Do most take dc to Lapland?

[Greatcakesall]

Do most take dc to Lapland?

Do you mean is it common to go full stop, or of those that do go, do they normally have DC?

DH's parents went to Lapland earlier this year just as a couple and in their hotel interestingly enough it was mostly other couples. Perhaps the time of year, though (after Christmas and not during school holidays). DH was a little bemused that they didn't want to wait a bit to go with the grandchildren!

My colleague took her kid to Lapland. It was insane. They got up at 2am, went to Manchester airport (2 hours away), flew however many hours to Finland. Stood in a queue outside in the dark and cold to meet Father Christmas for a few minutes, went on a sled. Got back on the plane, flew back, home for 2am the next day. The cost? £2k.

To see a made up person.

Just go to Debenhams and save the hassle.

Me and DH took our children to Lapland over Christmas last year (Dec 21st to the 28th) and it was just magical.

We didn’t stay in the tourist attraction site as we wanted to experience the more natural side of Lapland so we stayed a 2 hours drive out.

We drove into the main tourist area on two occasions to visit Santa World and Santa Clause Village etc and those type of attractions but generally we stayed away from that side of things.

We went to an amazing Arctic Zoo though and visited an amazing reindeer farm (run by a local family) and that was amazing too.

We stayed in a gorgeous (and huge) cabin for a week which was the epitome of what a Finnish Cabin would be like and we couldn’t see anything but snow, frozen lakes and ‘Christmas trees’ for miles. Every morning we would wake up and look out the window and we would not be able to believe we were looking at something so beautiful - it almost felt like we were in a different world. It was all just so white - It was truly magical. And God, when it snowed it was breath taking.

The snow was insanely deep - we used to step off our porch and we’d be knee deep no exaggeration) in the softest snow you could imagine.

The owners of the cabin also had their home on the same piece of land and the woman used to come over with baked cookies for us all the time 😂 They also had a reindeer farm of about 50 reindeers and every night she would let us go with her to feed them all and they took us on snowmobile rides around their land (felt like there was acres of it) and one day they even let my husband drive their snowmobile too.

It was bloody cold though - the coldest day we saw was minus 19 degrees. When we were all wrapped up though and because we were surrounded by such beauty we didn’t feel the cold too badly.

The short days were bizarre though as we only got about 4 hours of true daylight which was usually between 11am-3pm.

And driving around Lapland is terrifying (outside the tourist areas) and I thought on more than one occasion that we’d die on the roads!

We didn’t book through an agency and instead booked everything ourselves which was massively helped by joining a Facebook group called “Lapland on a Budget” and it was amazing! We did the whole trip: flights, cabin hire for 6 days, car hire for 6 days, the costs of 4 trips and all our snow-wear (family of four) for just over £6’000.

It was a truly amazing experience and we all absolutely loved it ❤️

That sound horrendous. You would never do a day trip to Istanbul. One thing that surprised me was just how far it is, although we didn't go to the main 'Santa Village' place and went much further north to a tiny place called Karesuvanto. I think it was 500km north of the arctic circle.
We went for four days, it was brilliant. One of the best holidays ever.

I lump in in with all the dreadful ‘Elf on a Shelf’ / ‘making memories’ / Christmas Eve boxes nonsense.

A commercialised way of emotionally blackmailing susceptible parents to flog themselves to death providing over-the-top “experiences” to stick on Insta to validate to themselves that they’re winning at parenting.

Gimme a trip to a rubbishy tent housing the school caretaker with a fake beard at the Xmas fair any day. Kids get handed a wrapped up book or a kazoo, go & get a hot chocolate….jobs a good ‘un. 😊

What an odd take on it - have you actually been?

It’s completely surreal to see the forests covered in snow with reindeers and moose running free as you pass in a sleigh pulled by huskies. It’s breathtakingly beautiful and serene. The night sky is lit by a million stars, and northern lights flickering over the horizon will stay with me forever.

The cabins lit by candles and fires are nestled in the woods are incredibly cosy and quite magical. The experience of whizzing through open snow on skidoos is awesome. Deep Lapland - the real version is as authentic as you can possibly hope to find.
Not remotely tacky at all, and is by far one of the most memorable trips of my life.

Now I've just looked and see that you can go on Ryanair from Liverpool or Stansted from under £100 pp return, so if you want to just see it and be able to say you've been to Lapland, see the northern lights, stars, snow etc, so you could probably do a weekend break for around £1000 or less all in for a family, likely cheaper than Center Parcs.

Lastchance- that sounds amazing.

I think most families with a few grand to spare could spend it on things that would benefit their children more than trying to reinforce their belief in a myth based on commercial consumption.

thats a really weird take on it. I will be taking my child. Not to validate myself as a parent but because it's one of they experiences that a child gets loads from. What child wouldn't want to go to santas house🤔

What child? Surely you are aware that many, perhaps most, children worldwide are not peddled the Santa myth?

Such odd comments on this thread. Seems some people don't know that Lapland is a real place. With real people and customs and food and traditions.

The 'Lapland' reviews from the people who admit they've never actually been there are laughable and don't remotely chime with my experience of Lapland, or others who've been and posted on the thread.

We stayed in a lodge in a national park. No other buildings around for miles. All we could see were trees and snow and stars. DS9 said it was like living in a snow globe, which is the perfect description.

We stayed for 4 nights. We went on two husky sled rides through the forest. I drove the sled on one of the trips. We had a sleigh ride across a frozen lake pulled by reindeer. And a snow mobile ride. We saw reindeer roaming wild through the forests. We went snowshoeing, did lots of sledding and playing in the snow. Nothing tacky or invented just for tourists.

There was a campfire with marshmallows every evening and fireworks on the last night.

Father Christmas did pay a visit on the last evening for a couple of hours and met all the kids. Seeing him unexpectedly appear outside through the hotel windows and walk across the snow towards the hotel was so exciting for the kids. But it was a tiny part of the trip.

Not cheap, but maybe not as expensive as many think. It cost us £2300 for me and DS last year. For 4 nights. All meals and snacks and drinks were provided by the lodge. I paid extra for one of the husky trips and the reindeer trip.

I'm well travelled, and it's the most magical place I've been to. My favourite holiday with DS by far. We loved it so much, we've booked for next year too. We live fairly frugally to allow for holidays. Lapland is definitely worth it in my opinion.

You do realise that there is a lot more to Lapland than just going to see Santa?!

Our trip to LapLand was phenomenal and the trip to “Santa Village” was probably the least magical part of it.

We will be taking ours, finance depending. And contrary to MN belief I'm not on Instagram and I don't post anything about my children on FB. The venom is really quite funny.

The PP specifically referred to Santa's house.

Our holiday to Lapland was amazing. We did husky ride, reindeer rides, snowmobile tour - kids got to ride mini ones, trip to an ice hotel, ski lessons and so much sledging and playing in the snow - which is like powder and not at all mushy or wet. There were mountains of snow everywhere from where it had been ploughed the kids loved climbing up these. We went for a week, saw the northern lights twice from our cabin and Santa was around 90 minutes of that week. It was a gorgeous place and we all enjoyed it.

Honestly- don't go if you don't want to. I am directing this at anyone.

As I said upthread-- we went and it was much cheaper than the horror day trip prices peddled on here and it was truly magical. Even for me who is non-Christian and not really into the whole Christmas thing!

There was snow. there was a husky ride (The highlight for me) there were toboggans while waiting for the reindeer sled ride to see Santa. There was mulled wine and hot forest berry juice and spagetti Bolognese and meatballs with mash and lingonberry jam. I bought a beautiful embroidered Sami table cloth that we have used every year since on our Christmas table.

I loved it. We loved it. I loved that the palest of grey lights emerged at noon and then it was pitch dark again at 2 pm. I loved that there were fairy lights throughout the village. I loved the palest green in the distance which were the northern lights although we did not do a specific trip to see that. I even loved that my camera battery could not cope with the cold (despite me nestling my camera inside my bra) and we got hardly any pictures- just pictures in our memories.

I'll never forget it.

We've been and I only know of two other families who have been.

It was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to go again. My DS was 3 and he loved it. Don't listen to the 'kids won't enjoy it because it's too cold' you're that wrapped up you're bloody boiling. Myself & DP found ourselves having to take our hats and gloves off because we were so hot.

We stayed in Yllas, it was very quiet and went through TUI. I wish we could have booked separately but we had no ideas what we were doing so felt it was easier to book a package. They provide all your suits at the airport which made it so much easier.

If I was to go again I'd stay in Levi.

What an odd question.

Where on earth have you come up with this idea from ?
Of course, the overwhelming majority of people have never been to Lapland (excluding people that live there, of course).

Well I should say.....what child that believes in Santa wound or want to go. My child is going to be pedalled with the myth and he will have a fantastic time doing so🤷🏻‍♀️

@Honeychickpea

dawn- that sounds wonderful

It sounds fabulous!!

I haven’t been but would love to take my child at some point if it was financially doable for us.

you don’t half get some miserable people here. I don’t post on Instagram so believe it or not the purpose of the trip wouldn’t be for validation. I’d like to take my child is so they could have a magical experience (stay a few days & see Finland in winter!). God forbid you give your child anything more than gruel & a singular ‘practical’ gift of socks at Christmas time 😮 clearly you’d just be doing that to show off!

Lapland is not just a place where you go to see Santa . It’s the most northern parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway. I went in 2014 to Saarieselka and it was absolutely dreamy. Christmas Day the sun rose to deliver a bright pink sky, snow capped trees for miles and the sound and sight of reindeer is just magical . I am taking my teenager again next year, although will be skipping the Santa visit . There’s so much to do there , I think the people who think it’s just a glorified Santa visit have never been . I wouldn’t go to Rovaniemi- far too commercialised . The place I am going next year is just one hotel in the middle of nowhere ! Can’t wait