Laponia (historical province)

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Laponia (Swedish: Lappland) was a historical Swedish province, or landscape, in the north of Sweden. It evolved from Lappmarken. In 1809, Sweden ceded the eastern part, along with Finland, to the Russian Empire, which in effect created a Swedish Lapland and Finnish Lapland.

Today, the Swedish part is no longer an administrative subdivision in Sweden (rather, it is part of Västerbotten and Norrbotten counties). On the Finnish side, there was a Province of Lapland (much larger to the south, especially by population, and where there were no Sami for many centuries) from 1938 until 2010, when Finnish provinces were discontinued, and the province was replaced by the Region of Lapland.

Lapland is considered in some nations — notably Croatia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Serbia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Romania and France — to be the home of Father Christmas (more widely known as Santa Claus).