In Lapland, Finding Santa at the Source

And of course, chances are the sky will erupt at some point with the eerily shimmering green and pink lights of the aurora borealis. I scanned the skies nightly with great excitement and would have fallen to my knees if the northern lights had visited during a critical moment in the Christmas Eve service. But it didn't happen: Clear skies are required, and the skies during my stay were full of clouds heavy with snow.

Besides, Finns adapt to the darkness. Ski slopes and many cross-country ski paths are lighted. Christmas lights twinkle day and night. If I lived here, I probably would drink myself into oblivion, as some here are rumored to do.

But for a few days, the long dawn and endless moon are fascinating. The weak natural light reflecting off the whiteness of the snow puts a kind of silvery glaze over your day. The days slowly begin to lengthen soon after Christmas. But during the holidays, you can sleep in, knowing that whatever you were planning to do that day can just as easily be done at night.

Reindeer on the Menu

Hearing that traffic in Finland continues unabated despite frequent winter storms, I assumed that highway crews quickly scrape and salt the roads. That is true in Helsinki, which even has heated sidewalks as a means of snow abatement. But after arriving in Lapland two days before Christmas, I realize that drivers simply go about their business as if the ice and snow-covered roads were dry and by some magic manage not to skid out of control. I vow to stick with buses and cabs, rather than a rented car.

Rather than take the just-over-an-hour flight from Helsinki to Lapland, which I would now advise, we take an overnight train, followed by a four-hour bus ride to the small town of Muonio, near Finland's western border with Sweden. We're booked at the Harriniva Holiday Centre, a resort set amid forests and fields just outside town. Owned by the same family for several generations, the two-story lodge, cabins and grounds are a center for sports and outdoor adventure throughout the year.

We are ravenous when we arrive at noon, so we rush to the dining hall and get our first lesson in Finnish cuisine. First, like Icelanders, Finns like to dry, salt and pickle their food, a custom no doubt useful before refrigeration was invented. Second, reindeer meat isn't a rare delicacy in Finland; it's a staple. Third, Finns have a different sense from ours of what foods go together.

Menu options include chicken tortellini in coconut milk and pineapple juice with cashews, and pizza topped with reindeer, salmon and shrimp. That night at dinner, I'm delighted to see potato salad on the bountiful buffet, until I discover that it includes ground reindeer. Other salad choices include a big bowl of pickles mixed with strips of fresh bell pepper.

At first I think this is a Harriniva aberration. But we encounter odd combos repeatedly in other towns. For example, at what is said to be the best restaurant in Kemi, one of the larger cities in northern Finland, we order a very nice grilled salmon, but the potatoes are mashed with lemon juice. The menu includes "deep fried scampi with spiced melon" and "beef, potatoes and onions with raw egg yolk and mustard cream."

Fortunately, the landscape and activities provided at Harriniva make up for the food, and I should add that several English visitors mentioned loving the food.

We begin our first day with cross-country skiing on just a tiny scrap of the 160 miles of available trails. The landscape of Lapland is too flat to be dramatic, but it is lovely all the same. Finnish Lapland covers 24.5 million acres -- 23.7 million of which is forest. Pine trees that dot the tundra are often so heavily laden with snow that they look more like sculptures.

Harriniva is bounded on one side by a river and on another side by a huge national forest. The resort's grounds include a Siberian and Alaskan husky farm of 400 dogs. Whenever sled drivers pick some of them to be part of a sled-pulling team, the area resounds with the eager barks of dogs pleading to be chosen. A few minutes later, those left behind begin to howl in disappointment.

Santa's Big Scene

The following day -- the day before Christmas -- we join about a dozen guests on a guided snowmobile tour, with the goal of finding Christmas trees for the common areas of the lodge. Initially I'm disappointed that I have to follow a tour guide on the snowmobile that Maddie and I share. But after crashing into a snowbank, I'm glad we're with experienced guides.