These Are The Most Festive Villages In Britain

Which villages pull out all the stops at Christmas? Anna Tyzack hunts down the best trees, traditions and nearby houses for sale.

These Are The Best Villages In Britain For Christmas Celebrations

Carols in the church, pints in the pub, a frosty village green – what could feel more Christmassy than a rural village in December? Christmas is a barometer of a village, according to Harry Wilde of Winkworth’s Petersfield office; if a village does Christmas well, it tends to be a pleasant place to live the rest of the year, with enduring community spirit and local desire to bring people together. ‘The most coveted villages tend to be those with longstanding traditions,’ Wilde explains, and at Christmas, buyers should look for a busy pub, a well-attended church, wreaths on the doors and key Christmas events: a Boxing Day meet, carols, a market in the village hall.

Kirdford, West Sussex

This chocolate-box Sussex village near Billingshurst is perfection at Christmas, with a main street lined with immaculate cottages straight out of The Holiday. Its two pubs are both worth leaving home for: The Foresters Arms on the village green, recently reopened and run by a former Arsenal goalkeeper and her partner, is friendly and serves the best fish and chips for miles, while Half Moon is an elegant gastropub owned by former model Jodie Kidd that hosts the local hunt meet on Boxing Day. And what better way to get into the spirit of rural Christmas than with a festive tractor rally? The Farmer Christmas Charity Run is back for a second year in Kirdford, near Billingshurst, on 13 December.

FOR SALE

A country house with a sweeping drive set in formal gardens. The interiors are in need of updating, but the large drawing room and family kitchen will come into their own at Christmas, as will the five bedrooms. It is set on six acres of land with lapsed planning for stables, too, in case a pony is on the Christmas list. £1.65m, knightfrank.com

Castleton, Derbyshire

In recent years, this picturesque village at the head of the Hope Valley in the heart of the Peak District has become as known for its Christmas trees as its four show caves – Peak Cavern, Speedwell Cavern, Treak Cliff Cavern and Blue John Mine. This year, Castleton hosts its 16th Christmas Tree Festival: from 15 November, Christmas trees decorated by local groups, businesses and caverns will be on display in St Edmund’s Church. There will also be Christmas trees lit up outside most shops, pubs and cafés around the village. Festive visitors can even attend atmospheric underground carol concerts in Peak Cavern and Treak Cliff Cavern (6-24 December), accompanied by local brass brands, as well as the Hollowford Christmas Market (6 December), featuring local produce and crafts.

FOR SALE

A 62-acre farm peacefully positioned up a long driveway with a character-filled farmhouse, three-bedroom cottage and one-bedroom barn. The main house has airy open plan living spaces, a kitchen with an Aga, a gym and an office; outside are flagged terraces, lawns and a densely populated orchard. £4.995m, blenheim.co.uk

Swinbrook, Oxfordshire

It’s as if time stands still in the honeystone village of Swinbrook, a conservation area in the Cotswolds. There are fewer than 150 residents, a 12th-century church, and a gentle stream running through the centre. No wonder The Swan Inn – a 18th-century coaching inn in the heart of the village that used to be owned by Deborah Mitford (her family lived at Swinbrook House) – draws visitors in search of an archetypal Cotswolds pub lunch, particularly at Christmas when the open fire and log burner are both blazing and there’s turkey on the menu. David Cameron famously dined there with Francois Hollande in 2014. While visitors will have to go to Burford, seven minutes away, for Christmas markets and grottos or the Burford Garden Centre – which was recently named the UK’s hottest celebrity haunt and sells Christmas trees for up to £3,000 – Swinbrook offers twinkling lights and carols in St Mary’s Church (21 December). On Boxing Day, locals walk across the fields for carols at the church in neighbouring Widford.

FOR SALE

A four-bedroom, Grade II-listed, Tudor-style house with period features including lattice windows and open fireplaces reimagined for modern living. The gardens have been cleverly landscaped with formal and informal areas, and a summer house has been converted into a one-bedroom garden cottage. £2.85m, knightfrank.com

Grassington, North Yorkshire

The small town of Grassington – Darrowby in the TV adaptation of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small – feels like a village, with its cobbled market square and independent boutiques and art galleries that come alive at Christmas. There is a ceremonial switching on of the Christmas lights on 21 November, and bustling craft and produce markets on 29 November and 6 December. Stay a short walk away across the River Wharfe at The Fountaine Inn, on the green in the village of Linton. The pub has a roaring fire, hand-pulled beers and a number of cosy bedrooms. From here, visitors can walk the Dales Way, or to Linton Falls to see the weir that powered one of the first public electricity supplies in England.

FOR SALE

A Grade II-listed cottage in Linton with uninterrupted views of the Yorkshire Dales from its mullion windows. There’s a cosy sitting room with an inglenook, an eat-in kitchen, three bedrooms and a south-facing garden and orchard. £595,000, wilman-lodge.co.uk

Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

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On the first Saturday in December, the medieval wool town of Chipping Campden in the northern Cotswolds is transformed into a festive wonderland for its much-loved Christmas market. Along with outdoor stalls selling mulled wine, cards, toys and seasonal delicacies, the town hall hosts a cosy indoor market selling decorations and festive treasures. The town, which is arguably the most unspoilt of Cotswolds market towns, is famous for its links to the Arts and Crafts movement and has a fine selection of pubs and restaurants, and two award-winning delis. Stay at Campden Barn, a retreat moments from town that sleeps up to eight (from £450, westaygroup.com).

FOR SALE

Ivy House on the high street was owned by George Hart, who ran the Guild of Handicraft’s Chipping Campden workshop after it was co-founded by Charles Ashbee and William Morris during the flourishing Arts and Crafts movement in the early 20th century. The house is remarkably unspoilt, with elegant panelling, a drawing room with ornate coving and a marble fireplace, and flagstone floors and detailed panelling in the dining room. The kitchen is centred around a four-oven Aga beneath a stone lintel; there is a separate scullery, and there are six bedrooms upstairs. £2.75m, savills.com

Catherington, Hampshire

There are two sides to this rural village on a chalk spur of the South Downs near Petersfield: Catherington Down – great for sledging – and Catherington Lith. Between them is The Farmer Inn, which is where festive celebrations kick off on 25 November with a Christmas market. Such is local enthusiasm for Christmas that residents have erected a village Christmas tree: on 15 December, there will be carol singing around it led by The Salvation Army.

FOR SALE

A handsome Grade II-listed farmhouse with high ceilings and large sash windows. The vaulted breakfast room/kitchen is perfect for a family Christmas lunch; afterwards, open presents in the drawing room. There are six bedrooms and a cottage, plus an outdoor pool amid landscaped gardens. £1.7m, winkworth.co.uk

Mousehole, Cornwall

Few villages light up at Christmas as much as Mousehole near Penzance. It was the artist Joan Gillchrest who first proposed lighting up the harbour in 1963, a plan that has evolved into an annual display involving the entire village and a dedicated committee. This year’s switch-on is on 11 December, with an estimated 7,000 bulbs in nautical, festive and animal shapes (there’s a cat that returns each year, and a sea monster) strung along the harbour walls, on boats and in the narrow streets and alleys – although they are dimmed on 19 December to commemorate the anniversary of the Penlee Lifeboat Disaster. On 23 December the village celebrates Tom Bawcock’s Eve, eating fish stargazey pie (with pilchard heads and tails poking through the crust) to honour a local fisherman who saved locals from starving during a storm by landing an enormous catch. Mulled wine and apple cider is on offer at local cafés and pubs throughout December – although you’ll still need to wrap up for the Cornish coastal weather.

FOR SALE

A three-bedroom, semi-detached Victorian house sitting on the hillside above Mousehole harbour. No1 Coronation Villas has magnificent views of St Clement’s Island and Mount’s Bay, with St Clement’s Isle, Praa Sands and the Lizard clearly visible on a sunny day. £750,000, savills.co.uk