ROVANIEMI, Finland — Here in Santa Claus Village, near the Arctic Circle, is the self-anointed “official Santa,” a Finn who refused to give his real name, insisting he was actually Mr. Claus.

A couple of hundred yards away in a competing venue is Second Santa, whose real name is Kari Eskeli, 65, also a Finn. As soon as Christmas is over, he goes back home to the warmth of the Spanish Canary Islands. “I can’t wait,” he chuckled at the end of a long recent day of receiving supplicants. “Ho ho ho.”