Family Travel: Get Into the Holiday Spirit

It’s the holiday season! You could go to the mall to visit Santa, or you could go to the actual North Pole and see real reindeer in Finland. Travel can bond families and help get into the holiday spirit. Think of sleigh rides through the woods in Montana, strolling through historic European cities and taking in the festive holiday markets, snowmobiling and dog sledding. We’ve rounded up some fun family activities for the holidays.

Macy’s Day Parade and Exploring the Big Apple

Take a carriage ride through Central Park followed by tea time at the Plaza with Eloise. Go  ice skating in Rockefeller Plaza and stop in the new FAO Schwartz for some holiday shopping.  Take in a fun Broadway show like the Lion King, Frozen, Wicked, or Aladdin. See the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, then on to Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate.

Lapland, Finland for a winter wonderland

For the ultimate Santa experience, go to the source: the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland. Santa’s Village is complete with reindeer, elves and  a post office.  You can even arrange for a private Santa meeting in the snow-covered forest! For teens, you can go dog sledding with huskies, ice fishing, or snowmobiling. Fresh powdery snow makes for great snowshoeing and sledding. Go snowshoeing to chase the Northern Lights, or take a snowmobile to the reindeer farm. The accommodations are quite unique ranging from tree houses, to igloo style domes, to ice hotels.

Sleigh Rides in the states

Cozy up on a horse-drawn sleigh ride with some hot chocolate under blankets. We love this winter activity for the family, especially for those who don’t ski. Some of our favorites are the Montage in Deer Valley, Utah – Blackberry Farm in Tennessee,  and Paws Up in Montana. You can partake in many outdoor winter activities such as snow tubing, snow mobiling, snowshoeing, skiing, winter horseback riding, ice skating, . The newest activity is Skijoring: skiing while being pulled by dogs or horses.

European Christmas Markets

From November to New Year’s, you can warm up with a hot chocolate or mulled wine and stroll the historic streets past 13^th century cathedrals in some of Europe’s larger and smaller cities’ Christmas Markets. This is a fun way to spend the holidays with loved ones. Vienna and Strasbourg are some of our favorites. If you want a city stay: Munich, Prague, London. In Germany, check out Cologne and Dresden.  Annie lived in both Germany and Belgium over Christmas time and can’t think of a better way to get into the holiday spirit than tasting a local delicacy, sipping hot wine, and purchasing a handcrafted ornament.