Highly recommend Fun with Santa for your Lapland adventure, Travelled with three children (21, 14, 4) so a mixed group of ages and interests. We flew via Helsinki with BA/Finnair to take advantage of the Christmas Markets in Senate Square. Wouldn't have done it any other way to be honest, stayed at the Hilton at Helsinki Airport and had a great time, connected to Kittilia following morning,
Beware if taking a domestic flight in Finland you can't stock up booze in duty free - rookie mistake! Buy it at Heathrow! (more of this later!)
Our arrival at Kittilia was jaw-dropping, landed in semi-darkness at 1.30pm in a light snowstorm, Wall to wall fir trees and snow from airport to cabin. (about 30 mins drive). How the cars - and coaches - can tank along at 70km per hour on those snow covered roads, when I can barely reverse of the driveway at home when the dashboard says 'below zero' I will never know.
We were all mesmerised by the location, it was like landing on another planet, never mind the north pole. The cabin was so warm in comparison to outside and very well stocked with everything we could need. The supermarket is a healthy 1km away but even with a 4-year old being pulled along behind on a toboggan, its a refreshing, exhilarating stroll and we felt lucky to be staying in the private cabins and not the various hotels along the short route, which were hectic places surrounded by coach loads of coming and going.
Our excursions were fantastic, we were there for four days in total, with a day's travelling either side. It's dark pretty much all of the time, except for sunrise/sunset which sort of merge between 11am - 1pm and then its dark again. A local guide told me the sun never rises above the horizon from Dec through to March, but in summer its light for 24 hours a day. Its the most phenomenal place.
Do the huskies tour, do the Santa visit with reindeer ride through the forest, do the snowmobiles (but if taking a child aged under 8 be aware they cannot sit on the snowmobile but have to travel in the 'side car' behind. Our 4 year old was fine with this but not all kids might be. Also we decided against the four-hour group snowmobile excursion for this reason and instead rented snowmobiles/sidecar ourselves one free morning, just for an hour. This was perfect for us as the snowmobile routes were well marked, it meant we could motor along at our own pace with the various age ranges and the four-year old only had an hour of belting along in a freezing side car.
Top takeaways (as this review could go on)
Firstly, book through Jane, she's so helpful and knowledgeable and if there's one place in the world you probably want a bit of help, the first time, - if only because it's pitch black most of the time - this is it.
1. Visit the snow village for a tour, but don't stay there if you like an indoor toilet (its a wigwam outside). The room is literally a bed of ice with a reindeer skin, you cant get into your 'room' before 10pm and you have to go for a wee outside.
2. Take hand warmers (like golfers use) - they're cheap and a lifesaver.
3. Wear two pairs of gloves, a thermal liner pair and a pair of ski mittens on top. No joke. Even 'quickly' taking a few pictures with the mittens off nearly resulted in frost bite, that's with the liner pair on.
4. It was -24c the day we landed. Its really really cold and you need to read several blogs on 'what to wear in the arctic circle' before you go. And buy everything it says, we wore it all.
5. Take - or hire- thermal boots because your feet are in contact with snow ALL the time and they get colder more quickly than anywhere else. No other shoes will do the job. Not even Timberlands which are not thermal.
6. Buy cheap booze at Heathrow, The Finnish supermarket sells a few 'local' beers. The offy next door sells international booze but at crazy prices, and it's hardly ever open. And it's a 2km round trip in -24c :)
7. Stay at jane's cabin or one of her neighbours cabins, because they offer a great vantage point for the Northern Lights away from the village in a quite woodland location. We saw the Northern Lights on the last night, right outside the cabin, and it was magical.
8. If you stay at Jane's - eat at Poro the first night, it's a very short stroll (five minutes along the road, or two minutes through the wood). After the first night you can decide whether to venture to the village pizza places or eat at Poro again (and again). Food was very good. People say it's expensive but I think it depends on your usual dining experience. Its not the cheapest restaurant in town but it's not michelin starred, It's decent food at decent food prices. Note however that restaurants are not allowed to sell 'takeaway' booze, so a snowy walk from cabin to Poro through the woods one evening to pick up a bottle of wine was a futile trip.
9. Take DVDS and books and magazines!! The Fins may speak English but they dont watch English TV (or even American TV). There were no books or magazines of any description in our cabin (even in Finnish, which I would readily have learned after five quiet evenings) and the local supermarket does not sell any form of English-speaking entertainment.
10. This is one the best holidays you'll ever have.
Very happy to answer any questions, I had a million questions before I went and having now travelled there with a four-year old, 14 year old and 21 year old, as well as hubby, I feel I could answer a few things if not everything!

Where do I start...... I guess with Jane, who arranged everything for us, from the cabin to the transfers to Santa to the husky rides. Nothing was too much trouble, and it felt like a real personal service. So thank you Jane….it was outstanding!

The cabin is fantastic, it is situated right on the edge of the woods, if you're into cross-country skiing you can literally step outside your door in the on the tracks. For us with two small children we played outside at the back of the cabin around the front of the cabin where we made a toboggan run.

It was an excellent location very peaceful, you felt like you're in the wilderness and yet, only a short walk to an excellent restaurant Poro and other amenities.

The cabin was lovely and cosy, and we used the sauna a couple of nights too. It was great for family of four but you could easily sleep 5, as the bedroom upstairs has the sofa bed too. I have to say this isn't a typical rental, you're sharing someone's home from home, it's really well kept, and very welcoming.

It's very difficult to put into words how magical this place is, it's like stepping right into Narnia, and I have to say it wasn't easy to leave.

I can recommend the husky rides, and Santa, who came to our cabin was fantastic! We made the decision to go in January so the children could say thank you to Santa, we did this so that we could miss the December crowds. As we are a family who like to escape to the quieter and more peaceful locations.

The ski slopes are not so far away we took a short bus ride and all had our first ski lesson, the instructors were brilliant.

We are also fortunate enough to see the northern lights on our trip.

All in all an excellent holiday, I have to say I think we will be back.

We had an excellent stay in the Dasher cabin. The cabin is part of a small small complex of log cabins located 15 minutes walk from the centre of Akaslompolo. The cabin itself backs onto woodland and we saw arctic hares and reindeers close by.

The cabin has under-floor heating as well as a wood-burning fire and a lovely sauna. There is a TV and wifi, dishwasher, microwave, oven and shower. The cabin was clean and well-furnished.

There are a number of walking trails nearby that can easily be accessed from the doorstep of the cabin and there is a discgolf course in the nearby woods and a couple of cafes and local supermarket are only 15 minutes walk away. Located 30-40 minutes by car from Kittila airport Akaslompolo is also well-located as a base from which to explore other parts of NW Finnish Lapland or cross-over into Sweden.

It was early summer when we stayed (end May/start June), a great time to visit for midnight sun without mosquitoes. Be aware though that not all of the restaurants/bars in the village are open during this 'bridge' period between the winter and summer seasons - though at least three local cafes were open,