Visit Santa in the most magical settings, away from the madding crowd!

At Emagine this week we have launched our Santa Holidays to Finnish Lapland and Northern Finland. You can choose from 4,5 and 6 day holidays the most magical settings: isolated fell top hotels, cabins set deep in snow covered forests or picturesque resorts.

As you know this is where Santa Claus lives and he is often seen out and about training his reindeers. You will get to meet him twice. Once, as a family, as he rests in a cabin and again at a Christmas party.

You will take part in a host of exhilarating activities such as husky safaris, snowmobiling, tobogganing, reindeer rides, ice fishing, snow hockey…………….and lots more.

For a full list of dates and itineraries click here.

Choose from in a number of stunning resorts. Click on the hotel name for a full description.

Syöte enjoys its first winter snowfall.

The pretty area of Syöte in Northern Finland and home to Hotel Iso- Syöte and Syöte Keskus reported its first snow fall today.

The hotels sit atop Finland’s southern most fells in perfect isolation. The nearest town, Pudasjarvi is over 30km away.

This is early days so the snow will probably melt as the day warms up but it indicates that winter is on its way and the beautiful and colourful autumn this region experiences is at an end.

During winter the region attracts, skiers and those looking for adventure on snowmobile and husky safaris.

Over 700km south in Finland’s capitol, Helsinki, they had several hours of sleet.

To visit Syote this December click here.

Saariselkä in Northern Finnish Lapland received its first snow overnight!

The Elk are winning!

There are estimated to be 100,000 elk in Finland and during winter young pine trees are their main source of food. The elk love to eat the new growth at the crown of the sapling. The good news is this doesn’t kill the tree but does cause it to grow crooked therefore making it considerably less valuable as sawn timber.

Some of the foresters spray their saplings with an array of natural and chemical deterrents but few seem to be effective. The alternative is culling. The government grant hunting licences each year but only for a fraction of the 50,000 winter population that the Finnish Forest Research Institute (METLA) estimate would have to be culled to give the forests a better chance of being productive.

For the full story in Helsinki Sanomat click here.

according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Finland, Denmark and New Zealand share the top score of 9.4 in the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index. The index looks at perceptions of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. It scores countries on a scale from zero to ten, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and ten indicating low levels of perceived corruption.

Below are the top 20 countries, for the full list go to http://www.transparency.org/

country	country	2007 CPI	surveys	confidence range
rank		score	used
1	Denmark	9.4	6	9.2 - 9.6
1	Finland	9.4	6	9.2 - 9.6
1	New Zealand	9.4	6	9.2 - 9.6
4	Singapore	9.3	9	9.0 - 9.5
4	Sweden	9.3	6	9.1 - 9.4
6	Iceland	9.2	6	8.3 - 9.6
7	Netherlands	9	6	8.8 - 9.2
7	Switzerland	9	6	8.8 - 9.2
9	Canada	8.7	6	8.3 - 9.1
9	Norway	8.7	6	8.0 - 9.2
11	Australia	8.6	8	8.1 - 9.0
12	Luxembourg	8.4	5	7.7 - 8.7
12	United Kingdom	8.4	6	7.9 - 8.9
14	Hong Kong	8.3	8	7.6 - 8.8
15	Austria	8.1	6	7.5 - 8.7
16	Germany	7.8	6	7.3 - 8.4
17	Ireland	7.5	6	7.3 - 7.7
17	Japan	7.5	8	7.1 - 8.0
19	France	7.3	6	6.9 - 7.8
20	USA	7.2	8	6.5 - 7.6

* CPI Score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts, and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

** Confidence range provides a range of possible values of the CPI score. This reflects how a country's score may vary, depending on measurement precision. Nominally, with 5 percent probability the score is above this range and with another 5 percent it is below. However, particularly when only few sources are available, an unbiased estimate of the mean coverage probability is lower than the nominal value of 90%.

*** Surveys used refers to the number of surveys that assessed a country's performance. 14 surveys and expert assessments were used and at least 3 were required for a country to be included in the CPI.

if the Late Finnish President had been successful!

The late Finnish President Urho Kekkonen had offered half of Lapland to the Soviet Union in 1968. The offer was made to former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in exchange for Karelia.

An recent article by Juha Pohjonen in Kaleva reveals that Kekkonen had proposed offering the area north of the 67th parallel. The region would have included several municipalities including Enontekiö, Inari and Utsjok would have been swapped for Karelia.

"The deal did not take place, but it was meant to spark interest in the matter among top leadership in the Soviet Union," said Pohjonen.

In return, Finland could have asked for the city of Vyborg back, the region west of the city, and the Saimaa canal.

The deal however did not move forward. Pohjonen said that the Soviet Union was not interested in the trade.

"If the USSR would have accepted the proposal, I would assume that Kekkonen would have been ousted from power," Pohjonen said.

Results of the eight month feasibility study have been presented.

The Fédération Internationale de Ski ("FIS"), have reported on plans to create an indoor ski jumping facility in Ylitornio in Finnish Lapland.

The area is trying to develop plans to become the first venue to stage indoor Ski Jumping competitions. The municipality, close to the Swedish broder in western Finnish Lapland, presented the results of an eight-month long feasibility study to the representatives of the Finnish Ski Association on Tuesday.

The innovative plan calls for building three hills side-by-side, a Ski Flying hill (K 185) enabling jumps of up to 250 meters, a large hill (K 120) with jumps of approx. 140 m, and a normal hill (K 90).