Kathrine Frich
Santa Claus and Vladimir Putin are not figures usually mentioned in the same breath.
One belongs to childhood fantasy, the other to hard geopolitical reality.
Yet Europe’s shifting security landscape has brought these two worlds uncomfortably close.
In northern Finland, the home of Christmas magic is now also a place where soldiers train for war.
Christmas and conflict
Rovaniemi, widely promoted as the official home of Santa Claus, is bracing for a winter unlike any other.
Alongside hundreds of thousands of festive tourists, the city has recently hosted waves of NATO troops.
Thousands of soldiers have passed through the Lapland capital to take part in large-scale military exercises at Rovajärvi, Northern Europe’s biggest training and live-fire range, around 90 kilometres from Russia’s border.
The city also hosts an air base and is expected to become a core hub for NATO’s future Forward Consolidated Battle Group in Finland, which will sit alongside similar units already deployed across eastern Europe.
Tourists caught off guard
The growing military presence has surprised visitors who arrived expecting only reindeer, snow and fairy lights.
Donna Coyle, visiting from Scotland with her daughter, said the sound of military aircraft interrupted a reindeer safari.
“We didn’t know anything about it,” she told The Guardian.
Hannah Schlicker, a tourist from Stuttgart, said the contrast was impossible to ignore.
“This morning, I went on a reindeer tour and saw military planes flying overhead,” she said. “I felt the presence of this reality. You can’t hide from it.”
A bunker beneath Santa
Even Santa Park, marketed as “Santa’s cave house”, has a dual purpose. Built underground, it also serves as an air raid shelter for local residents.
“It’s really scary to think about it, how close we actually are to Russia. But at the same time, Santa Park is a bunker… maybe it helps a little,” Hannah added.
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, much of it running through Lapland, making the region a potential flashpoint in any future escalation.
Preparing for the worst
Finnish defence officials have warned that once the war in Ukraine ends, Russia may redeploy additional forces toward the Finnish border, strengthening its infrastructure and troop presence.
These concerns were reflected last week as nearly 1,000 troops from Sweden, Finland and the UK took part in the “Lapland Steel 25” exercise near Rovajärvi, while earlier drills involved more than 2,000 Finnish and Polish soldiers.
“We are preparing for the worst,” said Alva Stormark, a 19-year-old Swedish tank crew member. “Because we know there is a war in Europe and we are close to the Russians.”
Although organisers said the drills were not based on a specific scenario, maps used during training showed attention focused firmly to the northeast, a direction few needed explained.
Sources: Digi24, The Guardian
