Top Ten Tips for a Great Christmas Break by Jill Starley-Grainger
Featured Hotel in Yorkshire
Yorebridge House
See all hotels in Yorkshire >
Make this year’s holiday season the best one ever with these 10 festive Christmas escapes. Whether you want some winter sun, turkey and all the trimmings or a romantic escape, these Christmas breaks will have you saying ho-ho-ho over the holidays.
1. Traditional British Christmas: Yorkshire
Christmas tree by the bed, carols by a roaring fire, midnight mass, Santa dishing out gifts, board games, festive films and black-tie gala dinners. Enjoy the perfect British Christmas in the dreamiest country-house hotel setting, and there’s even a chance of snow this far north.
Take a look at Jill's top pick for Christmas in Yorkshire, Swinton Park
2. Shop ‘til you drop holidays: London
If you’re a last-minute Christmas shopper, or want to be first in the queue for the sales, the five-star Hyatt Churchill is for you. Mere seconds from M&S Marble Arch and Selfridges, along with the rest of the Oxford Street offerings, you’ll not have far to stumble after your Christmas shopping. Back at the Hyatt Churchill, luxuriate in the grand Montagu Restaurant or the cosy wood-panelled Churchill Bar. Or pop over to Hyde Park, just a five-minute walk away, for ice skating and the Winter Wonderland market and fair.
Take a look at Jill's top pick for Christmas in London, Hyatt Regency London
3. Bond-style Boxing Day: Buckinghamshire
Glam it up over the holidays at stately home Hartwell House. Start with a black-tie Champagne reception in the elegant Georgian and Gothic drawing rooms on Christmas Eve. Then recover on Christmas Day, gliding down the carved Jacobean staircase to open presents by the Christmas tree and roaring fire. Spend Boxing Day being pampered in the spa before donning your most elegant attire for a thrilling Boxing Day casino evening.
Take a look at Jill's top pick for Christmas in Buckinghamshire, Hartwell House
4. Festive Highland fling: Scotland
Take the extended family and even the dog to this six-bedroom Victorian house in the Scottish Highlands. Glenbardie house in Aberdeenshire has a large well-equipped kitchen and spacious lounge with open fire. After opening presents, send the kids on a treasure hunt through the walled garden and small tower room, or to play pool in the games room. If the snow hits, you’re not far from the Scottish ski resorts, and the Cairngorns, Balmoral Castle and the Whisky and Heritage Trails are nearby, too.
5. Stylish season’s greetings: Cornwall
Leave the Christmas twee behind for an eco-break for luxury lovers. The new Scarlet Hotel in Cornwall is the UK’s most stylish eco-hotel, with as many design credentials as environmental ones. Grey-water harvesting, biomass heating, natural saltwater pool and more make this place a hit with style-conscious greenies. But forget trad Christmas chintz over the holidays. Instead, expect Michelin-quality modern cooking with a seasonal spin, log-fired outdoor hot-tub pods overlooking the sea and Ibiza-esque chill-out areas.
6. Romantic winter-sun retreat: Brazil
Bid festive farewell to the kids, chaos and Queen’s speech, and head south to one of the world’s most romantic resorts. Ponta Dos Ganchos in stunning Florianopolis is the place to get your seasonal dose of sun, sea and Santa – without the saccharine. Lounge in your rainforest-cloaked villa with private plunge pool, or go for a swim at the resort’s private sandy beach. Visit the local markets and Santa House in the nearby villages, then head back to the resort for a traditional Brazilian Christmas Eve meal. You’ll be served festive cocktails on Ponta Dos Ganchos’ small private island before feasting at its beachside restaurant.
Take a look at Jill's top pick for Christmas in Brazil, Ponta dos Ganchos
7. Buon natale: Italy
Experience an Italian Christmas in a beautiful 16th-century country-house hotel. Take Masseria Torre Coccaro’s Vespa to the nearby villages, where you’ll find live nativities and Christmas markets selling artisanal goods, or visit the hotel’s own nativity scene, set in its a cave. Christmas Eve is the most important day in Italian celebrations, and you’ll be served a traditional Italian Christmas meal, including fresh seafood, pasta and pannetone, by the fireside before midnight mass in a local village. With temperatures in the mid-teens, on Boxing Day, you can soak up the sun by the hotel’s beautiful heated pools or on the nearby beaches.
Take a look at Jill's top pick for Christmas in Italy, Masseria Torre Coccaro
8. Bright white Christmas: Switzerland
Be dazzled by the world’s largest live Christmas tree, a 20-metre-tall sequoia twinkling with 70,000 fairy lights. Better still, it’s in a stunning, snowy mountain setting in front of Grand Resort Bad Ragaz in the eastern Swiss Alps. Overindulged at the Christmas Eve feast? The huge 5,500 square-metre wellness centre should sort you out. Then take in a Christmas concert in the village - or hit the slopes for a 7km Boxing Day sleigh ride.
9. Santa wonderland: Norway
Young families will be in Christmas heaven in Savalen, Norway. With guaranteed snow, private visits with Santa, a morning spent in his workshop, meeting Rudolph and Santa’s other helpers, kid-friendly winter Olympics (kick sledding, festive obstacle course, etc), snowmobile ride, husky safari and horse-drawn sleigh ride, this is every tot’s Christmas fantasy come true.
10. Christmas bargain holiday: All over the world
You want to spend Christmas in the country? Someone else wants your flat in the city. Or maybe your two-up, two-down in the suburbs is just around the corner from someone else’s in-laws. Plenty of people do home exchanges over the holidays, saving everyone a bundle. It’s a simple idea that’s hugely popular in Credit Crunch Britain – and you could end up staying in some wonderful places, from a three-bedroom house in Rugby, to a ski chalet in Switzerland, or even a four-bedroom house in Dubai.
Top tips for Christmas holidays
1. Book as far in advance as possible – most places get booked up quickly for Christmas
2. Ask the hotel if you can have your shopping delivered to them, then do your shopping online, and it’ll be waiting for you on arrival.
3. Don’t forget to pack tape, scissors and gift wrap – better to wrap on arrival to avoid mushed packages.
4. You can get some real bargains at Christmas at luxury city hotels that cater to business people, so try these if you need to stay near family or if you want a city Christmas.
5. If you’re going abroad at Christmas, make sure to check what the opening hours are for shops, etc, or you could be stranded with nothing to do for days on end.