My children are young enough that smartphones register on the scale of “stop tapping, and look at what I’m doing”. Age six and eight, they are still eagerly tearing into Advent calendars and writing Christmas lists. On the whole, they are still blissfully innocent.
But in the past six months, both have piped up with reports from school friends questioning Father Christmas’s existence. The youngest has no truck with it, but it has struck a chord with our daughter. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has become a cultural reference and hair is carefully styled for school. I am keenly aware that these young years are drifting by.
Which is why this winter seemed like the ideal window to indulge in the fairy-tale magic of Christmas. A trip to Lapland is one for the bucket list.
We took advantage of our children’s growing hardiness and a new British Airways route from Gatwick to Ivalo, the EU’s most northerly airport in Finnish Lapland, where snow would be deep and Father Christmas’s mythical home – on the fell of Korvatunturi – would be relatively close by.
Plenty of Lapland packages will take you to Rovaniemi further south, the “Official Home Town of Santa Claus”, where you’ll find the Santa Claus Village on the Arctic Circle and Finland’s second-busiest airport. I wanted to go somewhere
that would offer a glimpse of the real Lapland too.
Korvatunturi is around 350km north-east of Rovaniemi, close to the Russian border and on the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park, a vast wilderness of fells and solitary huts. With special permission needed to visit, we aimed for the other side of the national park, near Kakslauttanen.
Travelling with Not In The Guidebooks, which specialises in authentic, local experiences, we were staying at the Wilderness Hotel Muotka. On the half-hour drive from Ivalo airport, we passed through Europe’s most northerly ski resort where our children were delighted to spot three elves, dressed in red, aiming snowballs at our car from beneath a Welcome to Saariselkä sign. I made a mental note to Google “Lapland elf jobs” when we returned home.
By 3pm, it was dark when we arrived at the hotel – 250km north of the Arctic Circle, the polar night lasts for around six weeks here, when the sun does not rise above the horizon. It was also Finnish independence day, which meant the Christmas lights were being switched on and candles lit in windows. A huge cream cake decorated with the Finnish flag would round off dinner that evening.
Set alongside the invisible, frozen Kakslauttanen river – now completely blanketed with sparkling snowdrifts – are log cabins and aurora glass igloos with huge windows from which to watch the Northern Lights. Ours had the added benefit of a sauna.
The cosy main hotel building was where we all convened for hot drinks and comforting buffets of which reindeer was a staple – meatballs, osso bucco, stew with lingonberry jam. There was also Arctic char caught from Lake Inari, a short distance north.
Unlike at Rovaniemi’s family-centric Santa Claus Village, the guests here were mostly adults – from Spain, France, Japan, South Africa and just a few, mostly English family groups.
Finnish Lapland is one of Europe’s last wildernesses, and we were captivated from the moment we arrived. First, by the darkness, and then by the colours of the polar night. Thick cloud cover meant that we didn’t see the pretty pink streaks of an almost-sunrise bleed into an almost-sunset until the final days of our trip. Instead, the dim light of day gave a softness to the snow-blanketed landscape.
Our five-day stay was gently paced with activities from the resort. Climbing onto a snowmobile, with our children pulled in a sleigh by Lithuanian guide Eimantas, we set off into the forest, looking out for wild reindeer.
When we stopped to warm up with hot chocolate, the children dived into snow that was waist-deep and so cold and powdery it was impossible to make snowballs.
Among our small group, Vedashri had travelled alone from her home in Johannesburg with the goal of seeing the Northern Lights. We’d both been checking the weather forecast religiously and didn’t fancy our chances.
Still, the serenely beautiful landscape was more than enough to distract us. On the short drive to Saariselkä, we slowed down to let some reindeer pass us, before setting off to meet a pack of huskies.
The dogs were howling excitedly to each other, unnerving my daughter as she sat in the sleigh and one climbed onto her lap to sniff her. I was more worried about to keep control of six dogs, all raring to go. “Don’t let go, otherwise you’ll lose them, they won’t stop,” I was warned.
True to form, they whisked us out onto the dark fells, the only sound their panting and the sled pulling through the snow. Strong and intuitive, they knew where to turn, and were hard to slow down when a sleigh stalled ahead of us. Some have the stamina to lead expeditions of up to 1,500km.
After a sauna back in our cabin, we dressed again for an evening trip out to a forest aurora camp. “The weather hasn’t been great, but we’ll have a nice time anyway,” reassured guide Joanna.
We arrived at a lonely tepee, where she lit a fire and got the children excited with an origin tale. “Do you want the scientific explanation, or the fairy tale?” she asked rhetorically, settling on the “science” version for “revontulet”, or “fire fox”, as the Northern Lights are known in Finland. This magical Arctic fox is said to sweep its tail across the snow, whipping it up into the sky. “If we don‘t see anything, the fox is sleeping.”
And so it was, until pancakes were bubbling on pans over the fire, and I spotted a star between parting clouds. “That’ll be Jupiter,” she corrected me. Soon after emerged a gibbous moon, until the sky was completely clear, revealing endless stars and what looked like a wisp of cloud.
We started taking pictures, our phones revealing the green particles of the Northern Lights. While the children roasted marshmallows, they got stronger, putting on a mesmerising and unforgettable, shape-shifting display that lit up the sky. “The fox is playing now!” exclaimed our son.
There was more excitement to come. On a final sleigh ride into the trees, this time with the faint jingle of bells trailing behind us, guide Filipe could barely hide his excitement, “even for us, this is really magical”.
Minutes later, we spotted torches aglow in the snow and among the trees a little hut. As we got closer, an elf approached, waving and welcoming our children by name and beckoning them inside to meet Father Christmas.
While Keksi the elf prepared gloggi, a warm spiced berry drink, Santa gave each of us a hug as we sat in his cosy cabin beside the Christmas tree and ate gingerbread, chatting about Christmas, the children’s list, the Northern Lights, the reindeer we’d met earlier that day on a Sami farm.
When he asked my daughter if she wanted to sing him her favourite Taylor Swift song – politely declined – she was completely enchanted. The conversation turned to our pet cat and Chelsea’s best football player, impressing her brother.
After handing out presents to each of us, Santa left us with one more parting gift: “for your final sauna, make sure you go for a swim in the snow afterwards – you’ll feel wonderful”. But we already did. Finland’s far north is a magical place indeed.
How to get there
The writer flew from Gatwick to Ivalo with British Airways, which operates the twice-weekly route until 14 February from £143 one way.
Not In The Guidebooks offers three-night Lapland packages in the Saariselkä area from £3,895 per family of three, with deposits from £99pp until 23 December. The price includes premium accommodation with full board, transfers, all guided activities and winter clothing.
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