Your best snow holiday with kids

[selkieone]

We would love to see some snow this winter and would like to go away before Xmas or over New Year, with our 5 and 7 year old girls to somewhere where we can play in the snow, but not necessarily ski. Our total dreamy ideal would be somewhere with the following!
Guaranteed snow!
Christmassy vibe
Child friendly
Access to beautiful snowy nature and some organised things like tobogganing or sleigh rides etc
Ideally not too tacky but know this is subjective - don't mind a bit of tack!
Bonus if we could try a day of skiing but not essential
Bonus things like....access to a sauna, ooh maybe northern lights (but not at all essential!)
And of course be brilliant if not too expensive but know that may be unrealistic!

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by options and not knowing if going to a ski resort to not ski is going to have enough to offer and be unnecessarily expensive when we could just go and stay somewhere vaguely snowy and find a few hills to toboggan down!

Thanks for any ideas!

there is an old thread that you could look at >www.mumsnet.com/Talk/skiing/3893018-First-time-skiing-how-does-it-work
particularly the post from @TeetotalKoala about 9 posts down.

[There is also a separate "Skiing" forum, where people discuss snow holidays as well as skiing]

Ruka in Finland www.ruka.fi/en/family-vacation/winter-fun-for-families

Following as I’m looking for exactly the same thing.

The Ruka resort looks perfect @Fivemoreminutes1 but I’m not sure I want to be that close to the Russian border at the moment!

Thanks so much! Will have a look x

We took our then 6 year old on a 3 day trip to Santas Lapland and it was amazing! Snowy, magical, elves, tobogganing, northern lights, skidoo trips , huskies and of course a day at Santas Lapland which wasn’t tacky; it was fab- ice fishing, skiing, Santa, reindeer and lots more. Our room had a sauna.

@Holidayqueen1 Thanks so much! We have been looking at Saariselka and we were wondering how it is that there's no daylight at that time of year?! Was worried it might be a bit bleak!

There is nothing bleak about Saariselka! The dark makes it exciting and cosy. There are fires lit everywhere to get warm and they give a wonderful glowing light. Plus everywhere has lights in the trees etc.
We've also done santas Lapland. Your girls are the perfect age but it is a bit pricey!

We did Saariselka with Santas Lapland – loved it. There was daylight, admittedly it went dark very early, but everything is lit up at night. We went on a visit to a reindeer farm with a reindeer/ride one evening – started in twilight and end in darkness. It was fantastic.

For your wants, I’d definitely do a Lapland style trip rather than heading to a ski resort, especially if you can’t ski! It won’t be as expensive for 1. And yes there’s more limited activities for non skiers in ski resorts (there absolutely are activities but it’s obviously more geared to skiers)

that being said, we went to Saalbach in Austria skiing once and it was the most beautiful chocolate box ski resort ever! Gorgeous. We actually went on a horse drawn carriage through the woods up the mountain to a fondou restaurant which was magical. There was also sledging and dog sleigh rides, an ice rink and a great pool with slides and a sauna.

I'd agree with avoiding the European ski resorts. There are beautiful chocolate box towns in Austria and Switzerland, even some in France but December is quite early in the season so although there'll be snow for skiing high up on the mountains you run the risk there won't be snow down in the town/village. We've experienced this skiing in December.

Unless you're booking quite late and know there's already snow they may not give you the vibe you're looking for.

We went to Saariselka with Santas Lapland last year. It was beautiful and absolutely magical, but cost a fortune! I'd love to book somewhere just as you describe for this year (spoiler alert - once you've seen the real Santa, all future Xmas activities in the UK are a let down!), so watching for suggestions! The Finland suggestion upthread looks ideal but I'd want to be able to fly directly I think.

Thank you everyone this is all so helpful!

Is there an age limit on visiting Santa?

Saariselka is expensive, have a look at skiline.co.uk, they have a Eurostar train going directly to the Alps on the 17th December, which will have you home for Christmas, prices start at just £548 per person and includes a ski pass... My kids break up on the 16th December..

Ruka is amazing. I wouldn’t worry about Russia, they’re tied up elsewhere.
Ive been to a lot of snow resorts and Ruka is up there with the best. Loved it

Thanks so much everyone! We have majorly pushed the boat out and booked for Saariselka. I'll let you know how we get on! Thanks for all your advice. x