They bought an ad in my Disneyland travel adventure story and ever since, I’ve had Lapland on the mind.
What was this mystical place I had, to that point, never heard of? And why exactly haven’t I ever heard of a snowy wonderland where Christmas is king on the ground and Northern Lights rule from above? So I figured, why not use this truly magical destination to launch the Wishlist/Dream Edition of my ongoing American Family Travel Adventure Series!
Before we went to Disneyland, before that SoCal holiday was ever a thought in my head, I would often crack wise about preferring reality to commercial fiction. That’s a fun and shorter way of saying that I very much fancy spending my vacation money on seeing things that have historical significance, are really old (or very, very new), are gorgeous in a way that a Google Image search cannot approximate, and offer the opportunity to assimilate into another culture and lifestyle. This is what I’ve tried to give my children with, if not every vacation, then a fair chunk of them. We’ve been to Europe a couple of times, rode the rails there, ordered baguettes, croissants and crepes in the native tongue, walked the centuries old streets and imaged Romans, peasants, Kings, and actual princesses doing the same many years prior. We’ve hiked the Channel Islands in California and the mountains of West Virginia, climbing up Mont Royal in Montreal, and got questioned by border patrol as we traveled suspiciously close to Mexico. Real stuff. No gift shops.
The Lapland area of northern Finland is now on our Family Travel Adventure Wishlist, along with Chile, New Zealand, and a return trip to Barcelona. Scandinavia, in general, was already there (it’s hard to be a Detroit Red Wings fan and NOT want to see Sweden and Finland,) but it’s been drilled down even further to include the Laplands. We’ve simply gotta see this place in wintertime, if only to hand deliver our lists to Santa one Christmas and to stand in awe of the Northern Lights and the abundant natural beauty of the world. Take a look at the different ways an affordable Lapland Break holiday could be in your future too!
I mean, c’mon, you can stay at a place called Hotel Santa Claus and Hotel Snowflake!
We will someday visit this wonderland called Lapland, and when we do, you’ll read about it on OWTK’s American Family Adventures!!
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