Snowless Lapland forces travel companies to cancel trips and tourists to wish for a Christmas miracle

The home of Santa Claus is without snow and it has left families devastated that their Christmas holiday will not be picture perfect.

Lapland is experiencing unseasonably mild temperatures at a time when there would be 30cm of snow on the ground.

Webcams dotted around the region show conditions closer to a rainy day on UK high street rather than a festive wonderland that holidaymakers expect.

• What Lapland looks like at the moment

• What Lapland should look like

According to weather forecasters, tourists will have to wait until 11 December for a significant amount of snowfall – with 24.4cm expected in just one evening.

In a statement, holiday operator TUI announced that trips to resorts have been cancelled because of the mild weather.

“Unfortunately, as the temperature isn’t predicted to be cold enough to allow for the completion of the Snow Village in Kittila for the first weekend of the season we have taken the difficult decision to cancel just the 1st and 2nd December day trips to that resort. We have directly contacted any affected customers with alternative options.

“We would like to reassure anyone heading to Kittila for three or four nights at the beginning of December or later, or to anyone due to visit any of our other Lapland resorts over this period or at a later point in the season, that we are confident we’ll be able to offer them the full experience as planned.”

Holidaymakers, understandably, are now starting to panic.

While others are finding the process of finding out more information frustrating.

The tourist website for the capital of Lapland, Rovaniemi, has even published an article on “amazing things to do” while waiting for the snow such as aurora hunting, winter swimming or visiting a reindeer farm.

And their optimism is also shared by others.

But in a cruel twist of fate, there has been snowfall in parts of the United Kingdom today.