Depending on how you feel about the festive period, this is either a very cute idea or something you’d cross continents to avoid.
An upscale vacation company in Finnish Lapland has struck upon the idea of offering year-round yuletide breaks to anyone who can’t wait until Christmas.
Luxury Action, which also runs a service creating Hollywood movie-style vacations, is renting out Christmas chalets – complete with decorated tree and log burning stove – whatever the season.
“They used to say, ‘Christmas comes but once a year.’ Not any more,” says Luxury Action’s website.
“Our Christmas Chalets bring on the seasonal spirit 365 days of the year. Summer or winter, autumn or spring, we guarantee you’ll spend Christmas in style.”
Luxury Action promises its chalets will be “bursting with the warmth and cosiness you associate with the festive season.”
No sleep till Santa
All well and good for those who actually do associate the festive season with warmth and coziness.
Not so much fun for those who associate it with the bleak existential crises that can only be brought on by waking up hungover in the tiny bed you slept in as a child.
Of course, that last problem can be avoided by booking a midsummer trip when the sun never sets north of the Arctic Circle, meaning Christmas Day could go on – sleeplessly – for weeks.
Janne Honkanen, Luxury Action’s owner, says he expects the chalets will appeal to families who want the Lapland Christmas experience but without the huge price tag attached to the December peak season.
It could also attract travelers from warmer countries like India who prefer to travel to cooler climes during their own scorching summers, but stay at home in winter.
“Many of us have family traditions for the holiday season, such as family get togethers with grandparents,” Honkanen tells CNN. “We want to offer a choice for the families who’d like to have a true Santa Claus experience – whenever that suits them.”
Yule logistics
Honkanen adds that spreading the Christmas experience out over the year will also help an overstretched Santa.
“Lapland in Finland, at the very north of Europe, offers an amazing Arctic destination, and we want to make sure they will have a little touch of Christmas as well.
“Approximately 400 000 people visit Santa Claus Village, Rovaniemi Lapland, every year. However, only 30% of all visitors gets to meet Santa Claus personally during the high season so now we want to offer a full Christmas Experience around the year.”
Luxury Action is launching its year-round Christmas alongside another service, Santa Concierge, that offers the full Lapland experience delivered anywhere in the world, also at any time of the year.
It offers to send a team of “Santa’s helpers” to handle the yule logistics.
These include interior designers, event planners and luxury lifestyle experts, plus “elves” and Santa himself, to organize “joyful, Christmas-themed events for families, businesses and charities.”