For the past 17 years Alison and Mike Battle have mastered what the perfect Christmas should look like. One where children can lose themselves in their imagination and connect with values that really matter. It is a return to a pre-1930s Christmas, before Coca Cola took over.
The south London couple founded Lapland UK in 2007, inspired by their own experiences of raising four boys and trying to retain their childlike wonder. That each year tickets sell-out in March, earning the event, held in a forest near Ascot, the reputation for being the Glastonbury for children, shows that they’ve tapped into something that all parents desire.
“This is something extremely important,” explains Mike. “For children who believe and for their parents, we feel a responsibility to get this right.”
It was a duty they felt with their own four boys, now grown up; Michael, a screenwriter, is 31, Matt, 29 works at Lapland UK and twins Christian, who also works with his parents and Joseph, a solicitor, are 26.
Alison created a sense of wonder in the boys, but they struggled to find it outside the home.
“We would go to a garden centre to visit Father Christmas and it wouldn’t live up to it,” says Matt. “He wouldn’t know any information about us.”
Mike recalls queuing up at Harrods for hours, only for Alison to start twitching as they neared the front of the queue. “She started scribbling bits of information about the children on pieces of paper and trying to sneak them to the elves. They were a bit confused, although some got it.”
Today, Alison still is the eyes and voice of the children, tapping into what they will find believable, while Mike makes her vision happen for tens of thousands of children each year.
Here are the Battle’s tips for creating a truly magical Christmas for you and your family:
Look to Europe rather than America
The Christmas that inspires the Battle family is one filled with nature and old traditions: “A time from before the 1930s when we got Santa and commercialisation,” says Alison. “For us it’s all about the charm and the dream of Christmas.”
They prefer the name “Father Christmas” and the storytelling is inspired by northern Europe. As a young woman Alison studied in Heidelberg in Germany and so she has a love of all things Grimm.
“We come at it with a European flavour. We’re not about the candy cane Santa; we’re not American at all. That old world charm is something that people can recreate in their own homes.”
They want people to move away from “Santa stops here” signs and go back to nature more.
It is the way they have built Lapland UK too, sourcing Latvian log cabins 18 years ago that they still use. Mike and Alison scour antique fairs across Europe looking for props; everything from copper pans for Mother Christmas’s kitchen, stained glass windows, old suitcases and chairs, lanterns and globes.
“There’s a big warehouse we go to in Frankfurt, where we source things like original sleighs. It’s a lot of fun,” says Mike.
There are also leather bound books on old dressers. Alison thanks her own Mother for giving her the perspective that you should treasure old things. “She’s always had a huge passion for children and childhood. For her 40th birthday, for example, I clearly remember she requested a set of leather bound Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”
Details like stenciling on dressers and cupboards evoke the feeling of a Scandinavian Christmas, as do frames of pressed leaves and botanical drawings.
Bring the outside in
Boughs of brown ferns and crimson leaves hang from the ceilings throughout Lapland UK. Look closely, however, and they are all actually high-quality faux foliage, made from plastic. For a production on Lapland UK’s scale it is the most dependable and sustainable way to decorate.
“It’s sustainable because everything you see was here last year,” says Mike.
He sought inspiration from how the Victorians would bring in nature to decorate their fireplaces and front doors. It is also linked to ancient indigenous practices, such as collecting mistletoe to bring luck. In this world, the elves are celebrating nature, not tinsel.
Get the colour palette right
The foundation of the Battle Christmas canvas is the palette; the colours they use create their world of Christmas.
“It’s about making sure that nothing imposes and everything makes sense. You soon notice something if it doesn’t fit,” says Christian. “If there’s a bright yellow or green thing, then your attention would be taken there and the whole set breaks.”
The perfect Lapland UK red is not a bright red, but a burgundy red.
The basis for their muted colour board is that all the colours must look like they are derived from nature. “Anything that feels manufactured is rejected,” says Mike.
When they were designing the toy factory the inspiration was real sawdust and rocking horses, rather than primary colours and clowns with googly eyes.
What is the perfect Christmas green? “A sage. Not that far from Farrow and Ball, really,” laughs Mike.
Silver and gold aren’t banned, but the tone and amount of it is to be considered. “If you have a hint of gold and silver, that’s fun. If you have all of it, that’s nuts,” says Mike. “It’s about elegance and balance. We want everything to be holistic, rather than shouty.”
How to decorate the tree
As you can imagine, this is a big moment in the Battle household; at home they have an 8ft tree.
However, how it looks isn’t as important as how it feels. “It is a tree filled with memories,” says Christian.
Rather than worrying too much about a matching bauble, every single decoration on the tree has to have a story. Something bought on holiday or made by the boys in primary school. After Matt played the Angel Gabriel in the school nativity they found an Angel Gabriel decoration.
The family also love the tradition of drying oranges and limes and putting them on the tree. “It’s sensory,” says Mike.
There is no tinsel in the Battle household. Although in Alison’s family home there is one piece of tinsel. “It’s now 50 years old and my sister and I put it on the tree, even though it’s completely threadbare.”
How to light up the day
May your Christmas be warm and bright. Certainly your lighting, anyway. When it comes to creating a warm and cosy atmosphere, Mike seeks inspiration from Salzburg. He remembers a trip to the Austrian town in December when everywhere was snowy. “And there were coffee shops lining the streets that were all glowing and warm. Every single one of them was so inviting and it was just beautiful.”
He tries to make the same effect at Lapland UK by bringing the lighting down.
“The amount of time I say ‘warm lighting’ during the building process!” he laughs. Old-fashioned filament bulbs are key to creating the Battle’s warm nostalgic dream of Christmas.
“I don’t like the blue icicle lighting you see,” says Alison.
Rituals build the excitement
Stir-up Sunday is another one of the rituals the family performs without fail each year. “We’d make our Christmas cake every year and one by one we had to ‘stir in the love’ and make a wish as you did it,” says Christian.
“Making a Christmas cake one year isn’t that special, but the fact we’ve done it for nearly 30 years makes it feel different,” says Matt.
As adults they now appreciate the ritualisation of their Christmas. “The things we did weren’t crazily unique, but by doing them every year it gave them significance, which made them more important each year,” says Matt.
You’re never too old for a stocking
The Lapland UK Foundation aims to eventually put a stocking on the bed of every child in a UK hospital or hospice over Christmas. This year they are starting with Lewisham Hospital and Evelina Children’s Hospital.
In the Battle household you are never too old for a stocking. Although now Alison usually has to wait for them to come back from the pub. “I still sneak in at 3 o’clock in the morning.”
“You just have to let her do it,” says Mike.
Alison does see the funny side of having never quite punctured the magic of Christmas for her sons, even if they are now well into adulthood. About three years ago, she remembers one of them running into our bedroom and saying: “Look what is in my stocking!”
“I was like, ‘I know!” laughs Alison.
It’s about memories, rather than presents
Christmas is about creating a feeling, not about material things that you get on Christmas morning. The family feels strongly about that.
It recalls the Christmases of Mike and Alison’s childhoods in the 1970s, growing up in working class families in south London.
“They were very grounded, loving families,” says Alison. Her father was a carpenter and would make wooden gifts for her and her sister.
As the youngest of five children from a migrant Irish family, Mike’s memories aren’t of things, but of an energy in the house.
“I’d come down the stairs and feel that there was something special going on; that it was an unusual day,” he recalls.
On Christmas Eve in Mike’s home, his father would have a half-day, “which was unusual. We used to all go to Littlewoods on Bromley High Street and have something to eat and that was great. Not because it was fancy, but because it was something unusual for us.”
The essence of Christmas for him now? “Being at home and having all six of us together,” he says.