That is something not even Father Christmas can remember exactly. Once when he was sitting in his favourite rocking chair in front of the fireplace at his home in Korvatunturi, he began to count how many Christmases he could remember. But when he got some place around 364, he fell asleep. 

That is something no one knows exactly. Elves are such fast little beings, and they are rarely ever all in the same place at the same time. But when the sun sets in Korvatunturi, they. are probably as many little elf toes under the blankets as there are stars in the sky, if not more.

3.

Of course! All the people in the whole world are his family. Adults and children are equally precious to him.

Father Christmas believes that everyone should be everyone else´s child , and that being a child is the most important thing in the world. 

New Christmas elves and other kinds of elves are born frequently. When the last rays of the evening sun meet with the Northern Lights, the wind is from the North and the stars are shining, that is when elves are born.

Of course. And it is possible to stay an elf. Taking care of smaller and weaker ones is elf work. Making someone happy who doesn't have anything to be happy about, or giving toys or clothes to children that need them - that is the best way to be an elf.

Yes. He doesn't have quite as many as there are stars in the sky or snowflakes in a winter snowcloud, but he does have more reindeer than all the mountain creeks in the fall put together. Reindeer herders are his good friends, and the reindeer are taken care of cooperatively.

He gets around a lot of ways. Of course, he has a sleigh drawn by team of reindeer, but he also has a team of dogs, a car, an airplane, a snowmobile, and a helicopter. Father Christmas uses whatever means of transportation is best suited to the weather conditions and the purpose of his travelling.

Father Christmas never hunts. Sometimes he goes ice-fishing, but he never catches anything.

It has to be the rice porridge I make. It has a special, secret recipe that I can´t tell you. The secret ingredient is the "Where-did-I-put-it" spice.

Yes indeed. It is his very own. It would he too expensive to rent one all the time. His curly-toed hoots are his own, too. And so is his red shirt and vest and linen shirts and colourful woolen sweaters. Everything Father Christmas wears is his own. Once the elves tried to borrow his shirt, but it took four elves just to get the shirt moving.

Not all of them. Some are made at home, and they are especially precious. You have surely heard of homemade jelly or mustard or handknit wool socks. In some places there are little workshops that also help Father Christmas by making gifts.

Not always. In the morning, of course, we have breakfast porridge and at lunchtime we have lunch porridge and dessert porridge and in the evening we have evening porridge. But we don't always have it. For instance, at night we don't eat porridge, except for the night-owl elf and the reindeer herder elf. For them there has to be a kettle on the stove all night in case they get hungry. They only eat a cupful at a time, and they put touch of butter on top of it.

There are more animals at Korvatunturi than there are cloudberry leaves in the nearest marsh. It depends, of course, what animals you count and at what time of the year. If you count mosquitoes in the summer then there are really, really lots of animals.

Of course you can get there, if you know how. But it's a difficult route and a long journey. And it's difficult to give directions. Everyone gives different directions. But you have to turn left after the little spruce tree, or if you 're coming from the West along the narrow path, then you should turn right, that is, if you have passed Spruce Pond already. The easiest way to get there is to ask the people from the Land of Korvatunturi to take you there. Then you won't get lost.

Father Christmas, I and the elves need peace and quiet. We would never get the presents made if there was always company coming. And besides, all the Christmas secrets would be exposed.

Father Christmas takes advantage of the differences between time zones. When children in Finland are awake, the children in Japan are sleeping and vice-versa.
There is also some magic involved. Sometimes Father Christmas may leave the presents for elves to deliver. The most important thing is that the gifts get there on time.

If that happened, his gift delivery route would get cut short. Father Christmas has a big book entitled, "Chimneys of the World", and in that book you can information on the construction of all the world's chimneys. It is important to know how to get into them, and that is Father Christmas' specialty.

Yes, he does.

Father Christmas is always good. Sometimes he has to be strict, but he is always fair.

Father Christmas is certain that all children are good down deep. If a child is hungry or tired, it is only natural that crabbiness can sneak in unaware. Voicing disappointment or bad feelings has nothing to do with being good.

Sometimes Father Christmas is a little angry, sad and upset. Sometimes he is really upset if he hears about places in the world where they don't care for the well-being of children.

Father Christmas relaxes by walking in the forest and listening to the voices of the wilderness. He also spends time preparing the next Christmas delivery by reading children´s letters. His favourite pastime is reading books.

Every culture has its own customs that should be respected, and Father Christmas does just that.

Oh, yes. Often when he walks outdoors you can hear him singing them. Every now and then he composes new ones, too.

Indeed he does, and he uses them regularly. Father Christmas swims in the summer, and in the winter he likes to jump in the lake through a whole in the ice, it has to be chopped plenty big enough. 

Oh, yes. He gets them often. The best gifts, in Father Christmas' opinion, are the happy smiles of children and the joyful looks in their eyes.

Elves help him listen, and on a quiet summer night even a whisper carries all the way to Korvatunturi easily.

The elves help him read the letters and make inventories, and that is a
complicated system in itself Father Christmas gets a lot of Christmas cards, too.

Maybe not every thought, but at least the thoughts that children want him to read definitely come through. There is a special level of understanding between children and Father Christmas.

This is how it works: the elf secretaries keep exact records of all children by country, by state or province, by city or town, by village or quarter, by house or apartment building, by bedroom or by bed. These records are used to plan the delivery route and the gift distribution. It's very exacting work, and 284 elves work in that department year round.

Shhh! We don't use that word here. Father Christmas is extremely lucky, because in his world money doesn't exist. The important thing is that Father Christmas catches the plane, and that it's the  plane going to Japan when that's where he intends to go. He usually takes a long nap on the flight.

Lots of languages. Especially on Chirstmas Eve.

Definitely. As I said before, reading is his favourite pastime. At the moment he has eleven books underway at the same time.

Life has been one long schooling for Father Christmas. One has to keep studying because the world changes constantly. He has gone to a lot of schools. Once Father Christmas even visited an elementary school.

Father Christmas still feels like a child to this day.

Really nice, according to Father Christmas. Nothing could be nicer.

It depends on whether he is walking deep in thought, or if he is examining little berry branches on the floor of the forest, or if he is looking at the horizon. Father Christmas is taller than the tallest elf but shorter than the old spruce trees in Lapland.

It was measured once and it was one and a ha if times the length of a young elf.

He likes his tall, curly-toed Laplander boots, because they fit the old-fashioned bindings on his skis.

He has reindeer herder elves. They respect reindeer as wild animals that have learned to live in cooperation with humans and elves. He has map-making elves and pathfinder elves. He has a wood elf who is so old and wise, he knows how to make the best out of each piece of wood, because he understands the spirit of the wood, and he looks like a knotty old pine himself. There are also professor elves who study different important things.

Oh, yes, almost always. They have names like: The Threshing Barn Elf of the Mäki Farm, The Sauna Elf of the Lahti House, and so on. Some of them have nicknames that refer to their profession, like "Inksplotch ", the Map-maker Elf, or "Compass", the Surveyor Elf. The nicknames may relate to a personal trait, such as "Old Wiseman ", "Sleepy", "Speedy", "Wiseguy", "Long Beard", "White Beard", and "Black Whiskers ".

Taking saunas, especially smoke-saunas, is something Father Christmas really likes. Also taking naps is an extremely important pastime for Father Christmas.

Yes. At least at one period of their lives.

Korvatunturi is Father Christmas' permanent residence and the place he loves the most, but all year long he stops in and stays at different places around the world. Many of Father Christmas' favourite places to visit are a secret known only to him and me. But he has grown fond of several places built and inhabited by humans. He only stays in places that make him feel content.

Father Christmas has visited in more places than there are Northern Lights in the sky. He has told me the names of some of them in descriptions of his travels, and I've accompanied him to some of the places.

We have always been together. Neither one of us can remember the time before we met. Our friendship started before the first arctic mountains were formed in the vast wildernesses of Lapland. And our friendship is warmer than the most blazing Split-log fire in the dark winter night.

All kinds of leisure-time activities. They play lots of different games. One of their most favourite things to do is to sit by the fireplace and talk about all the things in the world. They remember past trips and events and tell about interesting people and places that they have visited through the years.

Elves are good at sneaking around, and so it ´s usually hard to detect them. But, children are often able to see a branch move, or notice something looking in the window or peeking from behind the curtains. Then they know that it´s their own personal elf tiptoeing around. Sometimes elves move something to a different place, or leave some other sign to show that they have been around. They also have been known to pick up mail addressed to Father Christmas.

I think every country has a different name for him. Here in Finland he is called Joulupukki, and in America, Santa Claus. If remember correctly, in Germany they call him Weihnachtsmann, and in Holland nearby, Kerstman. He has all these names, and many more, because he is so well-loved.

Yes, indeed. In Finnish we call them Tonttu, in Swedish and Norwegian, Tomte or Nisse, in German, Heinzelmännchen, in Dutch, Kabouter, and in English some call them gnomes as well.