Santa in Finland, where marketing wins over geography

The base of the one and only true Santa is drawing tourists from far and wide

Here in Santa Claus Village, near the Arctic Circle, is the self-anointed “official Santa,” a Finn who refused to give his real name, insisting he was actually Mr Claus.

A couple of hundred yards away in a competing venue is Second Santa, whose real name is Kari Eskeli, 65, also a Finn. As soon as Christmas is over, he goes back home to the warmth of the Spanish Canary Islands. “I can’t wait,” he chuckled at the end of a long recent day of receiving supplicants. “Ho ho ho.”

And then there’s Evil Santa, as he calls himself, an outspoken raconteur holding