"I feel empty when I am away from the reindeer," he says.

Children leave out milk and cookies before they go to bed, for Santa and his reindeer to enjoy.

The reindeer for us are everything - food, transport and accommodation.

That makes the senior Kuoljoks a minority within a minority: only about 10 percent of the Sami still work in the reindeer trade.

Local reindeer breeders have a saying about that: "Don' t be afraid of what' s far away, be afraid of what' s close to you".