Finnish Lapland, Finland Travel News

The southern province of Uusimaa had the questionable honour of grabbing the most "deadly sinner" accolades.

His handshake is firm, his gaze drills into your eyes. There is something military-like and yet slightly mischievous about Master Chef Sauli Kemppainen .

The story of Santa Claus waiting until children fall asleep to travel down through their chimney with presents on Christmas Eve first entered American culture in the 19th century.

Helsinki - Santa Claus on Tuesday promised children that he would travel around the world to bring them Christmas presents despite the global swine flu pandemic.

ROYLE Family star Ricky Tomlinson aims to make the record books as the oldest festive UK chart-topper. A THIRD of girls aged nine to 15 are more concerned with how they look than doing well at school.

Rovaniemi , in northern Finland, is a town like no other. For a start, it has fewer people than reindeer.

If you were asked to rapidly associate geographies with colour youa TMd probably say the Sahara is brown, the Amazon rainforest is green, the Andamans are blue and the Arctic Circle is a ' white.

Christmas is coming and I want to see Santa To meet the genial man in red, complete with the full works of reindeer, jingling sleigh, enticing parcels and much snow, head to northern Scandinavia.

A modest fall of snow covered the southern part of Finland on Wednesday night, bringing a wintry look to the early November landscape.

The popular phenomenon of "night weddings" without prior booking launched at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St.

North American kids are told lies about Santa Claus. For example, they are told he lives at the North Pole with his elves and reindeer.

Go on, have a hit! A bottle of Thai whisky is circulating in the bus, there is a sing-song in progress, and bottles of beer flow over.

In the depths of winter, daylight on or above the Arctic Circle is a precious commodity to be savoured in all its muted glory.

The Finnish government aims to ratify the International Labour Organisation Convention 169 on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as quickly as possible.

Tete-A-tete Read on to know what musical outings and confluences mean to vocalist Bombay Jayashri as she talks to Chitra Swaminathan Opening up new vistas: Raga and rasa with Western orchestra.

Q. We'd love to take our five- and seven-year-old to see Santa in Lapland, but the holiday companies want well over 1,000 for the four of us even for a quick day trip to Finland.

It can be surreal having dinner in a structure where everything is made of ice. Don't forget to take your warm clothing though From around mid-November, it operates till summer when the snow starts melting.

Yes, 'tis the season to be jolly - particularly so in Scandinavia and Finland, where you'll find a host of Christmas markets, a liberal smattering of Santa Clauses, happy herds of reindeer and a great deal more.

The continental market returns to Jameson Street and King Edward Street in the city centre this weekend.

Why travel to a frozen landscape, rather than bask in a tropical paradise? Why travel to a frozen landscape, rather than bask in a tropical paradise? For the uplifting feeling of being at the northernmost extremity of the globe, of having reached somewhere otherworldly.