Saturday, December 18

A small group of people in Vartiokylä arrange interestingly odd events from time to time for no other reason than they want to. I like this very much indeed, but not everyone agrees with me. They communicate via Facebook and this seems to me a perfect use for social media: hyperlocal, reciprocal and of very little interest to global data scrapers.

Last year, or the year before (Covid has messed with my mind), this group arranged for Santa to drive around the area in a horse-driven sledge, tossing candy out of the sledge as he passed waiting groups of children and parents. They printed an approximate schedule in the Vartiokylä Facebook group and people set out to wait.

Unfortunately they had no prior experience hiring horses to pull sledges and the one they hired decided to do it as fast as possible. As a result the timetable fell apart as Santa rocketed around the area at the speed of a racehorse. Most people (including us) missed him. Those few who didn’t saw hardly anything as he galloped past full speed ahead.

The resulting furore shocked me. People complained bitterly on Facebook in terms that would only make sense if they had paid to see the event. They acted as though they had a contractual right to this entertainment and had suffered grievously as a result as a result of the organisers’ failure. They acted, in fact, as though the unexpected speed of Santa’s horse constituted a crime at least equal to the Fyre Festival fiasco.

This greatly upset the organisers.

Today, however, they have decided to do it again, and this time they have promised that whenever the horse gets ahead of schedule, they will stop for a while. This must have worked because when we go to the end of the road to see them trot past they arrive almost on time. They also trot past at a decorous pace waving.

I try to photograph Santa and the resulting blur seems to capture the moment quite nicely.