Santa Claus

Formation (1992–2012)

The club was formed in 1992, under the name FC Santa Claus Rovaniemi, following the merger of the Rovaniemen Reipas (RoRe) and Rovaniemen Lappi (RoLa) football clubs. RoRe was the more successful of the two founder clubs, playing 12 seasons in the Kakkonen, the third tier of the Finnish football system in the periods of 1978–81, 1984–89, and 1991–92, while RoLa played three seasons at this level in 1987–88 and 1992. The merger consolidated FC Santa Claus as a Kakkonen club, since both founding clubs were in that division.

The club's first crest had a picture of Santa waving while controlling a football, but it was later changed to one of him sitting at a writing desk checking his naughty and nice lists.

They played their first official match in 1993. In their first season, the club finished in 3rd place in the third tier. The following season, in 1994, they won the Midnattsolscupen (Midnight Sun Cup), an invitational tournament held in Sweden. In 1997, they faced English Premier League club Crystal Palace in a friendly, losing 5–0, with 5000 spectators showing up to the match. They have also played against Nottingham Forest and West Ham United.

After eight seasons in the third tier, they were relegated to the fourth tier Kolmonen, at the end of the 2000 season. They won their Kolmonen division in their first season, but failed to win promotion back to the third tier. They gained promotion back to the Kakkonen after winning their Kolmonen division, and qualifying through the promotion playoffs group, in 2008.

In 2010, they nearly won promotion to the second-tier Ykkönen, after winning their division, however, they lost the promotion playoff match to HIFK.

Bankruptcy and re-formation (2013–2019)

In 2012, the club experienced significant financial difficulties, resulting in them filing for bankruptcy with debts of 20,000€. They re-formed the club under a new association using the name FC Santa Claus Arctic Circle, but the Finnish Football Association denied their request to transfer their position in the third tier Kakkonen to the new group, ruling that they had not taken over the debts of the previous group. The club appealed on the basis that they were willing to take on debts incurred by the sports department, not the bingo activities that had caused the bankruptcy, but their appeal was rejected.

Consequently, FC Santa Claus returned to the fourth tier for 2013, after being unable to re-join the third tier. They finished in third place in 2013, but the following season they won the division, being promoted back to the third tier for the 2015 season. Also in 2013, they reached an agreement with fellow Rovaniemi side RoPS in the top tier, to form a partnership and act as their affiliate club.

They again faced financial difficulties in 2015, but they were saved through signing one-year partnerships with EA Sports and Puma, with Puma manufacturing the jerseys with EA as the kit sponsor. Prior to this they has worn Adidas kits. Nike became their manufacturer the following season. For 2016, they partnered with Chinese company Bewin Sports and their CEO Marc Gao, who entered into a five-year shirt sponsorship with the club as well as Gao becoming the club's vice-president.

The 2016 season was a difficult one for the club, who, following the departure of several experienced players, were relegated back to the fourth tier after the season, after earning only eight points from two wins and two draws in 22 matches, conceding 102 goals, including a 16-0 loss to AC Kajaani in which they were only able to field 11 players in total, including three goalkeepers, two of whom were forced to play striker, due to a rash of injuries. Later that year, they travelled to Beijing, China, arranged by their new Chinese sponsors, to play a friendly match on Christmas Eve against a group of Chinese celebrities called the China Doubi all-stars, and won the match by a single goal. The following year, they returned to China for another exhibition, where they played with former Italian national team player Alessandro Del Piero and former English national team player Michael Owen.

FC Santa Claus finished in last place in the Kolmonen in 2018, being relegated to the fifth tier Nelonen for 2019. In 2019, they again finished last, being relegated to the sixth tier for 2020. However, instead this edition of the club disbanded after the 2019 season, leaving the league system as the club went bankrupt. A couple of the players decided to register a team in an 8v8 recreational league organized by the referee's association of Rovaniemi, continuing the club unofficially.

Third edition of the club (2021–present)

It was announced FC Santa Claus would be re-launched in the Finnish national system, for the 2021 season. The new re-launch would be headed by the youth club, FC Santa Claus Juniorit, which had continued to operate, and would revert to the Rovaniemi logo. They re-entered in the sixth tier Vitonen. In their debut match in the sixth tier, after their re-formation, they defeated Kolarin Kontio 4–2. They finished bottom of the table in their return season in 2021. After two seasons in the sixth tier, they were promoted to the fifth tier of finnish football, Nelonen.