Christmas light trails have sprung up all around the UK in recent years, bringing happiness and light to the darkest months. They populate green spaces like parks and gardens, as well as man-made structures like zoos and churches. Tunnels are illuminated with lights and lanterns and torches and lasers and neon swirls and holiday music throughout the months of November and December. Bring some mulled wine or hot chocolate to enjoy on a cold winter stroll. The top Christmas light tours in 2023 are listed here.
Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, Illuminated Garden Trail
Prices £20 adults, £10 children, £50 families (free for under-2s).
This historic, moated sanctuary in calm countryside features stunning gardens from May to September and around Christmas. Start with complimentary mulled wine in Helmingham’s centuries-old courtyard then walk a mile back over the drawbridge past the knot garden, parterre, and avenue of apple trees into the wilder meadows and forests. A new beverages and street food section with fire pit-roasted s’mores and a pop-up bar opened in 2023 to enhance the garden’s natural beauty. Sounds and lights complement the various zones. Stay in a shepherd’s hut, farmhouse, or converted barn with an outdoor bath at Retreat East, five miles distant.
Train of Lights, Dartmouth Steam Railway, Devon
Steam train down Devon’s coast to Tor Bay, where the moon shines silver. A narrator matches a baroque adventure to glowing trackside dioramas outside the windows in warm carriages decorated with tinsel and ornaments. Powderham Castle has a popular route around its grounds and castle, via a walled garden with geese and goats, an illuminated labyrinth, and dazzling Christmas trees. The beautiful Charterhouse Hotel in Torquay is on the palm-studded coastline.
Bedgebury Pinetum, Kent
Forestry England has active pathways in Delamere Forest in Cheshire, Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire, and this Kent area. All of them employ lights to enhance the site’s natural beauty: Bedgebury’s conifers glow crimson, turquoise, amber, and pink, while neon stalks grow underneath them and shimmering doves perch on floodlit limbs. One of numerous 2023 innovative exhibits is the multi-colored Liquid Sky above. The White Hart in Wadhurst, an innovative village tavern serving excellent meals and English wines, has spacious accommodations.
Lanterns & Light, Chester Zoo, Cheshire
Lanterns & Light at Chester Zoo draw crowds with glowing birds and animals, orangutans, rainforests, and a big octopus. This year, the zoo partnered with Sony Music and Culture Creative to offer new exhibits and experiences to existing favorites. Pea-lit animal sculptures, lions, dolphins, and a 3D woolly mammoth hologram with stars blinking from trailside trees are on the route. Marshmallow toasting, fairground rides, fire garden, winter cathedral, and sleigh-riding Santa. With log fireplaces and pleasant beds in converted barns, the Pheasant Inn is ideal for Christmas 12 miles south. The shiny brass and copper restaurant offers venison with chestnuts and hot chocolate fondant with wild cherry sorbet.
Wimpole Estate, Cambridgeshire
Two years ago, the National Trust added the Wimpole Estate to its Christmas light path list in gently undulating Cambridgeshire. With almost a million lights, this year’s exhibit has rainbow Christmas trees and gigantic floating feathers. The 17th-century mansion’s pine-decked halls include festive decorations and local singers. From the hotel Jacuzzi, you can observe River Cam boats at the Varsity in Cambridge, close pantos and christmas performances.
The Manger at Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool Cathedral hosts another nativity-themed Christmas music and lighting extravaganza in the first week of December. Luxmuralis, which creates large-scale projected artworks to unique music, features Christmas concerts in Sheffield and Peterborough cathedrals and a November Tower of London coronation spectacle. The world’s longest cathedral’s gothic revival columns are a kaleidoscope of patterns and pictures in Liverpool’s The Manger. The Titanic Hotel, a 19th-century warehouse with port views and entertaining afternoon teas, has sophisticated design.
