Overview
- Valentina Correa Heredia, 26, left Spain to work seasonally in Rovaniemi as an 'elf' who greets families at the airport, entertains them on transfers and escorts them to husky, reindeer and Santa visits.
- She describes Arctic winters with daytime temperatures from about −14°C down to −30/−35°C and only a few hours of daylight, which forces operators to schedule activities that sometimes run in darkness and upset paying guests.
- Pay for animation work is only slightly higher than similar roles in Spain but includes key in-kind benefits such as roughly six weeks of provided accommodation and low-cost access to skiing and animal experiences.
- Valentina says staff live together in shared housing, use apps and late-night outings to chase the aurora borealis, and rely on playful scripts to preserve Santa’s magic for children who question whether he is real.
- Her story highlights wider realities of Rovaniemi’s winter industry: more than half a million visitors a year, steady demand for short-term international workers, and cultural contrasts such as the local use of reindeer meat rooted in regional Sami traditions.