{"id":12387,"date":"2021-12-10T04:06:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T04:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=12387"},"modified":"2021-12-10T04:06:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T04:06:10","slug":"a-vili-good-christmas-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/?p=12387","title":{"rendered":"A Vili Good Christmas Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Jason Pearson,\u00a0griffinshockey.com<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ask a professional hockey player how long they believed in Santa Claus as a kid and the array of potential reactions is endless: a valid answer, a sideways stare, or anything in between. Ask\u00a0Vili Saarijarvi<\/strong>, the Red Wings\u2019 third-round draft pick in 2015, and he supplies a grinning reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still believe,\u201d he said in the back hallways of Van Andel Arena, one day after a mid-December winter storm unloaded on downtown Grand Rapids.<\/p>\n

When prodded further, and after the interviewer allows he was a Santa believer until the early years of this century, the 20-year-old Finn relents and offers a more realistic response.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say probably 12 or 13 (years old).\u201d<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be a complete surprise if Saarijarvi\u2019s \u2013 pronounced\u00a0SAH-ree-YAHR-vee<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 initial answer was fact, seeing as how he grew up in Santa\u2019s backyard.<\/p>\n

A city of roughly 60,000, Rovaniemi, Finland, is situated about four miles south of the Arctic Circle, which equates to plenty of sunshine in the summer months to make up for the hibernating sun in winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the summertime, there\u2019s a lot of light and the sun doesn\u2019t go down. Wintertime it\u2019s pretty much the opposite with a lot of snow. I was actually looking yesterday and the sun got up at 11 a.m. and sunset was 1:25 p.m.,\u201d Saarijarvi said.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the sun\u2019s habits, every year more than 300,000 believers from around the world make a pilgrimage to Rovaniemi, the Official Hometown of Santa Claus.<\/p>\n

According to folklore, Santa\u2019s original home resides somewhere in Lapland, Finland\u2019s northernmost plot. To keep his actual whereabouts a secret, Santa established an office in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, in 1985. Since 2010, Rovaniemi has held the recognized \u201cofficial hometown\u201d status.<\/p>\n

The place tourists head to is called Santa Claus Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s three different buildings; well, it\u2019s getting bigger now, but it used to be three different buildings,\u201d Saarijarvi explained. \u201cThere\u2019s a Christmas store, a building where Santa is and there\u2019s a restaurant. You walk through this hallway with pictures and history stuff about Christmas and Finland, and there\u2019s fake reindeer and elves \u2013 things little kids would get excited about \u2013 and then at the end of the hallway you get to go meet Santa. He\u2019s sitting on his chair and right away he knows your name. When I was little I was like, \u2018how does he know my name?\u2019 but now that I\u2019m older, [I realize] they ask for names before.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Saarijarvi estimates he\u2019s visited the village 15-20 times, with his last visit coming two summers ago when Vili \u2013 \u201cUncle Vili\u201d \u2013 and his older sister, Nadja, took Nadja\u2019s two children. But the bulk of his trips to see Santa came as a youngster.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery November, end of November, we would write the list of what I was wishing for for Christmas, and then we went to see Santa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Congruent to how North American youth give Christmas lists to the local mall Santas, lists are also provided to the red-suited fellow when visiting him in his natural habitat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to have something like that in your hometown,\u201d Saarijarvi said. \u201cA lot of people come to visit from all around the world. It\u2019s one of the most popular things in Finland I would say.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those tried and true Michiganders who might be wondering, Saarijarvi \u2013 who enjoys Poronk\u00e4ristys, a traditional Lappish reindeer dish, back in Finland \u2013 has indeed been to Bronner\u2019s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, although he would have liked to have seen a few more Finnish items on display. He played the 2015-16 campaign \u2013 his second in North America \u2013 with the Ontario Hockey League\u2019s Flint Firebirds, about 30 minutes south of Michigan\u2019s little Bavaria. His last trip to Bronner\u2019s came just a few weeks ago when he took advantage of an off day to visit his old billets on the other side of the state and take in the store.<\/p>\n

A 5-foot-10, 178-pound defenseman, Saarijarvi has spent his first full professional season between Grand Rapids and Toledo in the ECHL. His trips to the Walleye have largely been to get more playing time, as four of the Griffins\u2019 blueliners \u2013\u00a0Brian Lashoff<\/strong>,\u00a0Dylan McIlrath<\/strong>,\u00a0Dan Renouf<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Robbie Russo<\/strong>\u2013 have NHL experience, while second-year pro\u00a0Joe Hicketts<\/strong>\u00a0is knocking on the NHL door and fellow rookie\u00a0Filip Hronek<\/strong>\u00a0has played well.<\/p>\n

In nine games with the Griffins, Saarijarvi has logged four assists, including one in three straight games from Dec. 13-16.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been learning a lot and trying to bring my positive energy to the guys when I\u2019m in or out of the lineup,\u201d he said. \u201cI just try to bring myself to the rink every day and be myself and work as hard as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By Jason Pearson,\u00a0griffinshockey.com Ask a professional hockey player how long they believed in Santa Claus as a kid and the array of potential reactions is endless: a valid answer, a sideways stare, or anything in between. Ask\u00a0Vili Saarijarvi, the Red Wings\u2019 third-round draft pick in 2015, and he supplies a grinning reply. \u201cI still believe,\u201d … <\/p>\n

Read more “A Vili Good Christmas Story”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onhee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}