Ok, I know it’s only August, but in my book it isn’t too late to start planning our Christmas holidays. Actually, it makes a lot of sense because it can get really booked practically everywhere in the world that time of year, and booking early can mean saving $$$. We just bought a new house- well, a new “old” (80’s built) house, and after going through all our renovation plans, we were told by our contractor that there was pretty much no chance that we would be in there by Christmas. So we thought we’d get creative this year and take the kids somewhere different, somewhere interesting for Christmas. The only pre-requisite – SNOW!!
The first contender on our list is Sapporo, Japan. It’s a lovely city in Japan’s northernmost island, Hokkaido, and known to be a very child-friendly place (like the rest of Japan is), with family skiing and LOTS of fun activities. My husband and I love Japan, the Japanese culture and especially the food, so Japan was a good choice. Plus, it won’t be as crowded like a lot of Western places over the holidays because of the Shinto/Buddhist religious aspects.
One more good thing is that the hotels and resorts in Sapporo are pretty affordable and often have great deals. Christmas is apparently a good time to go, because aside from the snow, there is fab shopping (for Mom) and interesting things to check out, like the Sapporo White Illumination and the German Christmas Market – cool! Check out the photo above, which was taken during the Sapporo Snow Festival, which happens in February.
Originally posted on August 5, 2009 @ 2:59 am