Hey! I can’t begin to describe how amazing all your posts are. I have a question about Finland’s association with Santa. I know it’s because Santa is said to reside in Finland but what’s Finland’s role? Is he Santa’s helper? Is it the result of being able to travel around the world and transcend the countries’ borders more easily just on account of being a nation? We often see Finland as Santa but we aren’t given much of an explanation as to why or how it works so I’d love to hear your thoughts.

All right, so there’s
a few things to unpack here.

My understanding of it
is that America’s artificial creation of Santa by Coca-Cola actually created a real-life
need for a Santa personification.

Since the legend formulated
in America made out Santa to live in the North Pole, that’s why Finland assumed
responsibility for ensuring the delivery of presents on Christmas. He’s noted
to “answer America’s expectations.”  

It’s also important to
note that before capitalism globalized the American version of Santa, each
nation experienced their Christmas differently:

Further, Santa in the
strips is used more as a metonymy. There’s multiple Santas – The term Santa is
used to refer to the whole collective of Santas, which just so happens to
include Finland. So in a way, yes, I would consider him as Santa’s helper
despite being one himself.

“Well, Santas born in Finland are used to the cold. We can even walk around with short sleeves in the Canadian winter!”

Ex: Finland frets
during Christmas 09’ when he loses three Santas.

What’s even more odd
is that the economic recessions in the American economy (the sub-prime mortgage
crisis of 2008 in this case) caused the Santas to undergo job cuts.

As for the travelling,
that’s a bit more open-ended.

Given that we see the Axis using a magic flying
sleigh without any problems, I would guess that their ability to fly across
borders is made to be even easier than their typical travelling abilities. I say this
only because Finland in the 2010 Christmas event isn’t able to transport to nations
far away from Europe (i.e Seychelles and Cuba).