Christmas abroad

[bluebell8329]

Has anyone ventured abroad at Christmas who can give me some recommendations? It will be me for me, husband and two girls 12 and 9. Had the most crappy year and can't face Christmas at home so thought we might go for it and go away. x

Are you looking for snow or warmth. If the former I'd go to Czĕsky Krumlov in Czechia. It's a small mediaeval town with a castle, a beautiful river and they have bears in the moat.

They also have a highly respected Christmas market. Fly into Prague and get the train.

Adeje in Tenerife ... pick your hotel and area carefully though. El Duque area is lovely.

First question, does your 9 year old still believe in Santa? If yes, Christmas abroad can be a pain in the arse for getting gifts delivered, wrapped etc.
If they don’t believe then you’re golden!

My kids have never seen snow (live in tropical climate) so we took them to Chicago last Christmas. It was great fun, husband and I went to Target and picked up bits for their stockings and ordered Amazon stuff. Kids were allowed to pick their main gift. Each of us had a suitcase so could get everything home.

Question really is how far do you want to go and whether you want warm or cold climate?!

We often go to Morocco for Christmas (not Marrakech itself).
recommend Villas Fawakay, Hotel Capaldi, or Dar Tamazerte. Latter is beautiful, serviced villa, driver on call for excursions but not cheap.

weather low to mid 20s, wall to wall blue skies.

Thanks! I should have given a few more details 🙈.

Looking for a warm climate if possible. I've looked at the Canaries but wasn't sure where is best/decent. Never thought about Morocco.

So my (soon to be) 9 year old still believes and was totally not on board with going away but we've recently had to move my MIL into a care home with sudden, severe onset dementia and she was Christmas for us and now my daughter thinks being here without her hosting will be awful. Hence my search for sun. x

We went away for Xmas when mine still believed in Father Christmas. We arranged for a friend to come round after we left to put out the stockings so they were sitting there when we got back.

They still talk about that happening (we've never let on what we did) and their adults now.

So that might be a way around the Father Christmas bit.

In terms of actually being away, we've done it twice, once to Fuerteventura and once to Cape Verde. Both were nice although Cape Verde didn't have much in the way of celebrations going on.

We started doing Christmas in the snow decades ago. Obviously lots of Christmas trees around and the villages and hotels in the Alps are always beautifully decorated. We took one present for each of the children (obviously Santa was going to deliver most of the presents to their main address in the UK while we were away) and yet somehow the red man always managed to make an appearance at whichever hotel or chalet we were staying in, with a gift for each child.

Skiing was great fun, as was building snow figures, having snowball fights, sledging, and a horse-drawn sleigh ride, but the big plusses for us were not having to fight our way around Tescos, not needing to think about tidying the house, cooking or washing up, no discussions about how much time to spend with each side of the family, no James Bond film, no tacky "Christmas Specials" or watching Del Boy fall through the bar (for the 20th time) - in fact, once we got on the plane at the airport, no stress whatsoever for a week.

We are heading to the Dolomites to ski on 20th December and the relief just knowing that every time something or someone mentions the 'C' word that I can just relax , knowing I have nothing to do is amazing !!
Our kids are older , I suppose that makes it easier .
But why have we let Christmas turn into such a huge effort ( mainly by women!!! ) ?? It's madness really .
Hope you find something you want to do , OP .

@CharlotteCChapel This place looks beautiful. Have you visited in summer? Do you recommend anywhere to stay?

There's a very good guest house , I think this was the one we stayed in

https://uk.hotels.com/ho625947584/pension-u-zamku-cesky-krumlov-czech-republic/?chkin=2025-12-20&chkout=2025-12-27&x_pwa=1&rfrr=HSR&pwa_ts=1756320588831&referrerUrl=aHR0cHM6Ly91ay5ob3RlbHMuY29tL0hvdGVsLVNlYXJjaA%3D%3D&useRewards=false&rm1=a2%3Ac13%3Ac15&regionId=178194&destination=%C4%8Cesk%C3%BD+Krumlov%2C+South+Bohemia+Region%2C+Czechia&destType=MARKET&selected=17803170&latLong=48.81057%2C14.31495&sort=RECOMMENDED&top_dp=932&top_cur=GBP&mctc=5&userIntent=&selectedRoomType=202114326&selectedRatePlan=292072963&expediaPropertyId=19529612&searchId=10ada3af-7110-4ee9-ae7e-53684335f05c

If you want it to be warm, as in lying-in-the-pool warm, then no further north than the Canaries, maybe Agadir.

Otherwise you could look at Seville/Valencia/Palma/Naples and have a nice city break with 16–18° most days.

we did Morocco last year, santa claus delivered the presents on a camel! it was fabulous I'd recommend.