CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR
Christmas & New Year
The whole family, one big house, the sea outside the window — and a county that does Christmas properly.
THE COLLECTION
St Ives
Hillside
Sleeps 8 · 3 Bed · 4 Bath
From £1,235/Week
St Ives
Beach Haven
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £585/Week
St Ives
Springfield Villa
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,430/Week
Mousehole
Trevene
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,285/Week
Bude
Halekulani
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
Crackington Haven
Trevigue Cottage
Sleeps 6 · 4 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,358/Week
Crackington Haven
Atlantic Haven
Sleeps 2 · 1 Bed · 1 Bath
From £975/Week
Portreath
Harbour Heights
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,230/Week
St Ives
Salubrious House
Sleeps 9 · 4 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,530/Week
Praa Sands
Libertine
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 4 Bath
From £2,180/Week
Falmouth
Waves
Sleeps 9 · 4 Bed · 4 Bath
From £2,035/Week
Padstow
The Grain Store
Sleeps 5 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,330/Week
Perranuthnoe
Trekoa
Sleeps 8 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
St Ives
Porthminster Mews 2
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £830/Week
St Ives
Vitamyn Sea
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,435/Week
St Ives
Sea View House
Sleeps 10 · 5 Bed · 5 Bath
From £1,530/Week
St Ives
Tresillian
Sleeps 12 · 6 Bed · 4 Bath
From £1,530/Week
Padstow
Peacehay Barn
Sleeps 12 · 6 Bed · 5 Bath
From £2,935/Week
Porth
Seascape
Sleeps 6 · 3 Bed · 3 Bath
From £1,035/Week
Padstow
Kismet
Sleeps 8 · 4 Bed · 4 Bath
From £1,235/Week
Feock
Creek End
Sleeps 10 · 4 Bed · 4 Bath
From £2,235/Week
Bude
Ravenscourt
Sleeps 10 · 5 Bed · 4 Bath
From £2,530/Week
Charlestown
Orchard Cottage
Sleeps 4 · 2 Bed · 2 Bath
From £1,285/Week
Carbis Bay
Tintin Cottage
Sleeps 2 · 1 Bed · 1 Bath
From £505/Week
Where these cottages are
Christmas & New Year across Cornwall
The christmas & new year cottages we look after, grouped by where they are
Where these cottages are
Locations approximate — exact addresses provided on booking confirmation.
EDITORIAL
The whole family, one big house, in the most magical corner of the country
There’s a particular kind of Christmas that a Cornwall cottage makes possible: the whole family in one house, nobody squeezed onto a sofa bed at home, a kitchen big enough to actually cook in, and a coastline to walk off the Christmas dinner. A Cornish Christmas is a fire, a full table, a harbour strung with lights, and a beach walk on Christmas morning. It books a year ahead for good reason. This is the county’s busiest winter season — the larger family cottages, the ones with the right kitchen and room for three generations, are the first to go and the earliest to book. If a Cornwall Christmas is the plan, it pays to commit early.
Cornwall genuinely does Christmas, and not in a generic way. Mousehole’s harbour lights — strung across the water and through the narrow streets since the 1960s, in the shapes of boats and sea creatures — are one of the best-loved Christmas displays in the country, and the village is at its most magical on Tom Bawcock’s Eve (23 December), when a lantern parade and the famous stargazy pie mark the legend of the fisherman who saved Mousehole from famine. Montol in Penzance, on the winter solstice (21 December), revives old Cornish midwinter customs with fire, lanterns, guising and processions through the dark streets. The Padstow Christmas Fayre in early December packs the harbour town with food, fireworks and celebrity-chef demonstrations. Add the Christmas markets at Truro and Fowey, the light trails at the Eden Project and Heligan, and carol services in churches and at Truro Cathedral — and the run-up to Christmas is genuinely part of the trip.
For Christmas and New Year, the cottage *is* the holiday — more than at any other time of year. This is the week the family gathers, the big meals get cooked, and everyone is indoors together for days at a stretch, so the house has to work. The kitchen needs to be big enough to cook Christmas dinner for the whole party without three people colliding at the oven. The table needs to seat everyone at once — Christmas dinner at two sittings isn’t Christmas dinner. The space needs to absorb three generations across the quiet days between Christmas and New Year — which is exactly when a games room, a log burner and a hot tub earn their keep. Most festive bookings are for the larger properties — see Large Holiday Homes — and the property page is where to check the kitchen, the table and the sleeping layout against the size of your party.
The outdoors is part of a Cornish Christmas too. The county’s winters are mild — the Gulf Stream keeps hard frost and snow rare on the coast — so Christmas morning is for a walk on an empty beach or a blustery stretch of coast path, not for being trapped inside. The festive sea swim has become a Cornwall institution: on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, hundreds of swimmers in Santa hats and tinsel run into the sea at beaches like Gyllyngvase, Sennen, Bude, Polzeath and Newquay, usually for charity. Winter is also full dog-freedom — the summer beach restrictions are long lifted — and the dramatic winter seas make for proper storm-watching. New Year keeps it going: St Ives throws one of Britain’s great fancy-dress New Year’s Eve street parties, and towns across the county see in midnight with fireworks over the harbours.
A note on how festive booking works, because it’s not like the rest of the year. Christmas and New Year is the winter peak — the larger, well-equipped family cottages are often booked 9 to 12 months ahead, and the most sought-after places go even earlier. Bookings are usually fixed weeks — a set seven-night Christmas week and a separate New Year week, sometimes available as a combined fortnight — rather than the flexible short stays you’ll find in the quieter months, and minimum-stay rules apply. Prices sit at a winter premium, reflecting the demand for the week. None of that is a reason to hesitate — it’s a reason to plan ahead. Browse what’s available below; every cottage shown is confirmed bookable for your festive dates, and if a Cornwall Christmas is what you want, the earlier you look the better the choice.
Good to know
Questions
The things people ask before they book
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Because it solves the thing that makes Christmas at home hard — space — and adds a coastline. A cottage gives the whole family one house to gather in, with a kitchen big enough to cook in properly, a table that seats everyone, and bedrooms for three generations without anyone drawing the short straw. Nobody has to host in their own home, nobody has to drive home on Christmas night, and the days between Christmas and New Year unfold somewhere genuinely beautiful. Add the county's mild winters (a Christmas-morning beach walk rather than cabin fever), the harbour towns lit up, and the Cornish festive traditions, and a Cornwall Christmas becomes a proper holiday rather than an exercise in logistics. It's why so many families make it an annual fixture — and why the cottages book so far ahead.
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Early — earlier than people expect. Christmas and New Year is Cornwall's busiest winter season, and the larger family cottages — the ones with the big kitchen, the long table and room for the whole party — are typically booked 9 to 12 months ahead. The most sought-after properties, especially anything combining size with a hot tub, a games room or a sea view, can go even earlier than that. If you're planning a Cornwall Christmas for a particular year, the realistic advice is to book in the first few months of that year, or even the previous Christmas for the year after. Smaller cottages and quieter locations hold availability a little longer, but as a rule: for the festive season, the early planners get the houses.
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Plenty, and many are distinctively Cornish. The Mousehole harbour lights — illuminating the village and harbour since the 1960s — are one of Britain's best-loved Christmas displays, at their most special on Tom Bawcock's Eve (23 December) with its lantern parade and stargazy pie. Montol in Penzance marks the winter solstice (21 December) with fire, lanterns and revived Cornish midwinter customs. The Padstow Christmas Fayre in early December brings food, fireworks and celebrity-chef demonstrations to the harbour. Beyond those, there are Christmas markets at Truro and Fowey, festive light trails at the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan, an ice rink or two by the coast, carol services at Truro Cathedral, and pantomimes at the Hall for Cornwall. The festive run-up is genuinely part of a Cornwall Christmas, not a sideshow.
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Many are — it's exactly what the larger festive cottages are for — but it's the thing to check carefully on each property page. For a Christmas gathering, look at three things: the kitchen (big enough to cook a full Christmas dinner for your whole party without a traffic jam at the oven), the dining table (it needs to seat everyone in one sitting — the photos usually show it), and the sleeping layout (bedrooms and bathrooms that suit three generations). The bigger properties in the festive collection are generally well set up for all of this — see our Large Holiday Homes collection — but cottages vary, so match the property page to the size and shape of your party before booking. If you're unsure whether a specific cottage suits your group, message us and we'll check with the owner.
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Mild, for Britain in winter. The Gulf Stream keeps Cornwall the warmest corner of the UK, and hard frost and snow are genuinely rare on the coast — Christmas-week daytime highs typically sit around 8-10°C. That doesn't mean balmy: expect wind, rain and dramatic seas, and pack proper waterproofs and warm layers. But it does mean Christmas in Cornwall is an outdoor-friendly Christmas — a beach walk on Christmas morning, a blustery stretch of coast path between meals, storm-watching from a clifftop — rather than days trapped indoors. The short daylight hours are the real limit (the sun is down by late afternoon around the solstice), so plan walks for the middle of the day and let the fire and the cottage take the evenings.
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Yes — the festive sea swim has become one of Cornwall's best-loved winter traditions. On Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, hundreds of swimmers gather at beaches across the county — Gyllyngvase in Falmouth, Sennen, Bude, Polzeath, Newquay and others — and run into the sea together, very often in Santa hats and tinsel, usually raising money for charity. The water is cold (single figures), so it's a quick, exhilarating dip rather than a swim, and most events are well organised with a crowd of supporters cheering from the sand. You don't need to be a serious swimmer to join in — plenty of participants are first-timers — but check the local event details for timings and any registration, and warm dry clothes for straight afterwards are essential.
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Lively, and centred on the towns. St Ives hosts one of Britain's great fancy-dress New Year's Eve street parties — thousands of people in costume filling the town, a genuinely famous Cornish night out (and one to plan accommodation around well ahead). Towns across the county, especially the harbour towns, see in midnight with fireworks over the water. Padstow keeps its old traditions going with Mummers' Day guise dancing around Boxing Day and the new year. New Year's Day brings more festive sea swims. If a big communal celebration is what you want, base yourself near St Ives or one of the larger towns; if you'd rather a quiet New Year, a cottage out in the country or on a stretch of coast gives you fireworks in the distance and calm up close.
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Almost always, yes — festive booking works differently from the rest of the year. Most cottages over Christmas and New Year are let as fixed weeks — a set seven-night Christmas week and a separate seven-night New Year week — rather than the flexible, choose-your-own-dates short breaks available in the quieter months. Some owners offer the two weeks combined as a festive fortnight. Minimum-stay rules apply, and prices sit at a winter premium reflecting the demand. The practical upshot: decide whether you want the Christmas week, the New Year week, or both, and book the whole fixed period — and do it early, because these are the first dates of the winter to sell out. The cottage grid and property pages show the festive availability for your dates.
Still have questions? Talk to us →