20 cracking ideas for Christmas days out in the UK | Christmas and New Year holidays | The Guardian

Noises off … Silent Light Christmas event, Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PAView image in fullscreenNoises off … Silent Light Christmas event, Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane

Barlow/PAChristmas and New Year holidays This article is more than 6 years old20 cracking ideas for Christmas days out in the UKThis article is more than 6 years old

From traditional pantos and carols by candlelight to pop-up winter bars and a disco in an igloo, we round up sparkling festive events across the UK

Rachel DixonSat 1 Dec 2018 08.00 CETLast modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 13.30 CETShareSilent nights, Edinburgh Edinburgh’s major new Christmas attraction is Silent Light, a silent party on

George Street. It takes place up to five times a day under the Street of Light, an installation of archways lit by 60,000 lights synchronised to music that can be heard only through

headphones.

There are three soundtracks to choose from: Santa’s Sparkles (for children), Christmas Crackers or Disco Delights.

There’s also an ice rink in the city, wrapped around a cider lodge in St Andrew Square; a fairground, market and whisky bothy bar in East Princes Street Gardens; a Christmas tree maze with

an elves’ workshop in the middle; and a Spiegeltent on Festival Square with adult circus shows and baby discos. Silent Light from £4.50, suitable for kids 5+, until 1 Jan,

edinburghschristmas.com

Immersive theatreView image in fullscreenEnchanted Parks, Gateshead. Photograph: Richard Kenworthy Enchanted Parks is an annual after-dark theatrical event in Saltwell Park in Gateshead

(£9.50 adults, £4.50 children, 4-9 Dec). This year’s production is The House of Lost and Found, telling the story of a travelling fair through performance, light, sound, fire – and a few

surprises. There is also a hawker’s market, craft fair and pop-up shop by the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

A Christmas Carol is an immersive dining experience in Sheffield (from £37.24, until 16 Dec, theatredeli.co.uk). The production includes a two-course meal, parlour games and Christmas songs.

Winter wonderlandsView image in fullscreenWinter Wonderland, Cardiff. Photograph: Huw John Several UK cities now have winter wonderlands, including Cardiff, where this year there is a

90-metre tower for city views and a Sur La Piste bar modelled on a ski lodge, next to the rink (until 6 Jan, cardiffswinterwonderland.com).

At Bristol’s Winter Wonderland, the new attraction is Santa’s Enchanted Ice Castle, a 3D grotto trip to the North Pole; there is also an ice rink, helter skelter and a vintage carousel

(until 6 Jan).

Nottingham Winter Wonderland has a new 30ft toboggan ride and a new glass chalet bar, Bar Altitude, as well as 70 Bavarian-style stalls, an ice rink and children’s rides (until 31 Dec).

Londoners are spoilt for choice, with the Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park (until 6 Jan); the alternative Winterville on Clapham Common (until 23 Dec); and Winterland in Fulham, which

transforms a Thames-side beach into an alpine scene, with fondue and schnitzel, gondolas and chairlifts, bauble-filled igloos and curling (until 22 Dec).

Scenic ice rinksView image in fullscreenBrighton Christmas skaters. Photograph: Getty Images This year’s hottest ticket is for Caerphilly Castle, the biggest castle in Wales, which has an

ice rink inside the grounds for the first time (from £5, until 9 Dec).

Other spectacular skating locations include in front of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton (from £10 adults, £7 under-12s, until 13 Jan); Winchester Cathedral (from £11 adults, £6.95 children,

until 2 Jan); Hampton Court Palace in south-west London (£14.50 adults, from £10.50 children, until 6 Jan); and in front of the Royal Crescent in Bath (£11 adults, £10 children, until 6

Jan).

PantomimesView image in fullscreenSnow White at the London Palladium The London Palladium panto invariably has the starriest cast – this year’s Snow White boasts Dawn French, Julian Clary

and Nigel Havers. But celebs pop up all over the country: at the Opera House Manchester, Gareth Gates stars as Cinderella’s Prince Charming and Les Dennis plays one of the Ugly Sisters.

Debbie McGee takes to the stage in Sleeping Beauty at the Grand Theatre, Wolverhampton, while Lisa Riley heads the cast of Beauty and the Beast at the New Theatre, Cardiff.

In the battle of the Strictly judges, audiences can boo Wicked Stepmother Craig Revel Horwood in Cinderella at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking and cheer Shirley Ballas in Jack and the

Beanstalk at the Liverpool Empire.

Deck the hallsView image in fullscreenCinderella-themed fairytale decorations at Blenheim Palace. Photograph: Andrew Walmsley/Alamy Stately homes decorated in fairytale themes this year

include Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, with rooms representing different scenes from Sleeping Beauty and Other Tales (£15.75, under-16s free). Community choirs perform twice a day and there are

candlelit tours in the evening. The decorations at Chatsworth House, also in Derbyshire (£25/£15, £69 for family of five), are inspired by a mix of fairytales and more recent stories,

including James and the Giant Peach and Charlotte’s Web, while a Pied Piper roams the halls. Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire (£27/£15.50, £65.50 family of four) has been turned into

Cinderella’s story; there is also a light trail and Christmas market.

Cosy rooftops, LondonView image in fullscreenSkating rink on roof of John Lewis, London Rooftops are no longer just a summer hangout – in London, they’ve gone all cosy for winter. The new

wintry rooftop at John Lewis on Oxford Street is inspired by 17th-century frost fairs, and has a mini ice-skating rink, hot gin cocktails and pies (until 6 Jan).

Skylight at Tobacco Dock has a bigger ice rink with skating and ice hockey, plus igloos and huts, mulled wine, roasted chestnuts and fondue (until 27 Jan).

The roof garden at Fest Camden has been turned into a winter chalet, with blankets, hot-water bottles and firepits; a snow machine; film screenings and buskers; and winter cocktails

including sloe negronis (until March). The Queen of Hoxton’s surrealist winter rooftop is themed around 1900s Montmartre, with a wigwam music hall, absinthe fountains and a raclette menu

(until April).

Miracles in iceView image in fullscreenReindeer in Manchester Ice Village. Photograph: Zac and Zac Manchester has a new Ice Village in Cathedral Gardens, centred around an ice cavern with

more than 100 ice sculptures of polar bears, huskies, a yeti and even a frozen Rovers Return sign. Visitors can sit in Santa’s ice armchair and take a selfie while “trapped” in an ice block.

There is an Arctic Bar serving frozen cocktails, an ice rink and games such as hook an iceberg (free entry, some ticketed attractions, until 5 Jan)

In Liverpool, the Christmas Ice festival is back at Pier Head for a third year. It includes a three-lane, 30-metre ice slide, the UK’s only ice jet ride, a large covered ice rink and an

après-skate cafe-bar (£6 for three slides, skating from £11 adults, £10 children, until 6 Jan).

Winter warmersView image in fullscreenChurro hut at Thor’s Tipi Bar, Leeds Cosy winter pop-up bars are now a Christmas fixture. This year, Brighton gets its first Thor’s tipi bar. This

Viking-themed pop-up appeared in York (appropriately) in 2015, and now has outposts in Leeds (pictured), Sheffield, Lincoln and London. The tipis have fairy lights, faux furs and firepits,

and serve warming drinks such as “hot choc-tails” – try the black forest hot chocolate with cherry liqueur.

Alternatively, Bar Hutte returns to Manchester, Liverpool and London – these alpine huts come with “carol-oke” machines to perfect that Mariah warble (barhutte.co.uk). And last year’s igloo

trend continues – the Coppa Club’s pop-up igloos in Sonning on Thames, Berkshire, and Tower Bridge, London, now serve warm winter tipples, including a hot G&T, hot and sloe wine (gin, sloe

gin and shiraz) and a flat white russian.

Let it snowView image in fullscreenSliding at Chill Factore, Manchester. Photograph: Leah Holding There is no need to go abroad for winter sports – there are plenty in the UK. At Stockeld

Park, North Yorkshire, there is an artificial 1.2km Nordic ski trail through an illuminated forest (from £12, age 6+, until 7 Jan). If there’s no white Christmas this year kids can still go

sledging and sliding at an indoor ski centre, including the Snow Dome in Tamworth; the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead; Snow Factor in Glasgow and Chill Factore in Manchester.

In London, the big trend is curling. One of the best places to try it is Roof East, which has a “Curl Runnings” theme, with neon-lit curling lanes, steel drum bands and hot-buttered rum.

Christmas festival, St AlbansView image in fullscreenChristmas market St Albans. Photograph: Stephanie Belton St Albans is holding its first Christmas festival this year, in Verulamium Park

featuring a virtual-reality Father Christmas experience, an igloo with a silent disco, a snug showing Christmas films, a fairground and ice rink, a market, a champagne bus and a tipi bar

with music from choirs, acoustic singers and DJs. The city also has its first “living advent calendar” – with a different festive shop window revealed every day in December – and a

family-friendly exhibition on board games at the new St Albans Museum + Gallery. There are carols on the hour at the cathedral on 15 Dec, and carols until closing at several pubs (10, 13,

17, 18 and 20 Dec). The city hopes to equal the success of York’s hugely popular Christmas festival (until 23 Dec,). Free entry, some ticketed activities, enjoystalbans.com

Lights fantasticView image in fullscreenKew Gardens Christmas illuminated trail. Photograph: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock Fairy lights don’t cut it any more – these days, Christmas light

displays are full-blown illuminated extravaganzas. New ones this year include one-mile light trails through Beaulieu house and grounds in Hampshire, Bedgebury Pinetum in Kent and London Zoo.

They join returning light shows such as Lightwaves, a free digital light festival in Salford Quays; the Festival of Light at Longleat safari park in Wiltshire; and garden attractions

including the Eden Project in Cornwall, Wakehurst in West Sussex and Kew Gardens in London.

Festive screeningsView image in fullscreenThe Snowman screening at Chester cathedral. Photograph: Tom Bangbala Festive films are being shown in impressive locations all around the country

this month – one of the highlights is family favourite The Snowman, with the soundtrack played by a live orchestra in cathedrals from Durham to Winchester. The Luna Winter Cinema is showing

Christmas classics at St George’s Hall in Liverpool and Kensington Palace in London. The Bristol film festival has festive screenings at the Passenger Shed. The Neighbourhood Cinema has

turned a church in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, into an ice palace showing singalong Frozen and other films (also in Covent Garden, London). Other events in London include a floating film

festival at St Katharine Docks and a cinema in the snow in Hackney.

Puddings and pies, PadstowView image in fullscreenThe Christmas market at Padstow Christmas festival. Photograph: Adam Sargent This Christmas festival is a great event for festive foodies.

There are cookery demonstrations from more than 60 chefs, including “Padstein’s” own Rick Stein, plus Nathan Outlaw, Angela Hartnett, Mitch Tonks and Phil Vickery. This year, a new wine

theatre is running speed tastings and masterclasses. The market has 100-plus stalls, selling regional food, such as Christmas pudding steeped in Somerset cider brandy and Devon port stout;

local drinks including Cornish pastis; and products – blankets, ceramics, jewellery – by craftspeople from the south-west. Events include a Santa cycle and fun run, live music, carols, a

lantern parade and fireworks over the harbour. Free entry, 6-9 Dec, padstowchristmasfestival.co.uk

Meet SantaView image in fullscreenAn audience with Santa. Photograph: Getty Images A visit to a grotto in the local shopping centre no longer passes muster. This Christmas, children can sail

with Santa around Poole harbour, (£16.50pp); find him underground at Cheddar Gorge, Somerset (with day ticket, adult £16.95), or the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield, West Yorkshire

(adult £5.50/child £7.50 incl gift); and travel with him on a Santa train, such as the all-singing, all-dancing Train to Christmas Town in Dartmoor or Weardale, County Durham (from £18.75).

And at the Black Country Museum in the West Midlands, kids must earn their audience with the man in red by solving clues on Santa Hunt (adult £16.50, child £10.50).

Carol concertsView image in fullscreenCarols by candlelight. Photograph: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images Numerous cathedrals and churches host carols by candlelight, and raise money for charity,

such as Sheffield Cathedral’s service in aid of Breast Cancer Care (from £5, 5 Dec). Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s concert at St Luke’s church in Chelsea, London, even includes an appearance

by some of the rescue dogs (£20). There are outdoor carol concerts at some National Trust properties, for example Ightham Mote in Kent (£9.50, 14 and 21 Dec).

Other impressive surroundings for a singsong include English Heritage’s Stokesay Castle in Shropshire (from £7.50, 8 Dec), and Winterbourne Medieval Barn in Gloucestershire, built in 1342

and still serving mulled wine and mince pies today (£2, 15 Dec).

MuseumsView image in fullscreenThe Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City at the V&A. Photograph: Zaha Hadid Architects The V&A in London is hosting the Museum of Architecture’s third

annual Gingerbread City exhibition. Architects design buildings, parks and public spaces, then bake them out of gingerbread – this year the theme is “imagining the future city”. There are

gingerbread house-making workshops each weekend (£6 entry, £30 workshops, until 6 Jan).

At Beamish, the Living Museum of the North in County Durham, kids can experience Georgian, Edwardian and 1940s Christmas celebrations. There is a winter funfair, ice rink, shopping bazaar

and grotto; Twelfth Night celebrations take over the festivities from 27 Dec (from £19 adults, £11 children for a year’s pass, until 6 Jan). The Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth transports you

even further back in time to a Tudor Christmas and the merrymaking of Henry VIII’s court (from £13.60 adults, £6.40 children for a year’s pass, 8&9, 15&16 and 29&30 Dec).

Tree trail, Bournemouth,View image in fullscreenBournemouth Christmas tree trail Bournemouth has a new Christmas Tree Wonderland: a trail through the town, featuring more than 100 trees.

They include replicas of Christmas trees around the world, including St Petersburg’s and Seattle’s; a Bethlehem tree with a nativity scene; a canopy of lights through the pine trees; and a

60ft Wonderland Tree with 30,000 LEDs.

Children can look out for gingerbread people, giant teddy bears and a tree with enormous baubles on the trail. One highlight is the Upside Down house, a zero-gravity illusion where visitors

can walk on the ceiling. There is also a grotto, an alpine market and ice skating – this year with a new skate path off the main rink. Free, some ticketed activities, until 2 Jan,

christmastreewonderland.co.uk

Away in a mangerView image in fullscreenHusky cave at Drusillas Park, Sussex Animals aren’t just for Christmas – but it’s a good time to visit them. Stroke huskies in the ice cave at

Drusillas Park in East Sussex (park entry £71.80 family of four, huskies at weekends, then daily from 13-23 Dec).

Take part in a nativity play with real animals at Pennywell Farm in Devon, including their famous miniature pigs (not traditional, but very cute, £12.95pp, until 24 Dec). Meet hundreds of

donkeys at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, also in Devon. They have been known to join in the annual carols by candlelight service (free, 14 Dec). Hand-feed Britain’s only free-ranging

reindeer in the Cairngorms, Highland (£4pp, cairngormreindeer.co.uk).

Or visit turkeys that won’t end up as Christmas dinner at a sanctuary, such as Hen Heaven in West Sussex (call ahead on 07754 550193).

Spirit of Scrooge, PeterboroughView image in fullscreenBah Humbug! Fest, Peterborough Sick of turkey, tinsel and all the trimmings? The Bah Humbug! Fest at the East of England Arena in

Peterborough is a family-friendly day out with the Christmassy bits removed. There are four hours of unlimited fairground rides and inflatables, but no decorations, no annoying Christmas

tunes and definitely no Santa. Other attractions include a roller rink, live music from a Little Mix tribute band and appearances from children’s TV characters such as Paw Patrol’s Chase and

Peppa Pig. £20pp, £70 family of four/under-threes free, 20-30 Dec, except Christmas Day).

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