We took our three young children, aged 4, 5 and 7 to Lapland UK on 9th December 2010 and had a fantastic day. Entering a magical world of make believe, we didn't want the day to finish and wanted to turn back time to do it all again!
We have visited lots of Santa events, but Lapland UK is defiantly the ultimate experience, especially if you can't afford the real thing. We were really impressed, it was so well organised and thought out. The staff were brilliant, all very professional and played their parts extremely well, which made the experience that much better and very real. The layout and the detail to everything was also brilliant, so much better than what we had expected. Surprisingly it was a relaxing day and we liked how it was all scheduled affording plenty of time for each activity.
We received beautiful invitations for the children and decided to place them on their pillows to find in the morning. They were thrilled when they awoke and felt very special to be selected to help Santa at Lapland.
We arrived 20 minutes early as suggested and waited for our appointment time before booking in. Whilst waiting, the Woodland Elves entertained us before moving on to an area of woodland trees where there was a huge gate that the children decided was the way in. The woodland people entertained the children, photos were taken and the children peeped through small windows to see into Lapland. The magical journey starts here.
After walking down a snowy woodland path we were greeted by a Lapland Sami guide who told stories to the children before splitting the group into two. Our group was whisked off to the Toy Factory, which was laid out superbly in a large log cabin, all cosy and warm. Our three children thought it was wonderful. After a while, another Sami guide took us off to find Mother Christmas in another large log cabin. Here the children had a story and got to ice ginger bread men. The groups were a nice size allowing plenty of space for everyone in the log cabins without any pushing and shoving.
We then had an hour’s free time and we all enjoyed a meal bought from the servery. Afterwards we met the friendly beautiful husky dogs and wrote letters to Santa in the post office. And then there was time for ice-skating, the children accompanied by Penguin helpers had great fun and we even saw Rudolph walking around saying hello to everyone and giving them big hugs.
At last, it was time to visit Santa, our children were so excited and ran ahead down the snowy paths into a waiting area. We gave their names together with a little information about each child and after 5 minutes it was our turn to be whisked away down through snowy pathways to Santa’s log cabin.
Santa was wonderful and the cabin was amazing, just how you would expect the real Santa’s Grotto to look. He had his good children list, a massive book where he found our children’s names and information. Our son (7yrs) was amazed that Santa knew he liked Pele the Brazilian footballer, how did he know that, the children wondered? After what seemed like a very look time chatting to Santa, he gave the children gifts and they all had their photo taken with him. The children waved goodbye to Santa and we made our way to the Reindeers, climbed on the sleigh and it was all over apart from going to the shop and buying our Santa photos.
Lapland UK is a truly magical place, an unforgettable experience that my children will remember forever, they really believed they were in a secret Lapland, visiting the real Father Christmas.
Written by Claudine Ridley
