ROVANIEMI, Finland: With just a week to go before Christmas day, Santa Claus told Reuters in his hometown of Rovaniemi that his wish was for people everywhere to live together in peace after a "turbulent" year.
Sitting in his grotto on the Arctic Circle and reading letters from all over the world, Santa said everyone should focus on keeping children safe and happy in the new year.
"My biggest wish is that people from all over the world could live together in peace. It's time to say to everybody very Merry Christmas and happy and a better New Year," he said.
Santa's village, which was bustling with people, never ceases to amaze the visitors including Ayush, from Mumbai, in India, who said he felt blessed with good luck.
"It was just amazing. I've never experienced Christmas like this anywhere and this is just like I read and saw in the movies and it exceeded all my expectations.
One younger visitor from Ireland, Mark Walsh, wanted to keep his Christmas wish a secret but eventually gave it up : "I asked for a basketball hoop."
And in the post office, dozens of Santa's elves are busy sorting the hundreds of thousands of letters they receive with children's requests for Christmas day gifts, on December 25. Each letter Santa sends back gets a special Christmas stamp.
"Santa gets around half million letters and this year the biggest amount have come from Taiwan and Hong Kong, Poland, Italy and of course Finland and some European countries like Germany, France, Italy and Spain," 'postal elf' Riita said. — Reuters
