ESPOO,Finland – This morning Santa arrived at Nokia House in Espoo where the Nokia Maps team upgraded his sleigh for the twenty-first century with a new Nokia N8 loaded with the newest versions of Ovi Maps. Phil and I were among the few people to witness this momentous occasion, and naturally wanted to immortalise the moment with proof..

During Santa’s surprise visit, he met Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President of Services, who had the privilege of upgrading Santa´s sleigh dashboard with a new Nokia N8 with Ovi Maps. This secret encounter took place in the front of Nokia House’s main entrance.

According to inside sources, Santa was extremely curious and pleased with the Nokia N8’s functionality and its installation onto his sleigh – and put the device to immediate use. Of course, we recorded the visit to share with you, dear readers.

“Santa, known in his home country of Lapland, Finland as Joulupukki, has millions of people around the world to visit this December, and using Ovi Maps will make the journey a lot quicker and easier,” said Tero Ojanperä.

“We are proud to help improve and share his trip in a new way as he checks into places around the world and uses the latest smartphone and mobile navigation technology to make his journey easier than ever before.“

Over the next two weeks, you will be able to follow Santa and his reindeers on a test drive to see how the new technology will improve the world’s most challenging journey as Santa travels more than 20,000 km across 15 countries. [Editor’s note: he plans to use magic to get to the rest of the world – a feature we are considering for the Nokia N30].

On Christmas Eve, you will see Santa en route as he checks into cities including London, Paris, Lisbon, Rome and New York. Once Santa is safely back at his home in Lapland, Finland with the elves, you can revisit the final route that Santa took to see just how far he travels every year to deliver presents around the world.

As if delivering presents wasn’t enjoyable enough, his ride will be made even more entertaining by having access to other Ovi services such as apps, music, games and messaging so that he can stay entertained and keep in touch with friends, the elves and, of course, Mrs. Claus.

What are the places you want Santa to visit on the Christmas Eve? Those of us waiting for our stockings to be filled can follow Santa on his actual run through the night.