by A trip to see Santa Claus in Lapland tops every child’s Christmas list. For parents of true believers, this presents a particular problem that no overnight delivery service can solve. Bookings are so in demand by operators such as Santa’s Lapland that trips to the Far North in 2023 are sold out and availability in 2024 is already very limited.
Demand aside, trips to see Santa for two days can cost up to almost £3,000 per person. This presents a second problem for ski vacation-loving parents like me: you could easily spend a week on the slopes with your loved ones for a fraction of the price. Skiing or Santa Claus: it’s a debate as controversial as the naughty list.
I found myself in the middle of this contest last Christmas when my six-year-old daughter Evie asked for the chance to go face-to-face with the big guy. It’s magical to see your kids so fascinated by youthful optimism, but I have a confession: I chose skiing.
Who needs to see Santa Claus in Lapland when you’ve got fresh powder to make snowballs, a Christmas market with bonfires and waffles, skiing right around the corner, and spare change in your pocket? Not us (or so he was determined to prove).
Forget Finland
First to find a destination that rivals Lapland. I set our sights on the baroque town of St Johann in Austrian Tyrol, an hour’s drive from Innsbruck airport, where a family winter holiday comes loaded with festivity, without the exorbitant price tag.
Before Christmas, the Alps are magical and there are many other traditions that are just as charming as Santa’s festive Finnish heart. In fact, he’s so charming that his daughter will quickly forget that he never really knew the truth, or so she hoped.
Because there is only one warning. In Austria, although snow-covered pine forests, snow and glitter abound, the locals do not believe in Santa Claus. Instead, it is Christkind (baby Jesus) who brings the gifts, and the big day to celebrate as a family is Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. A minor detail, surely.
My daughter Evie, my mother and I learned all this not from Christian, our ski instructor, on the first day of our three-night break (one more than we would have spent in Lapland) in mid-December.
We had arrived in time for the first day of the winter season and our hotel, the Sentido Alpenhotel Kaiserfels, was a short distance from the Eichenhof gondola, on the edge of St Johann’s 43km of long, easy runs (with more to follow). road in neighboring Kitzbühel).
With an age difference spanning six decades, we opted to engage Christian’s private services rather than split up into different lessons. It was Evie’s fourth time in the snow, so the short gondola ride to Central Station and a gentle blue ride back were ideal. As she closely followed our guide’s skis, recreating airplane wings with her arms to help her turn, my mother and I were delighted to be back on the snow so early in the season.
Tyrolean traditions
He had promised Evie a Christmas trip full of traditions, but he hadn’t specified what they were. So after a morning of skiing, we headed to the St Johann Christmas Market for some Austrian-style festive fun.
Located in the historic center of the town, with its ornate buildings painted green, yellow and cream, the market was as atmospheric as we expected a famous Germanic Christmas event to be. A collection of beautifully decorated wooden chalets lined the square, selling everything from homemade wooden ornaments and knitted scarves and gloves, to locally distilled gin, jewelery and honey.
The cookie stand was the perfect introduction to Christmas in Austria for Evie. Two local volunteers gave him dough and showed him the best way to turn it into sweet, delicate cookies. They shared folklore tales about the friendly Saint Nicholas and her more sinister companion Krampus. Both are a key element of Advent in Austria.
The much-feared but also anticipated Krampus Day is December 5, when people dress up in costumes and get up to mischief, followed 24 hours later by St. Nicholas Day, when well-behaved children are rewarded with candy, peanuts and tangerines. Mesmerized by the stories, Evie didn’t ask a single question about Santa.
If we were in Lapland maybe we would have had a snack leipajusto (a soft cheese, roasted and garnished with red berries); but in St Johann, we opted for our favorite waffles with chocolate sauce and ate them by the campfire, washed down with a cup of hot Campari and hibiscus. Other families had brought their own sticks and wrapped them in dough to toast them over the fire. Called stockbrotThen we found a cabin selling them to treat ourselves.
Family fortunes
The next day we were back on the slopes. Any joy Evie might have had in meeting Santa paled into insignificance when she reached the end of her first red run, which she celebrated by starting a family snowball fight.
A full day on the slopes is a rarity with kids on a ski vacation, so we spent the rest of our time exploring the winter wonderland. Some would not be out of place in Lapland, for example, a horse-drawn sleigh ride through the trees in Gasteig, others not so much, Murmi’s Kinderland, a children’s play center in Kirchdorf in Tirol.
As expected, Santa was noticeably absent throughout our trip, but that didn’t affect the Christmas spirit. I dare say Evie had barely noticed. We returned home feeling fabulously festive and with our own new tradition: family skiing, one that Evie will hopefully never stop believing in.
Rebecca and her family were guests of the Austrian National Tourist Office
