A fairytale Christmas in Lapland
How would you feel about spending the Christmas break in a white washed little piece of land where you will be surrounded by more trees than people.
Looking at the current situation, sounds quite ideal right?!
Welcome to the finnish Lapland, a dreamy place where I spent our Christmas vacation last year with my three little ones aged 1,3 and 5. Most people thought we were insane to travel with such small children there, but it was a childhood dream of mine and I am a big believer of “now or never.” The trip seemed to fit in our family planning, so we did it. Left Algiers in North Africa one day, and arrived I northern Finland 48h later. Here are some practical information about this once in a life time trip, I’d recommend to anyone!
Let’s start with the most common question I got when mentioning this trip:
but you were not too cold?
To be honest, no thanks to a careful packing.
What to pack?
For the whole family.
Individual small heating pads to put in your gloves and shoes. A thermos to always have warm water with you (to make a bottle, but also to warm up food or your hands). Fleece lined hats. Waterproof heavy pants and jackets outfits for each family members. Under gloves and gloves.
For a baby.
Several merino wool layers, rolled collar body grow including a full merino wool jumpsuit to put under a waterproof outer layer. Forget about the socks as they tend to slip off really fast and also jumpsuit as for the underlayers (if baby has a diaper leak then you’d ski suit.
For adults and kids.
Thermic underlayers, fleece rolled collars, sock with different thicknesses to add them on top of each other, snow boots.
The other thing to be aware of, along the side of the climate is the luminosity. During winter vacation, the sun rises at 10am and sets at 2pm. These four hours of day light are still quite dark as it is often quite cloudy at that time of the year. FYI, we have not seen the sun for 2 weeks. I was quite nervous about the impact on the kids, but it had none ! They just thought it was funny to be out in the dark
Itineray & lodging
We landed at Kittilä airport, and head towards our Airbnb in Pyhätunturi, about 1.30h drive. I absolutely advice you to rent a car, as there are very few taxis around there. Forget about Uber. There are lots of things to do and see in Lapland, and distances can be quite long and long walks in the cold are not suitable with kids. The roads can be intimidating at the beginning as they are entirely covered with snow, but the snow tires do an amazing job and we did not slide once in our 2-week trip.
Staying in an Airbnb is an enchanting experience I highly recommend. There are many in Lapland and they all come with a private sauna, attached to the bathroom. Locals use it on a daily basis, and you will quickly imitate them. We loved being able to shop at the local supermarkets, and experience local food in our little kitchen, grill sausages and marshmallows in our little fireplace.
After a week in our rental, we head to Levi where we stayed in a hotel for a couple of days. The transition was quite brutal, going from having trees only as neighbors to having lots of other hotels around us. Some people though might find the Airbnb quite intimidating as you are quite isolated (closest pharmacy was 1h away from us…) The nice thing about the hotel, was to have access to a gigantic spa with bubble pools, lazy rivers, water slides, and an outdoor pool. Kids loved it.
What to do?
Snow shoeing.
Our first activity, two days after our arrival. It was memorable. I guess by that time we were still adjusting…My younger one, who was pulled in a sledge did not enjoy the ride. My guess was that he got cold really fast, unlike the rest of us who where walking in deep snow. The girls lasted 45 minutes but the last 15 minutes to join the refuge was difficult. Grilling sausages and drinking hot chocolate helped recovering a bit to finish the walk!
Skiing.
Yes, you can ski in Lapland! We actually stayed in the two main ski station of the region. Pyhä was smaller, more intimate than Levi but I really loved it. The sceneries where really surreal, as the trees where heavely covered with snow. We could ski in and out from our Airbnb, the kids had ski lessons and we had amazing food at the altitude restaurant. There is also a ski school in Levi, and even a daycare for little ones!
Sledge and reindeer.
Don’t miss it. You’ll love it as much as the kids. After feeding the reindeers, we sat two by two in a wooden sledge pulled by a reindeer. After one hour we stopped under tent and sat around a fire to full up with hot juices and soup.
Seeing Santa Claus.
The highlight for the kids. Mine talked about it daily, before, during and after. It was really a chocking encounter. But you be careful: there are many, many, many Santa around Lapland. And not seeing 2 at different places in a couple of hours difference is tricky, we had to come up with some crazy explanations for the kids. To avoid that incident, you have to decide how you want them to meet Santa. The most famous one is at Santa village in Rovaniemi. I did not like this place as it seems like a big amusement park with buses of tourists from around the world who queue for hours to see the man. After waiting 30 minutes there, we decided to go the neighboring place called Santa park which as smaller and better designer for kids between 1-5. It is indoor and underground, so very nice to warm up a little. I really liked the activities offered to kids in addition to meeting Santa: attend an Elf school, decorate Christmas cookies, and see the elf toy atelier. The thirds way to see Santa Claus is to plan a private visit to his house in the forest via a local travel agent. Lots to it from Levi town and it might be better for slightly older kid.
Hiking.
Really nice thing to do with the kids, as you can adapt the length, and choose the timing according to your family’s needs. Our best hike was from Levi, and lasted one hour. We had a hiking backpack for the baby, a sledge for our 3 year old and our 5 year old powered through. Takes lots of snacks and water!
Northern lights.
Although it is not the best time of year to see them, it is still possible. The only tricky part is that they appear in late in the evening which is complicated if you have little one. There are couple of apps you can download on your phone that will tell you the how likely and where they might appear.
Kids ages.
1 year old.
Complicated but not impossible. The hardest at this age is to keep them warm. Althgouh my son was walking, equipped with several layers and snow boots, he could not walk in the snow, and he got quite frustrating. He could only be in the sledge or in our hiking backpack. Forget about baby carriers. Between all your layers and his it gets quickly very uncomfortable.
3 and 5 years.
Super enthusiastic but get tired really fast. The cold had a big impact on my daughters energy levels throughout the day. They both really needed a nap in the afternoon. We’d often plan a ski class, a sledge ride, building a snowman or a little hike once they woke up from their nap to get them moving a bit before bed time.
