How to visit Santa in Mora

What to expect

Tomteland in Mora, Sweden, is a Fairytale park with fairytale characters and their fairytale homes for the children to explore. The characters also give shows in the different areas of the park and are available for questions, chats and photos.

The park is pretty low key, there are no amusement rides or the like, and big enough to not feel small, but small enough to not have to waste time in ”transportation” around the area.

Who for?

Kids of all ages, but I think that the most joy will be found by 4-14 year olds. Super nice stop if you are visiting the region of Dalarna or travelling through on your way up north!

Shows

Try and make it to the main shows, especially the show at the Gnomes’ village by the entrance. This show will give you the theme outline of all the shows and events going on around the park as well as an introduction to many of the characters you will meet. We spent two days at the park and skipped the starting show on the first day, and while it was not necessary to see it to enjoy the park, the kids had a lot of fun with the information they got from the show on the second day! Recognizing characters to look out for, cheer for or try to trick while moving around the park created a lovely level of immersion in the story. The children are also encouraged to take part in the shows by shouting, waving and jumping to ”help” the good characters against the less friendly ones.

The shows and storyline of the park changes with the season, with winter creatures coming out during Christmas season, Easter week having their characters, several storyline throughout summer and ghostly escapades during Halloween season. We found them well produced and they were repeated a few times during the day so if you missed one, there was another opportunity later.

Mrs Santa hands out little ‘courage bells’ to the children and you can see how the Santas live.

Fairytale World

The park is situated on a beautiful, pineclad mountain and divided into different areas. Santa and Mrs Santa live in their big house on Fairytale square, where you can meet Santa and hand him your wishlist, Mrs Santa hands out little courage bells to the children and you can see how the Santas live. ­

Around the corner from Santa’s house their reindeer graze in a paddock and a little further on by the lake you will find the Troll’s house, where the kids can play, check out the Trolls’ treasure and all the Trollsy stuff in their kitchen and watch the Troll babies sleep.

There is also a Lake by the Fairytale kingdom where you can cool off during the summer and go for a small boat outing on the little hand powered line ferry, which our kids would have gone on several more turns than the two times we did, if we’d had time.

Further on into the woods Dragonland can be found, where the Elf (more Eldar than Santa’s helper) look after the Dragon baby and the Blueberry dragon and give advice on Dragons, and beyond that is the Shadow land, where the more scary characters reside. Also, look out for the Dragon hunter, Näcken the river elf and other more unsavoury fairytale characters!

All around the park there are things to climb and explore. Our kids especially loved the Good Fairy’s home, a small house where they could play and climb, rest in her hot air balloon bed and try on her clothes, and visiting the Witch in her home by Fairytale square.

Eating

You’ve come this far, you will stay all day and you need to eat!

In Fairytale square, next door to the Santas, you find Santa’s workshop, the Restaurant and gift shop. We had lunch here both of our days and while the food was not very exciting it was reasonably priced and everyone got something to eat. The upstairs restaurant also had a small play area where the quicker kids could play shop while us parents finished our coffee.

Nearby up on the hill, Mrs Claus has a café with indoor seating, were we had hot chocolate and buns as we were visiting during the Halloween season and while the weather was good, it was also chilly.

Scattered througout the park there are numerous places where you can either eat your packed sandwiches or use one of the barbecues for you own hot dogs etc. We found some outside Mrs Claus café and inside the Trolls’ house and I believe I saw some down by the lake as well. Next time we will go in the summer and definitely bring our own!

Big kudos to the Tomteland management ­for making it so easy to eat and even cook you own food! WIth multiple kids eating expenditure can get high quite quickly and a lot of kids may of course be picky eaters and just best enjoy snacks and food they are used to.

Where to stay

Right outside the park is an alpine ski resort, Gesundaberget. Here you can find a Ski lodge hotel and cabins for rent. If you travel with RV, caravan or tent you can find a camping closer to Mora town at First Camp Moraparken – Dalarna – First Camp Fyrstjärnig naturskön camping och stugby i Mora, centralt läge mellan stad, sjö och natur or on beautiful Sollerön Sollerön | Caravan Club of Sweden.

In Mora town you can find an assortment of hotels and hostels, we stayed in a family room (double bed + big sofa bed) in cozy Hotel Fridhemsgatan Startsida | Hotell Fridhemsgatan – Hotell, boende och konferens i Mora (hotellimora.se) and could easily walk to the main commercial street for food, groceries and window shopping in the cute stores in town.