Hosting Christmas and New Year 2026/2027 in Lapland — and Why I'm in Riga Between the Two
I'm going back above the Arctic Circle
Last year I hosted Christmas in Lapland for the first time. This December I'm returning: 23–25 December 2026 for the Christmas programme, 30–31 December for New Year. The venue is Balder Luxury Lodge in Sirkka, part of Levi in Finnish Lapland. Nearest airport: Kittilä. After that it's forest, fells and a great deal of snow.
Let me be straight about it. This is the most expensive week of the year in Lapland and the most demanding room I work. Guests fly in from the UK, Asia, the Middle East, continental Europe. People who could buy any celebration anywhere on the planet, and who choose a candlelit dinner a hundred kilometres from the nearest town instead.
Here's what last season taught me: nothing human is foreign to them. Especially where holidays and good moods are concerned. The same laughter, the same quiet wish that somebody else would take charge of the evening's rhythm. The only difference is that you cannot bulldoze this room with volume and stage energy. Precision is what works.
Why a Lapland December is the top division for a host
Polar night. Minus twenty. Guests have been travelling six to ten hours and half of them have lost track of what day it is. One table can hold five nationalities, three faiths and four different ideas of what Christmas is supposed to look like.
The classic "everybody stand up, we're playing a game now" approach doesn't just fall flat here. It breaks the evening.
So this is how I build the work:
1. I host in the guest's language, not mine. English carries the evening, but one sentence in someone's mother tongue at the right moment is worth more than half an hour of material. Latvian, Russian and English are fluent for me; French and Spanish are at "make someone feel seen" level.
2. I remove the stage. With 20–40 guests in a lodge, a microphone pointed at the room reads as aggression. I work closer and quieter, at the volume of conversation. The host becomes the host of a house, not a compère.
3. I know the names before anyone lands. Who came with whom, whose birthday falls on the 26th, who doesn't drink, who's nervous around dogs, who has never seen the aurora. That isn't service. That's the raw material of the personalisation people are actually paying for.
4. The programme is modular by design. The aurora doesn't ask permission. If the sky opens at 21:40, dinner pauses, everyone goes outside, and that becomes the centrepiece of the night. My running order is always built from blocks I can re-sequence in sixty seconds.
5. Silence is a scheduled item. The strongest thing that happened last season was two minutes when nobody said anything at all — everyone standing in the snow, looking up. A good host knows when to stop talking.
The property I work in
Balder Luxury Lodge is a small luxury lodge in Levi: suites, glass igloos for watching the northern lights from bed, an on-site restaurant built on Arctic produce (reindeer from local herders, wild-caught fish, forest berries), sauna, and programmes running out to husky farms, snowmobile trails and reindeer herds. There's also a full-buyout option, where one family or one company takes the entire lodge. That format is the fastest-growing corner of the luxury market right now, and it's exactly where a host earns their keep: privacy is lovely, but somebody still has to bring twenty-five people into one evening together.
2026/2027 trends I'm seeing from inside the room
Things that are genuinely changing celebrations right now — and that you can steal even if your party is in Riga rather than Lapland.
1. Solar maximum: the best aurora for a decade
The 2026/2027 winters fall on the peak of the solar cycle, and operators expect the northern lights to be brighter and more frequent than they'll be again until roughly 2036. That's driving an Arctic booking rush: the best chalets and glass igloos for 23–27 December go 9–12 months out. Practical takeaway — December 2027 is being booked right now.
2. Coolcations
Travel to the Nordics and the Baltics is climbing sharply as people deliberately move away from summer heat. For Riga that's a straightforward opportunity: a genuine European winter city at a rational price point.
3. The multi-event celebration
One date is no longer one party. A welcome evening on arrival, the main gala, then a deliberately different afterparty. Guests arrive at the main dinner already warmed up and already acquainted, which changes everything about how the room behaves.
4. Quiet luxury and "hushpitality"
Less glitter, fewer decibels, more meaning. Low-light recharge lounges, a music-free room, a forty-minute phone-free window. It sounds counterintuitive at a party. It works remarkably well.
5. Silent disco as a tool, not a gimmick
Multi-channel headphones have grown up. They now account for a real slice of corporate rentals — useful for multilingual audio tracks and for venues with a hard sound curfew. A hotel, an old-town venue, a country house with neighbours: problem solved.
6. A live illustrator instead of a photo booth
An artist sketching guests through the evening is one of the fastest-growing luxury formats of 2026. The guest goes home with a portrait rather than a selfie.
7. Zero-proof is standard now
A non-alcoholic list is no longer "for the driver". A proper mocktail flight, a tea service, alcohol-free glögi — and half the room relaxes.
8. Hybrid entertainment: DJ plus a live instrument
A saxophone or a vocalist cutting into a DJ set is the highest-return upgrade available to a dance floor. Cheaper than a band, bigger effect.
9. Ten-minute cultural bursts
Five nationalities at the table? Give each of them one short, high-energy musical moment. It's the most efficient way to tell guests they've been noticed.
10. The host as director, not voice
The biggest shift of all. Clients aren't hiring "someone with a microphone" any more. They're hiring the author of the evening — the person who builds the arc, connects the guests to each other, and leaves behind a feeling rather than a schedule.
My Riga windows: 27–29 December and from 3 January
Between Christmas and New Year I fly home. Open dates:
27, 28, 29 December 2026 — the gap between my two Lapland blocks. Ideal for a "between the holidays" corporate evening, a family celebration, a milestone birthday or a private party.
From 3 January 2027 onwards — winter weddings, January corporate events, and Old New Year celebrations. January is underrated, incidentally: venues are free, pricing is softer, and everybody has actually slept.
I work in Riga, across Latvia and anywhere in the world. I host in Latvian, Russian and English — including all three inside one evening when the guest list calls for it.
FAQ
Do you really host in several languages at once? Yes. It's my core specialism: a Latvian–Russian–English evening with no translation pauses and nobody in the room feeling like the second-tier audience.
What does an event host cost? A corporate programme starts from around €680 + VAT for 3–5 hours, then scales with format, number of languages, location and preparation. Weddings and private evenings are quoted individually.
How far ahead should I book? For December and New Year: 6–12 months. There is still availability for 27–29 December 2026 and for January 2027, but not much of it.
Do you only host, or can you produce the event? Both. With my team I can cover the full build: décor, catering, performers, sound and lighting, photo and video. I also moderate conferences and host live broadcasts and interviews — I've spent a lot of years in front of a camera.
Will you travel? Yes. Lapland isn't an exception, it's part of the regular calendar. Finland, the Baltics, the rest of Europe.
Let's build your evening
If you have something happening in late December, in January, or anywhere in 2027 — write to me. I'll ask a few questions about your guests rather than about your "format", and I'll come back with a structure for the night rather than a list of games.
Vova Azarov, event host & MC 📞 +371 26 871 717 ✉️ vladimirs.azarovs@gmail.com 🌐 vovaazarov.com
Riga · Latvia · worldwide
Komentāri