Joulutarina is a finnish movie which tells a story about the birth of Santa Claus. Nikolas is a 7-year-old boy from a little village in Lappland who tragically loses his parents and little sister when they fall into ice. The people of the village are quite poor and none of them can take Nikolas with them, so they decide that he will change the family once a year. Nikolas is very good in whittling things of wood and because he always moves at Christmas time, he decides to whittle a little toy for the children of the families he has been in. After six years the villagers are getting poorer and poorer and Nikolas has to move outside of the village with a scary carpenter, Iisakki. After a while, Nikolas and Iisakki make friends and Iisakki lets Nikolas work in his workshop. Time goes by, but still every Christmas Nikolas brings presents for the children. When Iisakki passes, Nikolas gets his savings and starts to widen his function and becomes a full-time Santa. He buys red clothes and trains reindeer to lead his sleigh. Now Nikolas only shows up once a year, at Christmas Eve as Santa Claus. When Nikolas ages, he decides it’s time to stop. He disappears, but his legacy won’t die, because the men of the village decide to continue the tradition of delivering presents at Christmas.

The film is starred by Finnish top actors. There are three actors acting Nikolas as different ages; Nikolas as a child is performed by Jonas Rinne and Otto Gustavsson, and Nikolas as an adult is Hannu-Pekka Björkman. The other actors are Kari Väänänen as Iisakki, Mikko Kouki as Nikolas’s best friend Eemeli, Mikko Leppilampi as Eemelis father Hannus, Laura Birn as Eemeli’s daughter Aada and Antti Tuisku as Aadas husband Mikko.The scriptwriter of the film is Marko Leino (Vares, Matti) and it’s based on the novel by Aku Louhimies, Marko Leino and Juha Wuolijoki who is also the director of the movie.

The scenes have a big part in the movie, and that’s no wonder. The location of the film, Lappland is amazing. There are mountains, forests and enormously snow. That may be one reason why Joulutarina has got a Finnish Jussi award of the best shooting and as the public’s favourite.

This movie is a very touching story about Santa Claus and I would recommend it to everybody who loves Christmas and isn’t afraid of crying when watching a movie!