It was that time of year again, the annual visit to Santa and this year we decided to go one better than previous years and went to Lapland UK. It was one of the best Christmas experiences we and our daughter ever enjoyed!
We signed up online and completed some details to personalise the experience, a few days later a personal invitation arrived addressed to our daughter, she couldn’t have been more excited!
We headed down to Lapland where our experience started by congregating in the welcome area where you ‘check in’ like a hotel, then after a brief wait we were welcomed to Lapland UK by the Chief Elf who provided a warm welcome and the ushered us through a starlit passage to the first of the ‘story telling’ scenes.
At the end of the passage we entered an atmospheric chamber where we all sat down, while we sat down we watched another elf collect wood from the impressive set. Once everyone was seated he then told us all a story, during this story a fairy entered from the back of the stage which the kids loved.
Once that story was completed we moved onto the next stage of our journey, which was to go to the Toy Factory. In the toy factory there was another great routine and the kids were all given toy Reindeer to stuff to help the Elves out with their shortage of toys for this Christmas, as well as the Reindeer the kids all put together little wooden toys too. All great fun!
Then it was off to see Mrs Claus in her kitchen. After a great song and dance routine, the kids iced and decorated their own Gingerbread men which was really interactive and fun. Most importantly, they got to keep their Gingerbread men!
After the kitchen we headed over to the central ‘Town Square’ area, in the square there are shops a post office (where the kids can write to Santa), and most importantly – the ice skating! I hadn’t ice skated since I was a teenager but my daughter insisted I joined her, it’s safe to say she was better at it than I was! The ice skating rink had plenty of room and at no time was too busy.
When we finished skating we had a bite to eat in the excellent restaurant, which was reasonably priced and offered great portions. After a wander around the other areas of the square it was time for the main event…. To meet the big man himself…
So, we journeyed through a meandering passage way which took us past live Reindeer, Santa’s sleigh and miniature elf houses which looked immaculate.
We arrived at Santa’s cottage and waited outside, once we were ushered in (and by this stage our daughter knew it was the actual Santa!) we had a good five minutes with Santa and because of the personalisation knew all about our daughters best friend, our daughter’s favourite activities and what she wanted for Christmas.
It was truly heartwarming and a wonderful experience!
