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Raising a Fire with Your Kids: Three Family Rules for the Campfire
Children today grow up without ever seeing fire. The kitchen flame has become an induction hob, the stove an air conditioner. Which is exactly why a child’s face in front of a first campfire is worth watching. A kid who knows everything on a screen goes quiet before real flames and simply stares.
A campfire has a lot to teach a child. Do not get too close to what is hot. Firewood goes on in turns, and fire duty rotates through the family. And once a fire is lit, you see it through until it goes out. Say any of this out loud and it turns into a lecture; sit around a fire and it sinks in on its own. A campfire is a small family job where everyone has a role.
In our house, three rules are enough. 1. Never stand downwind of the fire. 2. Add firewood only together with an adult. 3. Everyone watches together until the fire is fully out. Decide that much, and then the grown-ups should resist saying more. A marshmallow burnt pitch black is a valuable experimental result too.
Starry skies, a campfire, and a kids’ area: STAR VILLAGE TATEYAMA
A whole-house villa for one group per day, overlooking the clear waters off Tateyama. With a campfire, a large private pool, and a kids’ area with play equipment, it is built so that a child’s “what do we do next?” never runs dry. When the sun goes down, gather around the fire; look up, and there is the starry sky the name promises. Swim in the pool, watch the fire, fall asleep. Here is the ideal shape of a summer holiday day. Sleeps up to 9, pets welcome.
A fire in a moss garden burns quietly: Karuizawa Morishiki
A private villa with a moss garden, close to Karuizawa’s Hoshino area. All four buildings are rented whole, with BBQ and campfires to enjoy. Even in summer, the night air of this highland retreat is cold, and a child comes to understand the worth of a fire with their whole body. The green of the moss garden and the orange of the flames are far better in person than in any photograph. Pets can stay too, so the whole family, dog included, can sit around the fire. Sleeps up to 10.
Lighting a fire on 3,300 square meters by the sea: UMIBE IseShima
At the southernmost tip of Ise-Shima National Park, two buildings stand on roughly 3,300 square meters (about 1,000 tsubo) of grounds, an oceanfront whole-house rental. Enjoy a campfire and an open-air bath while looking out over the Pacific. On nights when the sound of the waves overlaps with the crackle of the fire, the adults fall silent before the children do. The two buildings together sleep up to 22, so it suits a summer holiday with all the cousins or a three-generation gathering.
Becoming a child who knows fire
The morning after a campfire night, clean up the ashes together. A fire is still a fire even after it has gone out; just knowing that makes a child’s summer holiday one step more grown up. The crowds of a fireworks festival are fine too, but this year, why not gather around a small fire that belongs to your family alone, in the garden of a whole-house stay?
Stays in this article
Boso PeninsulaChiba
STAR VILLAGE TATEYAMA(スターヴィレッジ館山)
A one-group-per-day rental house looking out at the sea in Tateyama. Its 164.5 sqm hold five colour-coded bedrooms, a large pool, a sauna that climbs to 100C with a jacuzzi beside it, and a private dog run.
1 ba
KaruizawaNagano
軽井沢森四季(もりしき)
A whole-house private villa in Karuizawa, Nagano with a BBQ terrace and a fireplace. Sleeps up to 10; dogs welcome.
3 bd
Ise-ShimaMie
UMIBE(伊勢志摩)
Two villas on roughly 1,000 tsubo of ground overlooking the Ise-Shima sea. IseShima runs 270 sqm indoors with five bedrooms, Terrace has an open-air bath, and taking both together accommodates up to 22.
5 bd