Christmas 2024: the best festive days out to book
Fancy a festive day out this Christmas? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve picked out the top Christmas events in cities up and down the country, from London to Glasgow and everywhere in between. Shop your way around Christmas markets, fill up on bratwurst and mulled wine, follow illuminated light trails and more. The icing on the (Christmas) cake? You can get to every one of them with megabus.
Experience Edinburgh’s Christmas
Edinburgh’s Christmas kicks off from mid-November onwards and runs up until New Year’s Eve – when Hogmanay steals the show. There’ll be an undercover Christmas Ice Rink surrounded by food stalls, fairground rides and festive workshops on George Street. And on East Princes Street Gardens you’ll find a huge traditional Christmas Market plus the LNER Big Wheel – ride to the top at night and the city looks like a winter wonderland. While you’re in town, don’t miss Edinburgh Castle’s light trail – it totally transforms the place once the sun sets.
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Visit Newcastle’s Northern Lights
Northern Lights takes over Newcastle’s Leazes Park from mid-November until New Year’s Eve, and tickets for this immersive light trail are selling fast. Interactive installations and special effects fill the route around Newcastle’s oldest park, with plenty of photo ops along the way. The Christmas Village – which you can stop at before or after you’ve walked the trail – is a highlight, with a long list of foodie traders. Fill up on everything from Greek street food and wood-fired pizzas to churros and proper coffee.
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Shop at Manchester’s Christmas market
Manchester’s Christmas market is massive – over 200 stalls make this one of Europe’s top-rated markets, so it’s well worth a visit for a shopping spree. Stalls are spread across the city in locations including Piccadilly Gardens and Exchange Square, and open every day for six weeks from early November. That’s alongside an ice rink on Cathedral Gardens and a light trail that criss-crosses the city, so there’s plenty going on to warrant a festive trip.
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Get festive at Durham Cathedral
Durham packs its Christmas market into one weekend – December 6-8 – so get the dates in your diary. Local sellers fill every inch of the city’s Market Place, and you can pick up everything from festive knits to seasonal foods. The Craft and Producers’ Marquee on Palace Green is even bigger, and the place to head for handmade jewellery, one-off Christmas decorations and artwork you won’t find on the high street. If you’re here on a different date in December, head to Durham Cathedral – it hosts special Christmas services and choral concerts in a really atmospheric setting.
See a theatre show in Leeds
Leeds packs in no less than four first-rate theatres – Leeds Grand Theatre, City Varieties, Leeds Playhouse and Carriageworks Theatre. And between them they lay on a long list of shows if you fancy a theatre trip over the Christmas season. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe makes for a festive watch at Leeds Playhouse, as does Northern Ballet’s A Christmas Carol at the Grand. Not your cup of festive tea? Try Slipknot at First Direct Arena on December 14.
Go on a festive pub crawl in Cardiff
Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland is back at the Castle grounds and City Hall lawns for 2024, with an undercover ice rink, funfair and Christmas market on the line-up. If you fancy a festive tipple, there’s also an alpine ski-lodge bar and ice bar, not to mention plenty of food stalls. Staying out all night? Cardiff’s cozy pubs are never more inviting than at Christmas time, and Visit Cardiff have created the perfect itinerary – the 12 pubs of Christmas – so you can tick off some of the city’s best watering holes.
Try your hand at curling in London
London at Christmas is as magical as it gets – from ice skating at Somerset House, to walking the light trail at Kew Gardens and riding the Ferris wheel at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. But if you’ve done all the big-name attractions or just fancy something a bit different, there are plenty of pop-up options, too. New York’s famous Miracle on Ninth Street bar is making an appearance in Covent Garden for the seventh year, for example, so you can sip a Christmassy cocktail in kitsch surroundings. And Club Curling is back in King’s Cross, so you can have a go at the sport made famous in the Olympics, then refuel with a cocktail in the bar.
Cozy up in a ski gondola in Bristol
Bristol Christmas Market is back in the city from early November until December 23, and the line-up is bigger than ever. Alongside more than 30 stalls there’s a Jäger barn bar, The Candy Factory escape room and Rollahub skate disco. If you’re here as a group, hire a ski gondola – they seat up to six people and make the perfect cosy cabin for festive drinks. And as for food, fill up on everything from German Bratwurst to Yorkshire pudding wraps – washed down with a mulled wine, of course.
Play a festive game of bingo in Glasgow
Glasgow Winterfest takes over the Scottish city with all the usual favourites – we’re talking Christmas market stalls, ice skating, festive fairground rides and more. But once you’ve done all that there’s one more event that should be on your calendar this Christmas – and that’s a game at Glasgow’s branch of Bongo’s Bingo. This bingo hall with a difference promises singalongs, dance-offs and a whole lot of audience participation – so it’s not one for shrinking violets. There are festive specials running from November all the way to Christmas and beyond.