The Christmas Adventure of a Lifetime

Gail Lister on 04 February 2019
“Do you have your toothbrushes?” “MUUUM, where’s my pink scarf?” All packed, anticipation on our faces and passports in hand - me, my mum Nanny Cuckoo, son Xavier and daughter Lily, all excited and ready for our trip. Buzzing with energy helped from a few in-flight snack purchases and the fact we were going to Lapland! We flew from Stansted at 7am for a short 3hour 15min journey to our Christmas destination.

Due to such an early start, it was far more convenient to drive and stay in Stansted the day before, enabling us to simply walk (or for us, skip!) to the terminal that morning. What a great start to the holiday, I always have fast track passes for Stansted Airport to relieve the stress and amount of queueing so early in the morning!

On arrival at Ivalo Airport we disembarked the aircraft and walked to the terminal. The air was icily cold and added to the excitement of what was ahead. We were met in the baggage reclaim area by reps and cheeky elves to guide and entertain us to our transfer coaches. Even the airport arrival was magical!

Once onboard we were told exactly what was happening throughout our stay and the time of our welcome meeting that afternoon. The transfer time to our hotel the Holiday Club Hotel in Saariselka was just 20 minutes. Once in our resort, we stopped outside a shop where we jumped off the coach and collected our outdoor snow wear, all in all a very clever and smooth operation. You were given a large bag that would fit up to 2/3 outfits in, so for our family we were given two large bags. In an orderly manner we walked along and there were staff that looked at you, guessed your size and handed you a snowsuit to put straight in your bag. Next stop was boots where we told them our shoe size and they gave us boots (but one size bigger) along with a pair of thermal socks. The last stop was mittens with thermal liners. Once these were all collected and put in your bag, we went back to the transfer coach to the hotel which was less than 5 minutes away. What a perfectly smooth operation!

As we entered the hotel another rep “Ranger” handed us our room key and an envelope with further information on and told us to let him know of any clothing amendments. Now for some more fun! We all tried on our new snow outfits - mine and Xavier’s fit perfectly but Nanny Cuckoo and Lily needed some changes. No matter - the Ranger was there to collect the suitable sizes and after our dinner we were given our new gear. Everything was so well organised!

After dinner Xavier wanted to go tobogganing and Lily swimming. Nanny Cuckoo took Lily to the beautiful pool where the water was lovely and warm, had a slide, jacuzzi and wave machine. This meant Xavier and I tobogganed! The toboggan run was a good 10-minute walk and once there we grabbed our sledges and had the most hilarious fun ever! Only on our last run did someone tell me how to steer my sledge properly whereas previously we were simply crying with laughter hoping everyone would get out of the way! This was the most hilarious, side splitting fun, both me and Xavier red faced from the giggling, cold air and my terrible steering!

When we arrived back at the hotel Lily and Mum were still playing in the pool (so calm in comparison!) Xavier joined them for the last 15 minutes before it closed. Feeling totally exhausted but exhilarated we returned to our rooms and promptly fell fast asleep in our cosy beds.

Next day: adventure day! We were given a time to be at the hotel reception to get on our dedicated coach to take us on our search for Santa and other activities. We were given our set time for the Husky rides, the only scheduled activity, all others we could do at our leisure. We headed straight to the ice bar to admire the incredibly intricate ice sculptures, then onto the igloo Fantasia to meet some more cheeky elves and learn about their jobs and how they get along with Father Christmas. “The Big Man” as they call him! Every minute was fun, entertaining, informative and well structured. The igloo interior was breath-taking, the seating was made from ice blocks with reindeer skin rugs over them for us to sit on, the lighting twinkled, and the elves were funny and interesting. As we left, Lily asked to have a photo with the girl elf who acted so excited to have a photo with Lily, Lily was made up and Chuckles became her favourite Elf. The whole experience was full of magic.

We then stopped in a tepee for some hot berry juice, pancakes and cookies to recharge before heading off on our Husky ride. These refreshments were all free, delicious and unlimited. To get to the huskies we had to catch a snowmobile sleigh train, which ran continuously and there was a lovely crackling fire to sit around whilst we waited for a couple of minutes and a friendly Ranger chatted and played with the kids. The sleigh train ride was an adventure in itself, whizzing through the magical forest!

At the Husky Centre the children were taken to one side by some elves to play games whilst the grown-ups got a lesson on how drive the sleigh. It all sounded very straightforward and simple, if a little daunting! My mum and two children happily seated in the sleigh as I took my position at the back to drive. This activity had to be the highlight for me - it was truly a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget. Who said Lapland was just for kids? I’ve had the most fantastic time here too! Imagine, the cold air on your face as the huskies pull you through the snow to the giggling and shouting of your loved ones - this really was the Christmas adventure of a lifetime!

At the end of our ride we were able to coach the dogs and take photos with them, they were so loving and their fur so soft we wanted to scoop them all up and take them home with us! I wonder what our cat would think...

By lunchtime none of us were hungry and we were having so much fun we simply grabbed ourselves another hot berry juice and a pancake and headed to off to find Santa. There was a 40-minute wait here, although I’m happy to stand in a queue (the kids probably wouldn’t) however this was not a problem as Xavier went off and played ice hockey whilst Lily decided to make an ice sculpture of her own and play in the snow. Never once did they say, “I’m bored, is it our turn” and when it was our turn they quickly jumped into our snowmobile sleigh excitingly in search of Santa, crossing a frozen mystical lake.

On arrival we had two elves meet us who played jokes on the children and made them giggle, then they asked Lily to open the door to a wooden lodge and to our surprise Father Christmas was in there waiting for us! We sat down and he chatted to the children, showed them their letters he’d received and talked about their presents. (I had also spoken to my snowmobile ranger and asked if he could give the correct pronunciation of Xavier and he passed this message on so Xavier was over the moon that Father Christmas said his name properly as none of the “others” ever had, proving further still he was the real one and only Big Man himself!) We could take as many photos as we liked and one of the elves took plenty of great photos on my phone of the four of us with Father Christmas. Again, another magical highlight!

After Santa the children had a couple of turns on the mini skidoos as there was no queue for these and had a great time tobogganing again, then we went for our reindeer sleigh ride, met the real Rudolph himself and learnt plenty more things about reindeers, especially how to catch and fly them! The reindeers were beautiful and added again to the magic of this World of Christmas.

After we had completed all of the many exciting activities on offer, we headed back to the ice bar for a delicious Hot Chocolate (mine and Nanny Cuckoos with a cheeky Baileys in) before grabbing a transfer coach back to our hotel. Tonight, was our Gala night but as we were there with two other lovely families we decided to stay at our hotel, and all go swimming after dinner that evening and spend our spare time in the morning tobogganing and shopping.

I could write pages and pages on this whole experience, the food at our hotel was delicious, hot and plentiful, the staff were all so lovely and friendly, in fact everybody around was so happy because we were all having the time of our lives making the best memories for our children - I really cannot recommend this holiday enough.

At the end of our trip we had to put all our snowsuits, boots and mittens back in the bags and leave them at reception, it was so simple and easy, then we just had to play in the snow some more until our transfer coach came and took us sadly back to the airport for our flight home. This holiday is one that I, Nanny Cuckoo and my children will never forget, the magical Christmas Adventure of a Lifetime. Please don’t hesitate to ask me any more questions and I hope you enjoyed hearing about our adventure!