tepee, our noses were s

Chilling out with a Claus celebre and two very excited children in FinlandThe first time I tried to visit Father Christmas in his homeland was on a day trip. Big mistake. Owing to ’ technical problems’, our flight from Gatwick was diverted to Manchester.The powers that be then decided there wasn’t enough time left in the day to make alternative arrangements, so one planeload of tearful children and shell shocked parents was callously flown back to East Sussex instead of on to a Scandinavian winter wonderland. Blue Patent leather Mater Claude 100mm’Everything is blue,’ said Edward, our four year old, as we passed a reindeer on the tarmac of Ivalo airport. And it was. During December, 150 miles above the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t rise properly. Instead, from ten in the morning to three in the afternoon, there’s an ethereal, violet tinged twilight.What also immediately strikes you is you guessed it the temperature. It ranged from 10C to 15C during our stay, though it can get even colder.You need to be togged up in endless layers of clothes when you want to venture outside getting the children out the door for school is a cakewalk by comparison.It makes you feel like an Arctic explorer, but once dressed in the brightly coloured thermal suit you’re provided with, you look like a Teletubby.One of the advantages of staying a few nights is that you get lots of time to play in what is likely to be superlative snow.Saariselka smaller and less commercial than some resorts used for Lapland packages looked enchanting.Snow dangled off branches like white catkins, making trees into natural works of art, and the white stuff lay so thickly on the ground that we sank up to our waists if we strayed off the main thoroughfares.We stayed in a comfy apartment that was part of Rose Patent leather Mater Claude 100mm the Hotel Holiday Club. The journey between the apartment and main hotel building was something of an adventure.We’d tug Edward and his seven year old brother Arthur along on communal toboggans supplied by the resort, and there were stops for snowball fights and making snowmen.Our second day involved a bigger adventure: a snowmobile safari. From the top of the nearby fell, we went in a snaking convoy for miles through a white wilderness.I rode the machine (it’s easy imagine being at the controls of a motorbike without having to worry about balancing), while the boys and Mum sat under blankets in a sledge pulled by a guide’s snowmobile.We were out for a couple of hours, and it was the only time anyone really suffered from the elements.Arthur got really cold. Part of the problem was that the snow boots hehad been given were too tight to keep warm, it’s crucial you have airbetween layers. The sledge getting stuck in the snow did not help.Mum tried to distract Arthur by playing I Spy, perhaps not the best choice of game when all you can see is snow and pine trees.The following day we were taken by coach to an activity centre. If that sounds tacky, it wasn’t in the least. It was on the edge of a pine and birch forest, with no souvenir shops or ugly buildings in sight.We mucked about playing ice hockey, carving Black Leather Mater Claude 100mm snow statues and tobogganing, while Arthur loved riding a mini snowmobile that was tethered to a tree. And we all enjoyed the Arctic Circle Ceremony.As we sat snug round a fire in a tepee, our noses were smudged with charcoal to make us safe and we touched our ears so that we would return in the next life as reindeers.Next it was a reindeer ride and then a far more exhilarating husky ride. With my family snuggled up on a sledge in front of me, I got to drive a pack of yelping dogs on a winding track through the forest, leaning this way and that to avoid Black Patent Leather Mater Claude 100mm colliding with the trees.After we’d warmed up over a lunch of spaghetti, pancakes and berry squash, the main event of the day was upon us. A snowmobile towed us on a sledge on a mystery expedition deep into the woods. We stopped at a log cabin. Cheeky elves ushered us inside.The Big Man in Red looked and sounded the part, with beard down to his knees, and thick Nordic accent.And, thanks to some choreographed sleights of hand, he was miraculously holding the letters the boys had written him weeks earlier back at home.