Father Christmas Magic

DAY 1

Depart Heathrow at 10.20 on Finnair scheduled flight(s) via Helsinki to Ivalo. Arrive 18.50 local time and private transfer to Nellim by Lake Inari. Check in at the Nellim Wilderness Hotel. Welcome drink, programme briefing and Sami buffet supper.
 

DAY 2

After breakfast it’s time to meet Christopher’s pack of Alaskan huskies, whose kennels in the forest are just a short walk from the hotel and whose excited barking slowly magnifies as you approach them through the trees. Grown-ups mush teams in pairs whilst children ride tucked up in a sleigh behind their guide. As the dogs pull you along a snow-carpeted trail the silence is broken only by the whooshing sound of slicing sleigh runners. En route, stop by an open fire in a clearing for a restorative, warming berry juice and cookies. Lunch back at the hotel.

In the afternoon its time to meet Rudolph, Donner and Blitzen, whose herders take everybody for a ride on the crystal sparkling lake, having previously assembled in a Kota for a traditional ‘Crossing the ‘Arctic Circle Ceremony’. Concurrently each family is taken individually to meet Father Christmas and his elves, at a secret location in the forest known only to the guides, where children can make known their wishes. Supper in a traditional Kota close by the hotel.

DAY 3

After breakfast it’s time for a wilderness adventure safari by snowmobile, with grown ups paired up and children in a snowmobile sleigh, following a trail among pine and birch close by the rock-fringed shoreline of Lake Inari, immortalised as Enari in Philip Pullman’s trilogy ‘His Dark Materials’.

After crossing a mix of tundra, ice sheet and forest floor, lunch is cooked over hot wood embers from an open fire in a clearing, before leaving along a fresh trail leading back to the hotel. In the afternoon it’s party time on the sloping bank leading down to the lake with tobogganing, ice fishing, snow shoeing and cross country skiing outdoors and cookie baking and decorating the Christmas tree indoors.

Time for children to re-charge their batteries before a valedictory traditional Sami Christmas buffet supper culminating in a visit from Father Christmas attended by Rudolph to make earlier wishes come true and deliver a small present to everyone, grown ups and children alike.

DAY 4

After breakfast, time at leisure for last minute tobogganing and snow shoeing at the Lake’s shore before transferring to Ivalo for Finnair scheduled flight(s) to Heathrow where you arrive at 17.10 local time.