ROVANIEMI (Finland) — British car brand Mini has always been a little manic, especially in its modern renaissance that began under BMW Group ownership in 1994.

So, when it says something about driving 3,500km to meet Santa Claus to set a new record, you know it isn’t April 1 all over again.

On Nov 24, a team from Mini’s Italian office reached the bearded one in Finland, after driving more than that distance from Milan, through major European capitals like Munich, Copenhagen and Stockholm.

Mini’s eight-car convoy had a big task: Delivering a maxi-sized Christmas wishlist to Father Christmas himself. Santa, as every kid knows, resides at his official home in Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland, located well within the Arctic Circle.

Rovaniemi is also home to Santa Claus’ Main Post office, which receives almost a million pieces of yuletide-related mail annually, from people around the world.

On The Record

Mini doesn’t do things by halves, so one of its aims was to set a new Guinness Record for the longest Christmas wishlist ever delivered to Santa.

It began canvassing the wishes — three per person and written on a roll of eco-friendly paper — in October, with entries from 16 countries, including Russia, Singapore and the USA.

When the convoy arrived in Rovaniemi on Dec 5, it wasn’t just sub-zero weather, reindeer and the gaggle of press that were waiting: There was also an adjudicator from Guinness Records, Englishwoman Louise Toms.

Registering a Guinness record is easy, according to her. You simply send a video of the process or pay a small fee for an adjudicator to be there.

In this case, Toms verified the list’s “wish integrity” (no repeats, legible handwriting) and the new Guinness Record went to Mini, with 75,954 wishes adding up to 3,798.5m. After the hours-long verification, it was presented to Santa, who arrived on a reindeer-pulled sleigh for his photo op.

cars on ice

We don’t usually think of Minis as rough-and-tumble cars, but their compact dimensions and direct handling make them great choices for non-tarmac driving.

We tested two Minis on ice and snow courses, with the guidance of rally legend Rauno Aaltonen.

We first got our hands on the latest addition to the Mini range, the Paceman, a two-door sport utility vehicle, in 184bhp “Cooper S” trim, with (cost optional) all-wheel drive

As the specs suggest, its straight-line pace was healthy, even on the slushy surface. Being the two-door version of the Countryman SUV, it proved even more direct and willing to change direction, a good thing since the icy course was particularly tight.

We then switched to a Countryman Cooper S, almost identical, except with a little more weight and front-wheel drive. While that sounds like a less optimal combination, the softer nature of the car meant it was actually easier to handle.

Following Rauno’s advice, we took it very easy at first, then progressively got faster. We didn’t have time to look at the speedometer, but that probably meant approaching one corner at 20kmh, instead of 15kmh.

The beauty of ice driving, as Rauno says, lies in understanding the car’s natural behaviour then making just enough adjustments to keep it going where you want.

It was refreshing to learn that the new “soft-roader” Minis aren’t that soft — they’re tough enough for extreme weather, yet soft enough to handle well in those tricky conditions.