Christmas in Lapland: What Is Actually Open on 24, 25 and 26 December
Santa Claus Office is open on Christmas Day. Published 2026/27 opening hours for the Christmas period in Rovaniemi, and what Finnish Christmas actually looks like.
By Aino Korhonen, Lapland tour specialist and Arctic experience guide
The question that decides a lot of Christmas bookings, and that almost nobody answers plainly: is anything open on Christmas Day? In Rovaniemi, yes. Santa Claus Office runs 25 December like any other day of the season, which is not what most British visitors assume.
Is Santa Claus Office open on Christmas Day?
Yes. The published 2026/27 schedule has Santa Claus Office at the Arctic Circle open daily from 8am to 8pm, from 30 November 2026 through to 3 January 2027, and that includes 25 December.
That comes from the office's own published schedule, and the village's information service confirms entry and the Santa meeting are free year-round. It is worth stating twice, because a lot of people book around a Christmas Day they assume will be dead. It is not. Meeting Santa on Christmas Day itself is possible, and it is free, as it is every other day of the year.
| Date | Santa Claus Office | Christmas House |
|---|---|---|
| 23 December 2026 | 8:00 to 20:00 | 8:00 to 22:00 |
| 24 December 2026 | 8:00 to 20:00 | 8:00 to 22:00 |
| 25 December 2026 | 8:00 to 20:00 | 8:00 to 22:00 |
| 26 December 2026 | 8:00 to 20:00 | 8:00 to 22:00 |
| Through 3 January 2027 | 8:00 to 20:00 | Seasonal hours |
One thing does shorten: Santa's Pets at the village runs 11:00 to 15:00 on 24 December, against its usual 11:00 to 18:00. If reindeer or huskies at the village are on your list for Christmas Eve specifically, go in the morning.
Why is Christmas Eve the odd one out?
Because in Finland, 24 December is the day. Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, is when Finnish families eat, exchange presents and go to the sauna. That is why some village businesses trim their hours on the 24th and run normally on the 25th.
It is the inverse of the British rhythm and it catches visitors out in both directions. A family expecting everything to shut on the 25th finds the village running full hours. A family expecting a normal shopping evening on the 24th finds Finnish life winding down early.
Plan the 24th as the quieter, more atmospheric day and the 25th as a working day for the attractions. That is the opposite of the instinct you brought with you, and it is the right way round here.
How busy is it, really?
Rovaniemi took 158,000 foreign overnight stays in December 2025, up 8 per cent year on year, and the wider Lapland region took 609,200, which was 62 per cent of Finland's total foreign overnights for the month.
Those figures explain the queues. Nearly two thirds of everyone visiting Finland from abroad in December is in Lapland, and a large share of them pass through one free attraction eight kilometres outside one city.
| Measure | December 2025 |
|---|---|
| Rovaniemi foreign overnight stays | 158,000, up 8% |
| Lapland foreign overnight stays | 609,200 |
| Lapland's share of Finland's foreign nights | 62% |
| Santa Claus Village annual visitors | Over 600,000 |
| Entry to the village | Free |
| Meeting Santa | Free |
The practical response is timing rather than avoidance. Go to the village early in the day, and consider early December rather than the week of Christmas itself: you get essentially the same atmosphere at a fraction of the intensity, which our piece on the village's visitor load goes into.
Christmas week against the rest of the season
| Christmas fortnight | Early December | March | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christmas atmosphere | The whole point | Nearly all of it | None |
| Santa Claus Office | Open, including 25 Dec | Open | Open |
| Queues to meet Santa | Longest of the year | Moderate | Short |
| Snow depth | Reliable, still building | Reliable | Deepest of the year |
| Hotel rates | Peak of the year | Rising | Nearer the average |
| Aurora season | Running | Running | Running |
| Daylight | A few hours | A few hours | Long |
Early December is the column most families should be looking at. It keeps the thing you came for and drops the two things you did not want, which are the queues and the peak rates.
What does a Finnish Christmas involve?
Sauna, a long meal, and quiet. Finnish Christmas is a home festival centred on Christmas Eve, and the Christmas sauna is a genuine tradition rather than a tourist add-on.
Santa himself is joulupukki, literally the Christmas goat, a name left over from an older midwinter tradition that has nothing to do with a red suit. Finns are relaxed about the collision between that history and the version at the village, and so should you be: one is a living domestic holiday, the other is an attraction built around it, and both are real.
If you are staying somewhere with a sauna over Christmas, use it on the 24th. It is the most Finnish thing available to you and it costs nothing.
Should you book Christmas week at all?
If the point is Christmas atmosphere with children, yes, and accept the prices. If the point is snow, aurora or activities, almost every other week of the season is better value.
Christmas week is the most expensive fortnight of the Lapland year, and it does not have the deepest snow: that arrives around mid-March. Snow in northern Finland is deepest around mid-March per the Finnish Meteorological Institute. What Christmas week has is the atmosphere, and for a family taking children to meet Santa that atmosphere is the entire product.
The compromise most people land on is early December: full Christmas feel, markedly lower prices, shorter queues, and the same free village. Our month-by-month guide and the family guide work through which fits your trip.