An Honest Review of The Searching For Santa Experience at The Northern Lights Village

We have recently returned from a dream DIY trip to Lapland where we had such a magical time we really didn’t want to come home. During our 5 night stay, we booked the Searching for Santa experience at the Northern Lights Village in Levi for Christmas Day itself as a big treat for both of our boys – one who had his birthday that day too. I’d heard great things about this experience via a Lapland Facebook group I joined and looking at the website, it sounded like the ideal way to wrap up our special Christmas Day. As much fun as most of this 3 hour experience was, I did have some issues with parts of it and I am going to cover all of this in my honest review…

Booking Searching for Santa

I booked the Searching for Santa experience directly through the Northern Lights Village website. At almost £400 this was a very pricey part of our trip but when do you EVER get the chance to not only go to Lapland but to also see Santa Claus on Christmas Day?!

“Searching for Santa is a set of playful, unforgettable Christmas experiences for the young and the young at heart, set in Northern Lights Village”

Northern Lights Village Website

Booking is very straighforward and during this you are asked all about your kid’s names, ages, and what they want for Christmas so Santa has these details when you visit which I thought was a really nice touch. In the run up to the day I was sent email reminders of our booking with all the information and on the day before we went I was sent an online form to complete just to confirm all of the details I had previously given as well as providing their hobbies, and to double-check what Santa had brought them. There was also a box for any other details so I made sure to make a big thing about it being Jake’s 11th birthday.

Arrival

We were staying in a cabin located in Äkäslompolo which is around 50 minutes from the Northern Lights Village. We knew from our email reminders that we had to be there 15 minutes early so we set off in good time and arrived at 4:30 pm (15 mins prior to our booking). We parked up and couldn’t see any signs telling us where to go so we headed inside the main building to ask at reception. She told us we needed to go to the Safari House across the car park so out we went… We tried the door, it was locked. We could see the snow suits inside (which are listed as being included in the price of the experience) but the building was empty. We then spotted 4 adults standing by a teepee so I reluctantly interrupted and realised that one was dressed differently and was a member of staff – she was in fact an Elf. I asked where we needed to be and she said to just wait there. So I said but we were asked to be here early, we are doing Searching for Santa. She replied “oh yeah they always say that, just wait here or inside the tent”. Not exactly the big Christmas welcome we were all expecting. So we stood and waited outside (the tent was very dark).

My eldest wasn’t really feeling it at the start

Two more elves then came out of another building on the opposite side of the car park and one came over to ask my name. I told her and she said yep! And started her script. Again, no big wahoo welcome thing which was really disappointing in my view (we were also not provided with the snowsuits. We didn’t feel we needed them but I wanted to add that this was never mentioned even though it is listed as part of the package). She handed us a scroll that was sealed with a sticker which we struggled to get off and then to make matters worse when she asked my son to read it, he couldn’t see well enough to! You’d think that lighting would be one of the first things the holiday park would think about when you get limited daylight at this time of year. So, we had to shift next to the Safari House and tilt it towards the fairy lights.

The elf then asked us all to practise a skip. I can’t remember why because we weren’t required to skip at any other time but we did it and had a little laugh about it. Then she asked us to follow her to the Enchanted Forest.

The Enchanted Forest

YES! I thought, this is what I was waiting for and I had spent weeks imagining us searching through this forest for Santa. Yeah… It was a poorly lit pathway through a small bit of woods. At the entrance, we had to tell her all the names of the reindeer to enter and then she led us through. She told us to be careful as it was dark and not all lanterns were on (not sure why they couldn’t all be on). She also had my husband count all the lanterns, even the non-lit ones, as this was going to help us at the next stage. I have to admit I was slightly worried about what I had paid for at this point.

Gingerbread Making

On the other side of the wooded area, was a wooden building where we were told we would be making gingerbread. On entry the building was lovely and warm, there was a beautiful ginger aroma in the air and more elves – far more bubbly elves. I breathed a sigh of relief. My husband answered how many lanterns there were and the children had to knock that number of times on the door. A cheeky elf opened the door and welcomed us in. We entered a room of tables with other families happily making their biscuits and I was so pleased to hear laughter. This is what we needed, atmosphere. We were each given a ball of gingerbread and some cutters and asked to make 4 shapes each. In the meantime, the elves were busy chatting with us and others, making jokes and messing about. My faith in this experience was starting to be restored.

Our gingerbread dough was then taken to be baked and whilst we waited we were given information sheets to fill out about ourselves which also had a box for drawing a small self-portrait in. This led to a lot of banter from the elves who came around to scrutinise our pictures which had some tables in complete hysterics. I then told the elf at our table that it was my eldest son’s birthday and she couldn’t believe it! This led to more excitement and her grabbing a chair to stand on to encourage the room to all sing happy birthday to him. This was such a special moment for us. Having a Christmas Day birthday often means only seeing a handful of people every year so to have all these visitors and elves singing to him and wishing him a Happy Birthday was a new and fun experience.

Once our cookies were baked, we then decorated them and could either eat them or pop them in a little bag for later or to give to Santa we were told.

Once everything was finished, we could use the toilet, get all our warm gear back on and we were directed towards the next stage, the reindeer sleigh ride.

Reindeer Sleigh Ride

This activity was one I had been really looking forward to. We did husky sledding on Christmas Eve which was such a huge highlight of our trip but we didn’t book anything in to do with reindeer because we knew it was part of the Searching for Santa experience… (bit of a mistake).

We were greeted by a man who explained that we’d need to go in two sleighs as the sleighs were only small and pulled by 1 reindeer.

He asked us not to make much noise, not to touch the reindeer or to use flash photography which I liked because it showed that the welfare of the animals came first.

Once we were in and comfortable we were off… Into the darkest area we had been to yet so we couldn’t see the reindeer, where we were going or each other. This is a screenshot from a video I tried to take but had to give up on, you can probably see why!

You can almost make out the white fluffy tail!

Now I am sure that during the daylight hours, this is all lovely but what about after 3pm? You just don’t get to see the reindeer? Why was this not lit in some way? I mean it’s great that you can see the stars in the sky (my husband loved that) but I wanted to see my children’s faces as they enjoyed a reindeer sleigh ride.

The website states:

 “After the cookie moment, the Elf will take you to meet Santa’s flying reindeer. Unfortunately, the reindeer only fly on Christmas night, but you get to take a (short) ride on the reindeer-drawn sleigh through the snowy forest instead.“

Short should not be in brackets here, in fact further down the page it states it is 10 minutes long, it wasn’t. This was over before it began (we estimated around 3 minutes in the sleigh) – I couldn’t believe it when he said we’re here time to get out. The next stop was…

Hot Chocolate Hut

We were invited inside a wooden hut for hot chocolate. This part of the experience left me with mixed feelings. Firstly it was quite daunting walking into a tiny hut with lots of eyes on us (other visitors had already been there a while) and even more daunting when we had to stand up and introduce ourselves and give some answers to the elve’s questions. Secondly, these elves were far more about the banter than any others which was a lot of fun for us adults but at times the wrong type of humour for younger kids and most things went over their heads. Thirdly, we were in here for absolutely ages.

To begin with it was nice to get warm and have a drink but after some time it dawned on me that this was a “killing time” tactic. I’m not even sure how long we were in there? 45 minutes maybe? It felt long. We played one game of Chinese whispers but other than that it was just the elves being loud and jokey to fill the time. Us adults laughed a lot but I worried the children were bored (see what I mean by mixed feelings). To help pass the time and to involve the children more, I did mention my child’s birthday again so he had happy birthday sung to him (again) which was fun. I can’t fault the staff, they were doing what they were paid to do and never broke character or seemed worried about time but I was very glad when they said it was our turn to move on.

Snowmobile Sleigh

So when I read on their website that “The Snowmobile-Elf will take your family on a heated sleigh ride into the forest” I thought it meant we would all go on snowmobiles – my mistake, I read into this wrong. So I was certainly surprised when this turned up:

This is the heated(??) sleigh and it was pulled at great speed by an elf on a snowmobile. We are all in agreement that this was the worst part of this experience… And we had to do it twice!! (You’ll see soon). We had two of us in the front and two of us in the back, with no seatbelts, nothing to hold onto and flimsy doors (just you wait until later). The speed at which the snowmobile went had us lifted out of seats, thrown around and quite worried. We also couldn’t see out at all. We were extremely glad when we reached our destination – finding Santa.

Finding Santa

On arrival we were greeted by a calm elf, a sweet elf, the nicest elf in my opinion. He was warm and talked nicely to the children, it was how I expected an elf to be – no banter. He walked us down a beautifully lit snowy path with lanterns and twinkling fairy lights on trees. He reassured the children and asked them to call out “SANTA!” and as they did we heard jingle bells and Santa appeared from his cabin, stood on the decking and said “Ho Ho Ho, William, Jake, how are you?” Honestly, I nearly cried. This was what I had been waiting for and to have that personlisation in his greeting just made my day. (sorry the image is a bit grainy, it’s a screenshot from a video).

He invited us in where he chatted with the children, he asked about their hobbies, he told us about his workshop under the floorboards (a couple of elves then did a funny skit which wasn’t over the top like we had seen previously, it just worked) and at the last minute he did mention Jake’s birthday. I’d have hoped this would have been made a bigger deal of at the start but the elf redeemed that but making a huge fuss and giving Jake loads of chocolates as an extra treat. The boys were then given gifts and to our surprise so were us adults.

I have to also add that up close Santa was clearly a skinny guy who had been plumped out with clothing and who’s face had been almost entirely covered with a fake beard – which I’m sorry to say again because I don’t wanna come across negative – was quite disappointing. When you book a Lappish Santa experience you really do expect to get an actor who looks like the real deal, don’t you? A real beard surely is a must in this situation? Anyway, the boys didn’t notice and the personal touch had them thinking they had met the real Santa so I can’t complain there. The overall feel it gave me outweighs the niggles but I had to be honest in this review so you know what we experienced and what you may get if you also book.

Back to the (Death) Sleigh!

Unfortunately our transport back was the death snowmobile sleigh and this ride was worse than the first time. I was thrown up so high that I came down on my lower back and hurt it AND two doors flung open during the ride which went unnoticed by the elf and my husband had to hang out to pull them closed. Seems they are lacking ‘Elf and Safety’ in Santa’s Villlage (sorry not sorry!) I’m not sure how people with disabilities, medical conditions, the elderly or smaller children cope with this.

Toasting Marshmallows Hut

Thankfully once that was all over we were invited inside another wooden hut to toast marshmallows with 3 fun female elves. These girls were cheeky, each had a different character and all were absolutely hilarious. They really made the end of our adventure and had us all smiling and laughing. The even took us outside for an ‘Elfie Selfie’.

Time To Leave… On Our Own!

Having had my mind changed about this experience by great interactions, laughter, sweet moments and personal touches we were then told it was over and that we could go… On. Our. Own! Yep, thanks for coming, byeeeee. Just head back that way, towards the gingerbread house, go back through the (dark) woods and you’ll be back where you started. Umm what? We went back past the gingerbread house where we could see the elves getting their coats on to leave and we entered the now even darker woods where we had to use our phone torches to see the path as my eldest lost his balance trying to work out which way to go. We then came to the car park where we saw some elves leaving for the day. Ahhh, yeah a truly magical end (sarcasm). What a shame. Why couldn’t one elf have been on hand to skip us back to the car? Or why not have one last adventure that leads you back?

Overall Thoughts

I would say the idea is great, some parts were amazing, some need work and attention to smaller details are missing. More lighting, more intrigue, more magic. With a few tweaks this could have been excellent and something I would have raved about. Did we have a good time overall? Yes, definitely, it was fun and different and the children loved it. Would I do it again? No. Firstly because we have now done this so I wouldn’t need to do the same experience again but also because it was a lot of money for something that wasn’t quite perfect. I think if you were staying at the Northern Lights Village you may feel differently about the Searching for Santa experience as I am sure the elves get to know the kids and it’s part of the package you’ve gone there for but for us, it wasn’t the true magic I was expecting.

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