A British Christmas brand that has drawn more than two million visitors to its live U.K. experiences is setting up shop in Manhattan for the first time, opening a 3,800-square-foot store at 3 West 57th Street on November 4. Lapland Store will let kids meet elves, sip hot chocolate, and sit in Father Christmas's chair beneath an elf hat to find out whether they've made the good list, all steps from Bergdorf Goodman.
The shop marks Lapland's first U.S. retail footprint after founders Alison and Michael Battle built the brand in Britain starting in 2007, according to New York Family. The couple has said they created Lapland to honor what they call the precious and fleeting years of childhood, and they've described New York as the perfect place to begin the brand's next chapter, the outlet reports. City AM has reported that Alison Battle, a former primary school teacher, and Mike Battle, a former hedge fund manager, launched LaplandUK after growing frustrated with commercialized, short holiday grottos back home — leveraging their combined backgrounds in education and finance to build something more immersive.
That formula has scaled dramatically. The business behind LaplandUK grew its annual turnover from £1.1 million in 2008 to £17.2 million by 2023, according to City AM, expanding well beyond its original live event into publishing, digital storytelling, and physical retail. The U.K. live experiences have attracted more than two million visitors in total, per New York Family, with guests over the years including David Beckham, Victoria Beckham, Elton John, Prince William, and Kate Middleton.
What's Inside the Midtown Storefront
Visitors to the Manhattan location will step into what New York Family describes as an elven world filled with holiday displays, offering gifts, decorations, elf encounters, hot chocolate, and what the outlet calls Christmas treasures. Kids can meet the elves in person and find out where they stand on the good list, while the store sells several themed collections built around Lapland's storytelling.
Among them is the Christmas Eve Collection, which includes 100% cotton Lapland pajamas, a letter from Father Christmas, a storytime blanket, a mug, hot chocolate, and reindeer food, per the outlet. That collection already has a track record stateside — Lapland began selling to American shoppers online in 2025, and the Christmas Eve Collection sold out within six days of its U.S. launch, New York Family reports.
Shoppers will also find the Lapland Advent of Belief, a 25-day countdown calendar with a different surprise behind each door, including illustrated stocking-book stories, soft toys, snow globes, and treats. A third option, the Tree of Treasures, includes six ceramic baubles decorated with Father Christmas and his elves alongside wooden decorations and velvet bows, all packaged in individual keepsake tins inside a larger chest, according to the same report.
A High-Profile Address With a History of Famous Pop-Ups
The address Lapland chose for its U.S. debut carries its own retail pedigree. The building at 3 West 57th Street has historically served as a high-end pop-up location for luxury houses including Chanel, Coach, Bulgari, and Salvatore Ferragamo while they renovated their main Fifth Avenue flagships, according to The Real Deal. The storefront sits adjacent to Bergdorf Goodman and has historically commanded monthly retail leases exceeding $400,000, the outlet reported.
Lapland arrives in Manhattan at a moment of renewed strength for high-end retail leasing. Manhattan retail leasing activity rose 31% year-over-year in 2025, with asking rents along Upper Fifth Avenue jumping 17% amid heightened demand for storefronts in premier shopping districts, according to Forbes. NYC Tourism + Conventions, meanwhile, forecasts roughly 8.1 million visitors will travel to New York City across all five boroughs during the 2026 holiday season, a wave of foot traffic that benefits retail corridors across Midtown.
Competing for Holiday Crowds in a Crowded Midtown Calendar
Lapland will be opening into a Midtown holiday landscape already packed with spectacle. Just steps away, the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street is set to host Manhattan's annual 30-foot, 3,300-pound illuminated crystal snowflake lighting ceremony on November 18, a display containing more than 16,000 prisms that Hoodline has covered as a landmark Midtown kickoff to the season. Nearby, Saks Fifth Avenue restored its full-building holiday light show at 611 Fifth Avenue last November after a prior cost-cutting pause, reinforcing the stretch's reputation as a seasonal spectacle corridor.
Lapland also isn't the only story-driven pop-up chasing family foot traffic this year. Rockefeller Center is debuting an interactive Elf experience produced by director Jon Favreau's Fairview Portals and Warner Bros., part of what Hoodline has described as a broader influx of narrative-driven holiday attractions competing alongside traditional department store window displays this season.
Back at Lapland's U.K. home base, the brand's live show has become a seasonal phenomenon in its own right. LaplandUK's primary Ascot forest location surpassed one million lifetime visitors by March 2024 and employs around 2,000 seasonal staff across its U.K. event sites, according to Surrey Live, with the production pairing West End theatrical actors with Hollywood-style design for a multi-hour experience. Demand has only grown — in March, more than one million prospective visitors were expected to join the online queue for tickets to the Ascot and Manchester shows, where individual prices ranged from £60 to £195, per Time Out.
A Temporary Shop, for Now
Unlike the sprawling U.K. production, the Manhattan store is a compact, temporary footprint rather than a full theatrical event. The Lapland Store is planned to remain open through the end of the 2026 holiday season before closing, with plans to reopen for next year's Christmas story, and the brand's offerings are expected to be available online soon at the Lapland Store website, according to New York Family.
