Even when it’s not Christmas in Saas-Fee, one of the most breathtakingly beautiful ski resorts in the Swiss Alps, it always seems to feel like it is.

Nestled on a high mountain plateau in the jaw-dropping Saas Valley located in Switzerland’s sun-kissed Valais canton, Saas-Fee is a real-life Swiss chocolate box village surrounded by a crown of 13 dazzling, snow-capped peaks, all above 13,000 feet. And if you wandered into this delightful mountain town, and imagined you were walking through Santa’s enchanted North Pole village, you wouldn’t be very far off.

To add to the magic, Saas-Fee has an incredible collection of heritage wooden Swiss chalets and ancient rough hewn huts perched on stone stilts dotted all over town – and when it snows, the entire village looks like it’s sitting in a souvenir shop snow globe.

This year though, the Yuletide vibe in this gorgeous little pearl of a ski town is even more festive, as it’s celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the most beloved Christmas songs ever, “Last Christmas” by Wham! the iconic 1980s pop music super duo. Visitors to Saas-Fee/Saastal this winter, especially those who love “Last Christmas,” will be thrilled to discover a whole host of attractions and Wham!-themed activities related to the tune everyone loves to sing along with every December – but more on that later – first a little pop music history lesson for those of you out there who didn’t experience the glitz, glamour, and glory of the 1980s.

Written by the late George Michael, and performed with Wham! partner Andrew Ridgeley, “Last Christmas” was released in December of 1984, and along with it, a fabulous, very 80s, music video shot entirely on location in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

The song itself, was a huge, and I mean HUGE hit, but it never made it to the coveted Official U.K. Christmas Number 1 Chart the year it was released, as it was eclipsed by “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” by Band Aid, the Bob Geldof helmed British all-star hit song created to raise money for Ethiopian famine relief. Incidentally, Michael, who was one of the stars of Band Aid, reportedly went straight to the recording studio from Heathrow after wrapping up the “Last Christmas” location shoot in Saas-Fee, according to the video’s director Andy Morahan in a recent BBC documentary called Wham!: Last Christmas Unwrapped. Despite some disappointment at “Last Christmas” not reaching Number 1 in the U.K., Michael, a well-known activist, humanitarian, and philanthropist, decided to donate the worldwide royalties from the record to Geldof’s Ethiopian famine relief efforts.

Unfortunately for Michael, who passed away on Christmas Day of 2016, he never had the chance to see his beloved holiday tune reach Number One in the U.K. Christmas charts – who Ridgeley and other close friends featured in the video said he would have loved to see -when it finally made it to the top of the U.K. music chart for Christmas of 2023 and repeated the feat again for a second consecutive year during Christmas of 2024!

Ok, now that the few of you out there who have never heard “Last Christmas” are caught up on the history of the song, let’s dive into an explanation of the video…on the off chance there is actually someone out there who’s never seen it before (really?!?!) or hasn’t seen it for a long time.

The plot line of the “Last Christmas” video is of course love, or better yet, lost love, made even more heartbreaking as it’s happened – and is happening – during the holidays, as the video flashes back and forth between two Christmases twelve months apart.

The song’s main chorus tells the story very accurately, and I’m sure you’re hearing George Michael’s angelic voice in your head even as you read this…

Last Christmas I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it away. But this year to save me from tears, I’ll give it to someone special…

In terms of visual storytelling, Michael’s character is seen at one point, giving a special diamanté brooch as a love token to an attractive dark-haired woman 12 months earlier in a flashback scene taking viewers back to the previous Christmas. The problem is, now, 12 months later, the brooch has been regifted to Andrew Ridgeley by the woman Michael’s character is clearly still in love with, and for the rest of the video, it’s made abundantly clear that at least one heart is broken.

Saas-Fee as the backdrop and setting of the video was pure genius – an idyllic winter wonderland with more than enough snow and majestic mountain scenery to film snowball fights and all the general frolicking you’d expect from a group of great looking friends from London, with absolutely fabulous bouffant 80s hair, on a ski holiday in the Swiss Alps.

According to the band’s manager Simon Napier-Bell, also featured in the recent BBC documentary about the song, it was Michael’s vision and original idea to shoot the video in the Swiss Alps.

“When I said ‘What are we going to do for a video?,’ he had that all worked out. George said, ‘We’re going to go to the Swiss mountains, and we’re going to have a gang of people, and we’re going to have a dinner party.’ You know as always happened with music videos, he wasn’t directing it, but there was a huge amount of him going into the direction,” Napier-Bell said.

So at this point, some of you who may be feeling the Wham! stoke, are wondering what you’ll see and experience in Saas-Fee related to “Last Christmas” and the making of the accompanying video if you make the trek out to this beautiful part of Valais this winter. Here’s a few of them…

LAST CHRISTMAS KARAOKE BOX

Located in the center of the village, in between Saas-Fee’s highly efficient transportation hub, and the local tourism office, you’ll find  a very roomy, inviting,  and festive glass WHAM! Karaoke box where you can belt out “Last Christmas” and other Wham! hits with friends or even by yourself…and it’s free of charge and open 8 a.m to 6 p.m. until January 31, 2025!

Fortunately for the people of Saas-Fee and the tourists in town to ski and snowboard on its unbelievably amazing slopes, the box is soundproof – so no one heard me butchering this beautiful song with my extremely out of tune vocal chords.

LAST CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION AT THE SAAS-FEE MUSEUM

A five minute walk from the Wham! Karaoke box on the other side of town, “Last Christmas” fans can take in an exhibition at the Saas-Fee Museum which includes audio recordings of some of the key locals who assisted in the production of the video, including the current mayor of the town Stefan Zurbriggen, who played a significant role as the crew’s main driver during the shoot, and costume & ski equipment provider as Michael, Ridgeley and the rest of the cast (made up of their close friends) needed hip looking winter gear!

Once you’re done listening to recordings from locals, you can pop into the museum’s self-serve “Last Christmas” screening room to watch the actual song video, as well as a bunch of other interviews from Michael and Ridgeley about the creative process behind this iconic seasonal pop hit, and their memories of shooting the Saas-Fee. Price of admission for all of this – a whopping 5 CHF, talk about a bargain!

VISIT LAST CHRISTMAS CHALET

The production crew used several locations during the filming of “Last Christmas. While a visit to check out the interiors of the chalet used in the video is not possible, the gorgeous Chalet Schliechte in the “Wildi” part of the village used for the exterior shots is easily accessible via a self-guided walk, or a Wham!Walk which can be booked locally for a fee of 5 CHF. This beautiful chalet used as the location for the video’s snowball fight, and some of the most memorable outdoor frolicking scenes is a short, and very scenic walk away from the center of town. Definitely worth a gander!

FELSKINN CABLE CAR – OPENING SCENE LOCATION

Chances are you’ll be using Saas-Fee’s iconic Felskinn cable car when you head up the mountain or you may be skiing to it going downhill. If you are, you’ll be walking or skiing in the footsteps of Wham! as this is right above the location of the where the SUV’s loaded with Michael and his ski holiday pals pull up to in the opening scene.

The balcony area above where the vehicles pull in, just next to the entrance of the cable car station is also “Last Christmas” holy ground, as it’s where Ridgeley and the love interest who broke Michael’s heart stand gleefully waving and welcoming their friends in the opening shots of the video, well worth a little pitstop if you’re up for it.

Oh, and the actual Felskinn cable car you see in the video is now history, having been replaced by a shiny new model in 2006, but you’ll definitely still feel the Wham! vibe if you’ve got a little “Last Christmas spirit in your heart!

INTERACTIVE “LAST CHRISTMAS” AUGMENTED REALITY (A.R.)  SCAVENGER HUNT TOUR AT THE WALLISERHOF GRAND HOTEL & SPA IN SAAS-FEE

There are two gorgeous 5-star hotels in Saas-Fee, one is the hyper-luxurious Capra Hotel where George Michael never slept (but I did and it was incredible, and they have a very delicious Wham! Cocktail at their bar)…and the magnificent Walliserhof Grand Hotel & Spa where he rested his head during production in 1984.

For a mere 10 CHF (this is the deal of the century…keep reading to find out why) you can log into an interactive app on any smart device when inside the Walliserhof and take a magical, and very mysterious tour of the hotel, in the form of an A.R. (augmented reality) virtual scavenger hunt, chock full of interesting insider information and facts about the making of the video.

One really cool bit of information is related to the diamanté brooch that plays a major symbolic role (aka MacGuffin in cinematic parlance) in the telling of the love triangle story. According to Ridgeley and others involved in the filming of the video, on the second day of shooting Kathy Hill, the model/actor who portrayed the dark-haired love interest at the center of the story, actually thought she’d lost the brooch, which belonged to Ridgeley’s grandmother. This in turn, basically shut shooting down as the Walliserhof’s staff, the production crew, and almost everyone else in Sass-Fee scoured the hotel, the surrounding streets, and other locations – until Hill discovered the brooch still pinned to her shirt in the bottom of her bag!

At the end of the virtual scavenger hunt – here’s the deal of the century part so SPOILER ALERT – you end up in the Walliserhof’s sparkling hotel bar where you are treated to George Michael’s favourite cocktail (vodka & watermelon liqueur) as you lounge around imagining how much fun Wham! and their close-knit group of friends cast in the video would have had together partying as early-twenty somethings at a luxury hotel in one of the world’s most stunning ski resorts.

Although, according to Laura Anthamatten, Walliserhof’s Director of Sales & Marketing, staff who worked at the hotel in 1984 said Michael was always the first person off to bed, even while the others lit up the bar and the hotel’s luxurious spa and pool area deep into the nights during production!

One last thing about this beautiful hotel, you can, if you wish, sleep in the Walliserhof’s ultra posh George Michael Suite if you want to book it and it’s available. While I didn’t spend the night in it during my stay in Saas-Fee (hint, hint, Walliserhof friends…maybe next time???) I did get a tour, and it is absolutely gorgeous. While it may not look exactly like it did when Michael slept in it in 1984 (it went through a massive upgrade and total renovation a couple of years ago), the in-room wood-burning fireplace is still as it was, and it’s impossible not to feel Michael’s presence when you’re in it!

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