Finland – MarianneSchwabLive

Searching for Santa at the Arctic Circle was a wonderful experience. So let’s climb into the wayback machine. When I was a Segment Producer for ABC-TV’s Home Show in the early nineties, I was given an assignment to produce a video shoot with Peter Greenberg in Finland for one of our holiday programs.

Marianne Schwab, Producer, gears up for ABC-TV “Search For Santa” Video Shoot with Peter Greenberg, Travel Editor, at Arctic Circle in Finland

The theme for the segment was a “Search for Santa” and Peter would take all sorts of transport to find him at the Arctic Circle starting with a snowmobile, hiring a dog sled (from “Honest Peski’s Used Dog Sleds”) and then, finally, a reindeer sleigh, naturally.

We made up some fun signs that we placed strategically throughout Peter Greenberg’s search for Santa in Finland. The “Honest Peski’s” sign is one of them but we had others that read, “Caution: Low Flying Reindeer” and “Santa went that-a-way.”

All of these photos were taken with my old 35mm Ricoh camera and I scanned them so have tried to correct as many photo flaws as possible.

We were also still using 3/4″ broadcast videotape “back then” — feels like the Stone Ages now with all the digital advancements so I hope you enjoy this short photo essay of one of the coldest video shoots of my career.

Beautiful dogs from the dog sled team pose for a photo.

Peter Greenberg on stand by for “action” with the dog sled team.

One of the awesome locations for our journey was Santa’s reindeer farm at the Arctic Circle. Shhhh. I can’t tell you exactly where it is because it’s sort of a “secret.” (BTW – The large white spots on the photo are actual snow flakes falling.)

Arriving at Santa’s Reindeer Farm at the Arctic Circle in Finland.

Santa greeting us at the secret location of his reindeer farm.

When we arrived, Santa was loading up a smaller sleigh for getting around “Santa Town” with a local Laplander to assist (I guess the elves were too busy making toys in the workshop.)

Producer Marianne Schwab meets Santa Claus at his reindeer farm at the Arctic Circle in Finland (aka The North Pole).

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this cold (and vintage) journey to Finland and the Arctic Circle. Now, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Now, I have a special invitation for you to join me and my community of positive minded people in my Facebook Group to Grow Your Business with Video. I can’t wait to connect with you there!

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