This past weekend my family and I took the short 1 hour journey by plane to the beautiful Arctic Circle to visit the “real Santa” in Rovaniemi, Finland.  We stayed at a very fun resort for families called Santa Claus Holiday Village where you get to stay in cute cozy cabins which include a sauna in the bathroom.  Breakfast, dinner, and wi-fi are also included.  Mia and I had never seen so much snow in our lives!  The resort was a great experience and had many activities for families to do including: Snowmobile rides, sledding, shopping, restaurants, husky sled rides, Santa’s main post office (where all the children’s letters to Santa arrive), Santa’s ice park, the chance to see the Northern Lights, Santa’s reindeer rides,  and of course Santa himself!  Here is a link to their website:   http://www.santaclausholidayvillage.fi

Here are a few photos from around the resort:

We decided to travel to a secret place in the middle of the forest to experience the Dream of Joulukka.  It was an experience our family will never forget! If you get the chance to experience this through the eyes of a child it is truly a magical and unforgettable experience. A white van came to pick us up at the resort and we stopped to pick up a few others on our way to Joulukka.  We drove for about 30 minutes out to what felt like the middle of nowhere into a mystical forest.  All of the kids also magically fell asleep on the ride there and back. So, it certainly is a secret place and the kids have no idea where they were! There were 12 of us total on this adventure and we were greeted by a cute little elf!  She took us to a cozy hut with a fire pit in the middle which said elf school above the door.  Her, another elf and a troll told us elf stories and  taught us a few of the elves secrets.  We also had fun decorating gingerbread cookies and receiving our Santa’s Helper Diplomas after graduating from elf school! 

After graduating from elf school, the elves took us through a candle lit forest to a fire where they told more stories under the beautiful clear star lit sky of Lapland. We enjoyed roasting marshmallows and sipping on hot chocolate to keep us warm and cozy!  We then took another journey through more of the candle lit mystical forest to Santa’s Command Center where we saw many cool things including Santa’s world map, his mail machine, his desk, and at the end we enjoyed a very magical experience of meeting  Santa Claus himself!

After going through a secret door, we met Santa himself! Mia had the opportunity to tell him what she dreamed of for Christmas and Santa also presented her with a gift (we secretly gave it to an elf ahead of time) and he even walked outside in the snow to talk with us before we left his home in the forest!

Here is a link to the Dream of Joulukka Santa experience:

http://www.joulukka.com/programs/dream-of-joulukka/

My next post about Rovaniemi will include our Husky Sled Ride experience and seeing the Northern Lights! We can now mark another Red Pin Adventure off our travel bucket list:

Visit the Arctic Circle & Santa Claus