Everyone knows Santa lives “at the North Pole”. The thing is, the north pole is a pretty large place, encompassing several countries and 3 continents.

This ambiguity about Santa’s address has led to a rather intense rivalry between countries with territory past the arctic circle line when it comes to where exactly Santa lives.

Norway says he lives in Drøbak, Norway.

Denmark says he lives in Greenland, near Uummannaq.

Sweden says he lives in Tomteboda, Sweden.

Finland says he lives in Korvatunturi, Finland.

The US says he lives in North Pole, Alaska.

Russia says he's Russian (presumably from somewhere in Siberia?).

Canada says he’s up somewhere in the territories.

So what is the truth?

Personally, we think Canada has the best claim, and here’s why:

1. The first time someone figured out Santa lives in the North Pole (Thomas Nast, 1879), they specifically meant that Santa lives at the Magnetic North Pole. 

Now, geeks astute readers will point out that the magnetic pole is currently nearly 1,000 km offshore from any land. But that wasn’t the case in 1879. At that time, magnetic north was located in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

That means that Santa’s workshop would likely be somewhere in what is now Nunavut (the archipelago does stretch out into the Territories, but as Nunavut has a significantly bigger chunk of it, it’s the likelier candidate).

2. Santa has a Canadian postal code.

It’s H0H 0H0 and any kid in the world can send a letter to this postal code and get a letter back.

Coincidence? We think not.

3. Unless Santa’s workshop is under some Hogwarts-type magic, it’s kind of hard to keep it secret when the towns named above have rather small populations.

Everybody knows everything about everyone when you live in a small town. There’s no way you could keep Santa’s workshop a secret in a place with only some 13,000 people (sorry, Drøbak).

4. Do you really think Santa would give out his exact location? Really?

This is why after Canada, we’d say Russia has the next best claim.

 

 

 

By Alice Flecha (Volunteer Blogger)