santa Claus can be seen everywhere in Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. At first, social groups such as the Children's Fund hired people to act as Santa Claus and distribute Christmas gifts. Later, smart businesses saw business opportunities and joined the ranks of Santa Claus to distribute Christmas gifts. Christmas gifts to achieve their promotional purposes. Such Santa Clauses are now not difficult to see in shopping malls in major cities in China. Although Santa Claus in real life is a secular character, in the hearts of children, the image of Santa Claus is still sacred, warm, respectable and lovely. They firmly believed that the Santa Claus they saw was the legendary, lovely, jolly old elf who delivered gifts to them.

Although "Santa Claus" is just a legendary figure that cannot be verified, and although the gifts in children's stockings are the fruits of their parents' labor and not gifts from Santa Claus, beautiful fairy tales always bring people infinite joy and hope. .

Kind-hearted people would rather believe that all this is indeed true as a legend. No one is willing to use reason to expose this beautiful lie