Yep, it’ll soon be the time of year again to dig out that Christmas jumper, dust off your baubles and deep dive into some serious seasonal spirit. To help you make the most of the festivities, here are European destinations that scream ‘Christmas’, as well as some less obvious Santa-approved getaways. These are our picks for Europe’s best Christmas city breaks…
PARIS
Gay Paree may stubbornly cling to its status as the romance capital of the world (only intensified by the photogenic Olympics this summer), but it is rather magnifique as a Christmas city break, too. As you’d expect from the City of Lights, they don’t scrimp on Nöel, with illumination everywhere from its grand boulevards to charming side streets decked out in seasonal splendour — over a million lights alone twinkle along the Champs-Élysées.
Emblematic Tour Eiffel marks the city’s yuletide epicentre, where you can totter around an ice-skating rink, gawp up at hourly light shows and ascend for elevated cityscape vistas. A Christmas market here also means immersing yourself in the seasonal scents of gingerbread macarons, steaming chocolate crêpes and spiced vin chaud, to add a little oh là là to your ho, ho, ho.
Where to stay With its plush snugs, decadent decor and general fin de siècle opulence, L’Hôtel offers a beautifully velvet-lined cocoon for your Christmas getaway. It is famous as the lodgings where Oscar Wilde quipped his last zinger — ‘Either this wallpaper goes or I do’ — and there’s little doubt the renowned aesthete would have approved of the makeover.
LONDON
London can thank Charles Dickens, dubbed the man who invented (or at least reinvented) Christmas, for making the city synonymous with the season. Tread central London’s cobbled streets lined with Victorian-era dwellings, and it’s all too easy to imagine a penitent Ebenezer leaning out of a window to ask what day it is.
The UK capital takes the holiday seriously, too, hosting a lively schedule of annual shenanigans across the metropolis. Perennial Christmassy traditions include Trafalgar Square’s Christmas tree lighting and carolling at various venues (from local churches to the Royal Albert Hall), together with Christmas markets that pop up all over the city. Landmark department stores compete for the crown of the most dazzling window display, adding to the glorious Christmas crush of last-minute shopping under the dazzling lights of Oxford and Regent Street, and Knightsbridge. Duck into a snug London boozer and you’ll often find Christmas most perfectly distilled, with tinsel-festooned bars, crackling fires and, of course, festive-themed ales.
Where to stay One Aldwych is perfectly positioned to put you right in the Christmassy thick of Larndan Tahn. This grand Edwardian beauty sits a bauble throw from Christmassy Covent Garden and just across the river from Southbank’s buzzy yuletide market. Thinking of squeezing in a Christmas show? The Nutcracker at the Coliseum is also just a jeté away.
MANCHESTER
It’s no secret that Mancunians know how to party, so join in with this year’s citywide Christmas revelry. Manchester‘s Christmas markets are among Europe’s biggest and busiest, opening up across the city centre, with Exchange Square hosting the main event. Food and drink are really at the fore, with the air perfumed by the scent of sizzling bratwursts, mulled wine and giant Yorkshire puddings.
If you’re planning a round or two of Christmas shopping, the Trafford Centre’s extravagant Rococo- and Baroque-referencing design provides the perfect setting for a retail winter wonderland. Or get out of the big city for Christmas at Dunham Massey, where you’ll stroll a mile-long trail of dancing lights, Christmas-themed sculptures and twinkling star tunnels. Back in town, Bridgewater Hall puts on a Christmas-heavy calendar of music, film and dance, together with Christmas carol sing-alongs. Mad fer it? Christmas in Manchester is sure to shiiine (especially now that Oasis have reunited).
Where to stay Rooms called Snug, Cosy and Comfy certainly deliver on their promise at the King Street Townhouse. Housed within a distinguished Victorian edifice, this boutique beauty does luxe urban bolthole quite like nowhere else in the city. You may not get much use of the seventh-floor infinity pool over the festive months, but a session in the spa’s steam room or sauna will expel any winter chill from your bones.
VIENNA
Squeeze your eyes tight and imagine a quintessentially Christmassy cityscape and we can guarantee Vienna won’t be far off. A wealth of magnificent Baroque architecture first set the Christmas-card-worthy scene for the festive season in the Austrian capital. Adding to this, magical Christmas markets showcase the Viennese’s famously sweet teeth with a cornucopia of chocolate-covered fruit, honey-sweetened gingerbread and sweet fluffy pancakes (Kaiserschmarrn). Their must-try Christmas punch also certainly packs plenty.
An abundance of Christmas lights festoon the city, veering more towards the tastefully timeless than your Disney tie-in. Vienna’s classical musical pedigree comes to the festival fore, too, with churches and concert halls all over the city filling with the strains of native tunesmiths Strauss and Mozart for Christmas. It’s all sure to have you sighing ‘Oh, Vienna…’.
Where to stay Some of Austria’s top design talent was tapped at the Altstadt Vienna to reflect and celebrate the surrounding city. Hundreds of artworks, too, add to the boutique hotel’s impeccable artistic credentials. For Vienna-meets-Paris, Hotel Motto offers a beautifully crafted stay together with an onsite bakery that offers you a selection of seasonal treats on the house.
PRAGUE
With its fairy-tale castles, mediaeval cobbled squares and scattering of Gothic spires, Prague has an undeniable storybook charm even outside of the festive season. Add all the accoutrements of Christmas and the Czech capital becomes positively magical. The Old Town Square makes the perfect yuletide setting for the city’s main Christmas market, where many of the stalls are dedicated to handicrafts, wooden puppets and other children’s toys that could have come straight from Santa’s workshop.
Wash down slabs of spiced ginger cake with cinnamon-spiked punch, while listening to carols in Wenceslas Square and you’re in Christmas nirvana. Unlike most other city breaks in Europe, you’ve even got a sporting chance of the ultimate festive touch: real snow.
Where to stay Set but a block from Old Town Square, Emblem Hotel puts guests right in Prague’s Christmassy heart. And when you’re done soaking up all the seasonal shenanigans, there are lots of snug spots to hole up in, such as a well-stocked games room or a smoking lounge with a log fire. For a real treat, book a session in the rooftop hot tub for views over Prague’s rooftops while you prune.
BERLIN
Berlin might be the hipster hotspot of Europe, but it’s not too cool to go all out celebrating Christmas. Of course, the mostly rebuilt German capital can’t compete with most in terms of the fairy-tale festive feel, but there’s still lots to get your Christmas buzz on. Dozens of Christmas markets are dotted around Berlin, from the gourmet to the glitzy.
For a yuletide stroll, the tree-lined Ku’damm explodes into a constellation of Christmas lights and giant snowmen. Or head to Potsdamer Platz, where the Sony Center transforms into a dazzling wunderland of festive lights and illuminated displays. Alexanderplatz is where you’ll find the annual funfair, though you’d probably best save the sizzling seasonal wurst and ‘fire tongue’ festive punch until after the rides.
Where to stay Berlin’s coolest corner is the natural postcode bedfellow for the city’s Soho House outpost, whose heart-of-Mitte location puts it within easy strolling of various Christmassy hotspots, including some markets. The grade II-listed building has been brought up to date with the usual Soho House suspects, including a Cowshed spa, a Cecconi’s and, of course, a rooftop pool (though it might be a little nippy to make the most of that).
BRUGES
With a backdrop of meandering canals, gingerbread-house architecture and polished cobblestone squares, Christmas in Bruges is pinch-yourself picturesque. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a more picture-perfect place to spend the season. Central Square hosts the main market, where a heady mix of steaming hot chocolate and Belgian gingerbread waffles waft on the wintery air.
Festive revellers can follow an illuminated walking trail that loops through most of Bruges’ best bits. Join it at Minnewater Park, where you can ice skate too if you fancy. If you’re feeling brave, join the annual Christmas dip, led by Santa Claus himself, which sees dozens of locals take an icy plunge into the canal.
Where to stay The Notary — a gabled, red-brick former notary’s residence — more than delivers on the promise of its eye-pleasing frontage. A series of individually designed suites are lavish and liveable, with some featuring showstoppers such as bronze bath tubs, emperor-size beds and fireplaces for a very merry Christmas indeed.
ANTWERP
It might be a little nippy to see Antwerp in style, by which we mean on two wheels, but the hardy can pack some gloves and hope for the best. The Belgian port city is located on the River Scheldt, with an entire district dedicated to diamonds — helpful for anyone planning an impromptu yuletide proposal mid-minibreak. The Flemish architecture on show includes the Grote Markt, the main square in the heart of the old town.
Come December, it’s all about the markets, which makes it the ideal destination for a city break at Christmas. Grote Markt gets taken over by one and the stalls spill over onto other squares, including Handschoenmarkt and Groenplaats. Also aiding and abetting the festive fans are an ice rink, a Ferris wheel and lots of twinkling lights — plus, of course, Belgian waffles on hand to help you warm up.
Where to stay Close to Antwerp’s pedestrian-only Green Quarter and all its festivities is August Antwerp, set within a converted convent. Over in the Old Town, Hotel Julien is close to many of the big-hitter sights, including Grote Markt and the cathedral.
MUNICH
As with many Teutonic cities, Munich goes all in on the festive season, so if you want to mainline the glühwein, overdose on the gingerbread and shop for trinkets from storybook stalls, this is an ideal Christmas city break in Europe.
The original Christmas (or Christkindlmarkt) market is located at Marienplatz, which has the biggest tree, but there are lots more in other districts to explore as well. The 30-metre installation is a friendly gift from a different town in Austria or Italy each year and is adorned by at least 2,500 lights. The festivities kick off on 25 November, so Christmas devotees can get their fix nice and early.
Where to stay Rosewood Munich arrived in the city last year, set within two heritage Rococo and Baroque buildings: the former headquarters of the Bavarian State Bank and its next-door neighbour, the Palais Neuhaus-Preysing. It’s just steps from Marienplatz, which means it’s the perfect location for Christmas-market enthusiasts. You’ll also be able to get a pre-party glow at the Asaya spa, courtesy of a Dr Barbara Sturm or Evidens de Beauté facial.
STOCKHOLM
If the game’s up and you no longer believe in Santa Claus, steer clear of Lapland and head south to Stockholm instead, where we can’t promise elves or Rudolph, but we can guarantee plenty of festive cheer. The Venice of the North as it’s known, on account of its many islands and canals, may get dark at around 3pm in the winter, but the illuminations and a giant twinkling tree are on hand to help — and they’ll be lit from mid-November. More than 40 streets and squares in the centre are decorated, with a million LED lights and reindeer-shaped bulbs deployed. And December temperatures in Stockholm don’t get much higher than 1 degree Celsius, so it’s the perfect Christmas city break in Europe to be in with a good shot at some snow.
The city’s Christmas markets are best enjoyed with a cup of glögg and some gingerbread in hand. Call by the farmers’ edition in Tessinparken, pick up some dreamy designs at the Maker’s Market in Winterviken and see where it all began at the historic Christmas market on Stortorget, which has been in operation since 1837. Also not to be missed are the Nordiska Kompaniet windows — the department store has been embracing the elaborate Christmas display since 1902. And popular-year-round attractions such as the open-air museum Skansen and Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s colourful, cobblestoned old town, get their Christmas makeovers from late November.
Where to stay New to the Stockholm scene this autumn is Villa Dahlia, a boutique hotel close to Tegnérlunden park that will gladly be your cosy Christmas casa, with a spa to help you warm up after a chilly day out.
Rather escape to warmer climes this winter? Check out our guide on where to head for winter sun…
