Christmas on tap: six of the best UK pubs for the festive season
The Churchill Arms, London
It’s hard to imagine a list of Christmassy pubs without the maximalist Churchill in Kensington. Its outside is usually covered in flowers, while inside, where Thai food and pints of London Pride are served, the ceiling and walls are hung with a strange collection of artefacts: lanterns, butterflies, 100 assorted chamber pots, second world war memorabilia and pictures of Winston Churchill, whose grandparents were regulars. In winter there are extra decorations (fake greenery, presents, north pole signs), and the exterior swaps the pansies and petunias for dozens of fir trees and thousands of lights. There’s a post box by the door, reindeer near the roof and a giant Ho Ho Ho in lights over the window.
Of course, the Churchill is heaving with tourists, locals and Instagrammers. “This is the last quiet day until January,” says a barman on an already crowded afternoon just before the pub’s November lighting-up day.
When you’ve snapped a couple of pictures, you could stroll round the corner to the family-run Mall Tavern for real ales, comfort food and live blues. The Mall’s tasteful decorations include garlands and a tree in the candlelit bar. Both pubs are halfway between Holland Park and Kensington Gardens – well-placed for elegant, scarf-toting city walks.
Central London is peppered with atmospheric Dickensian pubs, such as the dark-wood-panelled Lamb in Bloomsbury, a short stagger from Charles Dickens’ former home on Doughty Street.
churchillarmskensington.co.uk
Sleigh & Reindeers, Harrogate, North Yorkshire
The seasonal Sleigh & Reindeers (usually known as the Coach & Horses) changes its name from mid-November and bills itself as Harrogate’s most festive pub. There’s a frame of baubles round the door and lights cascading down the building. The inside is relatively understated, but reindeer and a couple of glittery pheasants twinkle away in corners of the bar, sledge down the side of the stairway and watch over the upstairs restaurant, where a special menu offers wensleydale souffle with red wine-poached pear and sage-roasted turkey with pigs in blankets. Downstairs, staff in Christmas jumpers serve pints of a pistachio and cherry-flavoured milk stout called Fairytale of Brew York. December sees a musical night, curry and carols and a Christmas quiz.
Opposite the pub, ribbons of lights wind up the trees around the Stray, the town’ centres’ parkland area, and the neighbouring hotel is a blaze of festivity. With its cobbled streets and fairy-lit shops, Harrogate feels Christmas-card ready. There’s a fair in the centre of town, offering crepes and Glühwein, and a cheerful road train touring the streets at weekends. The garden at RHS Harlow Carr has its annual Glow trail and a new cafe in the redeveloped Harrogate Arms. A huge event at Stockeld Park, on the road to Wetherby, includes a snowflake maze, ice rink and craft village.
coachandhorsesharrogate.com
Queen Victoria Inn, Priddy, Somerset
The creeper-coated Queen Vic, high in the Mendip Hills between Cheddar and Wells, puts on a display each Christmas to raise thousands for the local children’s hospice.
“Lights cover the roof and walls,” says the landlord, Mark Walton, promising “something new” in this year’s decorations, which involve 15,000 metres of fairy lights. In the garden, there’s a giant snowman and tree, built out of more than 3,500 empty wine bottles .
Inside, they serve Butcombe bitter and Somerset ciders amid beams, wooden settles, stone walls and fireplaces. The surrounding hills are pitted with caverns and ancient barrows. The switch-on for the Queen Vic’s lights was at 6pm on 6 December; a fun run through the Mendips followed on 15 December with participants dressed as Santa, and there are carols on Christmas Eve. The events can get pretty busy. Is there any way of avoiding the crowds? “No chance!” says Mark. “Small village in the middle of nowhere – chaos!”
thequeenvicpriddy.co.uk
The Empress, Cambridge
Christmas lights, quiz nights, gourmet pizzas: the Empress, on a backstreet off Mill Road in Cambridge, has several long-standing traditions. This cheerful old-school pub started decorating in October, untangling miles of fairy lights and tinsel, and a new Santa-snowman-deer-and-elf mural covers the outside walls. Inside, the ceilings are crisscrossed by glittering red and green or by white and silver, with icicle-shaped lights. One room is hung with Narnian snowy forests, another has a letter box for messages to Santa, and if you turn up wearing a Christmas jumper you get a free shot.
The previous landlord, who died in 2022, began the seasonal makeover. Current owner Dan Purvis continues it in his honour, as he told Cambridgeshire Live, “for the kids and the families, and for my late mate”.
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The Dome, Edinburgh
More bar than pub perhaps, but just look at the bling. The Corinthian columns of the Dome, inside a neoclassical former bank, are wreathed in twinkling bands of lights and greenery. Under the dome itself, an eight-metre (26ft) colour-changing conical tree with thousands of baubles towers over the circular bar. Giant red bows crown the windows, and an outdoor tree decks the Rose Street side of the building. The decorations went up at the end of October and will stay until 5 January, so there’s plenty of time to visit. Besides turkey-with-trimmings and Christmas pud, the menu has chestnut mushroom risotto and chocolate-orange tart. Tables book up fast, but drinks are walk-in only and the surrounding area is packed with sparkly sights.
A stroll along Edinburgh’s fairy-lit George Street takes you past a seasonal ice rink, the bauble-tastic hotel Tigerlily, the new Polar Ice Bar and St Andrew’s Square, with its Christmas tree maze and Spiegeltent. The cosy Queens Arms, round the corner on Frederick Street, is another festive venue. And the nearby city centre is buzzing with markets and fairground rides.
thedomeedinburgh.com
The Marine, Eastbourne
This trad boozer is a few steps from Eastbourne’s palm-studded seafront prom and Victorian pier. The outside doesn’t change much, but come Christmas not an inch of the Marine’s ceiling is left unfestooned. Dangling strings of spangled lights, gold leaves, bells, foil garlands and starbursts cluster thick as jungle creepers, and wooden tillers are wrapped in tinsel. The pub has been decking the halls every yuletide for a few decades now. This year’s Christmas menu includes venison terrine, redcurrant lamb and vegan wellington.
If the Marine is full, try a peanut butter liqueur in the Windsor, a few doors down, where they are gathering winter clothes for homeless shelters. Eastbourne has lots of options for a festive tipple, from a passion fruit martini in the Beachy Head to a pint of Long Man in the Pilot Inn. In between, take a bracing tramp over the beach. And, on winter evenings at sunset, look out for starling murmurations swirling over the gold-domed pier.
themarinepub.co.uk
