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PHOTO © GETTY IMAGES | CALENDAR EDITED BY OWAIN THOMAS<br />
THE BUZZ<br />
BOOK AHEAD: 19–21 JULY, 2010<br />
World Santa Claus Congress<br />
COPENHAGEN<br />
The Danish capital<br />
marks the festive<br />
season this month<br />
with a Christmas<br />
market and lashings<br />
of aebleskiver,<br />
(pancakes dusted<br />
with icing sugar).<br />
But in Copenhagen,<br />
Christmas comes<br />
twice a year, once in<br />
December, and again<br />
in July when the World<br />
Santa Claus Congress<br />
rolls into town. It’s<br />
at this mid-summer<br />
Christmas that the<br />
fi ner details of next<br />
year’s festivities will<br />
be hammered out by<br />
men in red suits with<br />
bushy white beards.<br />
The centuries-old<br />
Bakken amusement<br />
park hosts the threeday<br />
event, which<br />
attracts over 200<br />
professional Santas,<br />
elves and elf mothers<br />
from as far afi eld as<br />
Japan and Venezuela.<br />
The congress is<br />
part talking shop,<br />
part team-bonding<br />
exercise and is<br />
generally a goodhumoured<br />
affair with<br />
time for games and<br />
idea swapping. But<br />
like any convention,<br />
it has a strict agenda.<br />
Last summer’s event<br />
included a heated<br />
debate on how false<br />
beards were spoiling<br />
Santa’s good name.<br />
To the casual<br />
visitor, it’s a chance<br />
to dance around the<br />
Christmas tree in<br />
CALENDAR<br />
TRAVEL NEWS<br />
TASTEBUDS<br />
OUT OF TOWN<br />
MADE FOR...<br />
blazing sunshine, but<br />
why exactly does this<br />
off-season celebration<br />
exist? The founders<br />
of the congress felt<br />
Christmas was too<br />
good to celebrate<br />
just once a year. And<br />
what better month<br />
to choose than July?<br />
– the Danish word for<br />
Christmas is Jul.<br />
worldsantaclaus<br />
congress.com<br />
David Atkinson<br />
DECEMBER 09 | TRAVELLER | 13
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