Author: Jeffrey Gettleman and Jim Huylebroek
Published on: 15/04/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
Some of His Neighbors Are Not Thrilled. You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. Santa’s Hometown A simple marketing idea, playing off a cherished childhood fantasy, has made a small city almost unlivable for many people who live there. Finland asked Alvar Aalto, the celebrated Finnish architect, to redesign Rovaniemi. At that moment, the government was promoting Finland over rival claims from Denmark, Norway, the United States and Greenland, as the real home of Santa Claus. In 1984, just after Christmas, a Soviet missile misfired. It speared into a frozen Finnish lake. In 2009, the city trademarked itself as the Official Hometown of Santa Claus. Upper Finland is an excellent place to spot the spooky green, sometimes even purple, of the aurora borealis smeared across the dark winter sky. The Christmas season grew, too. It now stretches from October to the end of March. In 2024, Rovaniemi had 1.5 million overnight stays, more than double the number 10 years ago. Tourism generates more than 400 million euros (more than $430 million) a year. Taina Torvela, a retired advertising executive, has been leading the charge against what she sees as Airbnb’s abuses in the city. Years ago, she did marketing for the Christmas Land project, which promoted Santa’s roots in Lapland, but now she says it has grown “too commercial” Rovaniemi has about as many beds through Airbnb and other rental sites as it does through its handful of big hotels. This tension between short-term renters and permanent residents is bubbling up all over the world, in hot spots like Venice, Bali and Machu Picchu. In the city, locals are attacking tourists with squirt guns. Rents had doubled in the past few years, and even students fortunate enough to find a place near campus were sometimes kicked out during the tourist season. Anita Lallo, a retired art teacher, lives on a remote lake in Santa’s village, Lapland. Maununiemi's family has herded reindeer for more than 200 years, and he still slaughters them for meat. He also traps foxes, which his wife turns into hats. A neighbor wants to build dozens of tourist cabins in the woods, he said. A brewing shift toward religious conservatism has emerged from the political vacuum in the country of 175 million people. A New Sydney Beach, 50 Miles Inland: It’s no Bondi Beach, but Pondi, or Penrith Beach, has been a welcome relief for Australians in the sweltering western suburbs. From Something to Fear to Badge of Honor: Once terrified of being on a list by the ousted Assad dictatorship, formerly wanted Syrians are now sharing that status proudly
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