Dear Santa. I am starting to get a little bit fed up with the fact that Christmas is starting earlier every year, that it has been commercialised to within an inch of its life and, that after the main event, I feel a bit empty. Any tips? …. Dear traveller. Check out my Finland winter holidays travel guide. This has all the ideas you need to shake off that winter malaise. Our responsible holidays do also start early here, but only because nature invites it. You can see the Northern Lights before they have even started thinking about hanging up the Oxford Street ones. Go snow shoeing through wilderness instead of surviving the storm of shopping centres. And swap that ‘empty feeling’ by cross country skiing through exquisitely empty, snowy woodlands. You’ve been really good this year. Go have fun in Finland. S x

You know you are onto a winter winner when you can go to a country’s capital city, enjoy its city life but then, within an hour, be immersed in national park natural nirvana. Wilderness is everywhere, and Finns also don’t run away from it in winter. They jump into it. Ideally straight from a sauna into the snow. See the Northern Lights in Finnish Lapland, but do so wrapped in reindeer blankets sitting by a fire. Swap the adrenaline of downhill skiing for a natural fix of cross country in remote Hossa National Park. Travel with huskies from hut to hut in Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. Finland feeds all of our feral cravings.