Lapland - please reassure me!

[attheendoftheday]

Hi all.

I am all booked to take our two dds to lapland just before Christmas. I am dead excited and we saved for ages. Reading another thread this evening I am now really worried that dd2 will be too young and will hate it.

We're going for 4 days/3 nights. The dds will be 5.5 and a few weeks short of 4th birthday. We are going to Luosto with Canterbury Travel.

I'm hoping someone can tell me a happy story of going with kids this age and having a brilliant time!

I took the DCs when they were 7 and 5 and we had a fab time. There were younger children on the trip. We stayed 2 nights/3 days in Saariselka with Esprit, the weekend before Christmas and paid 2,300 for 1 adult and 2 children in a cabin. It was -26 and we had about 2 hours of watery daylight a day. I had the most bizarre version of jetlag where the time difference wasn't very great but my sleeping patterns went all out the window with the constant darkness. Take lots and lots of spare socks and gloves, I had piles of them. You will have a brilliant time, I will remember that husky ride for the rest of my life!

I haven't been with kids but have been twice and spoken to our guides who had done lots of the special kids trips and it sounded amazing. Lapland is utterly utterly magical and I can't wait to take DS as soon as he's old enough.

The gear they give you is awesome, so don't worry.
Do make sure you have:
Baselayers
Nothing cotton- merino/synthetic base layers, wool or fleece mid layers are best.
TWO balaclavas/snoods for faces per person. They get very damp inside when you breathe so is nice to have a spare.
Good socks. Thin ones (again NOT cotton) plus ski socks.
Those hand and foot warmer things.
Wind up torches can be good (anything battery powered is a pain in those temps).

Your own gloves- ideally merino/silk glove liners plus some thinning fleece/knitted ones to go inside the big ones they give you.
Although you will get given boots and all in ones which are fabulous it's worth taking your own winter boots and jacket with you if you have them for the very beginning/ end before you get given the hire gear. Just cheap stuff if you can or you have already. It's fine if not but I did find it quite nice to have stuff the minute we got there and not have to wait til the first evening when we had the kit handed out.

It's is COLD (around -15 / -20 the second time we were here and -35 the first time. But it's incredibly dry cold which feels nicer than the damp cold we have at home. As long as you're moving you stay surprisingly warm in appropriate far and the guides and activities are all very well set up.

If you don't usually, take thick moisturiser and also some hair product (mousse or something) as they dry air makes your skin horribly dry and your hair dry and static!

We went to Lapland on a ski holiday and did all the Santa stuff too. 1 week £3000 including trips!! I can't believe the price of Santa (only!) trips!!

Ruka crystal ski