Finland stakes claim to Santa with new partnership

(Visit Finland)

Finland's tourism board has partnered with one of the country's most famous television acts to promote the country as the home of Santa this year, as the lucrative Lapland travel season gets underway.

Visit Finland released a video this week of wellknown stunt and prank group the Dudesons visiting Santa, hoping that it will become a viral hit.

In the video, one member of the group sets fire to another's beard, before the "real" Santa makes an impassioned plea for the world to "slow down, take care of each other and do good things" at Christmas.

Visit Finland is giving away a trip to meet Santa in the Arctic Circle to one visitor who sends in a "true spirit of Christmas" wish at the organisation's website, visitfinland.com.

The Dudesons is the most widespread Finnish TV series of all time, featured on Channel V in Australia and US station Spike TV and earning the group a role in the hit movie Jackass 3D.

But they're not the only media allies Finland has up its sleeve - the country is also relying on the magic of the silver screen to help it wrestle ownership of Santa Claus from other contenders such as Sweden and Greenland.

The writers of Rare Exports, a new thriller based on the hunt for Santa Claus, set the movie at Korvatunturi Mountain, on the border of Finland and Russia.

Scheduled to hit screens worldwide this December 3, the movie tells the story of the discovery and capture of Santa, promising, "This Christmas, everyone will believe in Santa Claus."

Watch the Rare Exports trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RQlikX4vvw

Watch the Dudesons with Santa: http://santa.visitfinland.com/

http://www.visitfinland.com