Festive feasting and fun – without the washing up
Nothing special planned for Christmas? Fear not … there’s still time to book an escape to a country house hotel where you can celebrate in style and leave someone else to clear up afterwards.
If a roaring inglenook fire, timber beams and panelling are your idea of cosy Yuletide surroundings, an Elizabethan manor house in Dorset could be just the ticket. Offering views over romantic castle ruins and the Purbeck Hills, Mortons House in Corfe Castle kicks off its festivities with a pre-dinner champagne reception on Christmas Eve.
There’s a Christmas Day roast turkey lunch in the two AA-rosette restaurant, while on Boxing Day guests feast on an ‘olde worlde Elizabethan Banquet’ with haunch of venison, roast sirloin of beef, a whole salmon, roast leg of lamb and home-baked ham. Three nights costs £510*.
A Christmas Eve lake cruise and Christmas morning guided fell walk will set guests up nicely for festivities at Lakeside Hotel, on the shores of Lake Windermere. Also included in a four-night package are mince pies and gin slings before a drinks reception and dinner on December 23, Midnight Mass nearby in beautiful Cartmel Priory on Christmas Eve, and traditional Christmas lunch, family games and a Boxing Day casino night. The price is £895.
Limber up for your champagne reception and Christmas lunch at Rudding Park with a six-hole golf competition – and relax after the blow-out with a Christmas film classic in the hotel’s cinema. Rudding Park, near Harrogate, has also organised a Christmas Eve black-tie dinner followed by a carol service in its chapel. Two nights is £510 and three nights £710.
For those who over-indulge, Losehill House in the Derbyshire Peak District is offering guests a complimentary 30-minute spa treatment. Work up an appetite on Boxing Day exploring the stunning countryside before a black-tie dinner and live entertainment. Cost of the three-night deal is £562.50.
Fonab Castle (Pictured)
Learn how to make Christmas cocktails – and enjoy them – on Christmas Day at Fonab Castle, a luxury baronial billet surrounded by lochs, mountains, rivers and woodland in Perthshire. For those who prefer the local tipple, a whisky tasting will also delight.
Champagne parties, candlelit dinners overlooking Loch Faskally, and a walk around the loch are also on the agenda in a two-night staying costing £415.50 or three nights for £606.
*All prices are per person sharing.
