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TAKE A FESTIVE SEASON BREAK
 "Christmas
is coming!" Many a housewife has thought that Christmas would be just perfect, if it
wasn't for the cooking. A long list of seaside and country hotels have the answer: a
three- or four-day festive package that includes all the traditional Christmas fare and
house-party atmosphere.
Every year, hundreds of hotels throughout Britain and Ireland actively promote Christmas
and New Year packages, aimed at all possible sectors of the market. If you can't face
another hectic Christmas at home, treat yourself and spouse to a special break.
Most of these festive-season packages are taken by so-called 'empty-nesters' - the
over-50s whose children have grown up and scattered. Helping you work up an appetite for
all the feasting, caterers can suggest a range of sport activities, from golf or indoor
bowls to brisk walks or a dip in a heated indoor pool.
Travel Facts
Visit our holidays,
breaks and travel options pages
TRAVEL FACTS
When to book: The sooner you finalise a UK or continental reservation, the better. Think seriously about it from
September onwards. You cannot expect to find any last-minute discount
offers.
While festive season prices are at their peak, the following few weeks in
January are at their lowest.
Consider a shopping, sightseeing and entertainment weekend in London or
other major city, and enjoy the Sales. Christmas decorations should remain in place until
Twelfth Night - January 6.
Getting there: Most UK hotel programmes enable you to dodge wintry driving conditions by
choosing either a rail-inclusive or Express Coach package.
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Professional entertainments are organised by most of Britain's hotel groups - three to
five days, packed with lavish menus, celebrations and local trips; or longer breaks, if
preferred.
Programmes can include candlelit dinners, carols, visit from Santa Claus, sightseeing
excursions, and possibly tickets to a Boxing Day pantomime.
Any time from September onwards, ask your travel agent for brochures published by the
major hotel groups. Your first choice may be fully booked, but group reservation offices
can often suggest another location with a vacancy.
For couples or singles who want a quieter house-party atmosphere, smaller hotels can offer a traditional break without all the
razzmatazz. Likewise, many seaside guesthouses are glad to quote for Christmas breaks in a
homely setting.
All the major holiday-centre groups open for Christmas and New Year. In some deals you can
choose self-catering but with access to the entertainment programmes.
If you still prefer a traditional home-based family Christmas, why not get away during the
last remaining days of December? In that period, many business hotels continue to offer
attractive deals to keep their rooms occupied and encourage bar business.
It's just the way to relax after your own Christmas, when it's Mum's turn to be pampered.
If you want 4-star or 5-star luxury, all the big-time resort hotels have something to
offer.
In Scotland you can depend on a Ceilidh to welcome the New Year, in proper Hogmanay style
with bagpipes and Scottish dancing. You can sleep off the effects before going home.
Many festive season breaks include one or two local coach excursions in the
programme. Major coach-tour companies like WA Shearings and Leger Holidays will again be
operating Christmas and New Year holidays based on their own or contracted hotels throughout Britain.
These packages include transport to your holiday resort, full board and festivities, and
one or two morning sightseeing drives. Local coach operators can offer similar deals,
linked to well-chosen accommodation.
From the viewpoint of the holiday industry, the only snag with Christmas is that it comes
only once a year. The solution is to offer 4-day pre-Christmas deals - often called
'Turkey and Tinsel'.
Each day features seasonal meals, decorations and entertainment, starting with Christmas
Eve, working through to Boxing Day and ending next night with a New Year's Eve party. They
operate every week through November and well into December.
Another way of stretching
the season is to promote traditional Christmas fairs. In recent years they have
mushroomed all over Britain with craft stalls, decorations,
toys and foodstuffs, mostly in early December. Typical is a Christmas Festival at Warwick Castle in two November-December weekends, complete with
Victorian-style entertainers, a jester and craft stalls.
All this mirrors the highly popular continental Christmas markets which have been
operating for centuries in Belgium, Germany and central and eastern Europe. Many
pre-Christmas city breaks are wrapped around these destinations which give a different
flavour to the season.
The Czech Republic is home of the Christmas tree, and of Good King Wenceslas himself. Tour
operators offer festive breaks at hotels close to Wenceslas Square in the centre of
Prague, where the Good King's statue surveys the crowds.
Several coach operators feature 5-day touring holidays that include the Christmas markets
in cities like Brussels, Cologne and Salzburg. En route there may be sightseeing stops in
old-time cities like Bruges and Ghent.
The trend of the past decade is for Christmas and New Year holidays to bridge two weekends
to make a full 10-day winter break. The same trend is even more deeply established
throughout western Europe.
Hence, for most sectors of travel business, that period is high season. Alpine ski centres
and Mediterranean resorts will all be bubbling with programmes of gala dinners, dances and
entertainments, fully booked at peak season prices. You can work up your
appetite for traditional Christmas feasting by skiing on Alpine slopes, by taking a brisk
walk around a cruise-liner promenade deck, by swimming in a Mediterranean hotel pool, or
by exploring the highlights of a Continental capital.
Copyright: Reg Butler
"CDs to add to your collection - click on the links
below"The
Sinatra Christmas Album - wallow in nostalgia, with Frank Sinatra singing all the
Christmas favourites.
Edinburgh
Hogmanay Party Mix - Keltik Elektrik - If you can't make Edinburgh for Hogmanay, this
CD will get you into the mood of a Scottish New Year.
Letters
from Father Christmas - by J.R.R. Tolkien - a
delightful reprint of the illustrated letters which Tolkien wrote to his
children on behalf of Santa Claus The
Cat That Could Open the Fridge: A Curmudgeon's Guide to Christmas Round
Robin Letters - edited by Simon Hoggart - What to avoid
writing when telling all your friends and relatives about how you spent
the year.
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