Fancy Christmas spa hotel outfit help - casual and Christmas Day??

[Kim5678]

There’s a chance I’ll get the opportunity to spend Xmas Eve/Xmas day/Boxing Day at a fancy spa hotel which is so exciting… but I’m not fancy at all!
I barely spend any money on clothes, I wear sportswear most of the time and I have no idea what level of “fancy” I should be aiming for.

I really need help with affordable comfortable winter items I would wear more than once, or even just an idea of what people will be wearing in case I can put something together out of my limited workwear. Summer would be less of a problem because I’d just need a couple of dresses.

There isn’t a dress code on the website and I don’t know the etiquette let alone what people will be wearing. E.g. Do people get dressed in their Christmas dinner outfit before breakfast on Christmas Day or change before dinner?? Do people wear casual clothes on Christmas eve and Boxing Day and what exactly would casual be? A two night Christmas stay is £2.6k+ in case that means it’s a certain level of fancy (I assume no one will be wearing jeans?). I don’t even currently own any shoes that aren’t trainers!

It would be so amazing to go and the hotel looks beautiful but I’m in two minds because I’m worried I’ll look out of place and won’t be able to relax or enjoy the (probably once in a lifetime) experience

Also I’ve NCed just because I’ve said the exact dates my house might be empty which I know is very paranoid but I’m clearly in a state of anxiety

I've never stayed in a hotel at Christmas but if I were, then for breakfast I would assume jeans and a jumper or a day dress or trousers / skirt and a jumper would be fine, which would do for daywear throughout.

If the main Christmas day meal is at lunchtime then I'd change to a more dressed up dress (which in my case is "dressing up" rather than "smart" so for lunch something like this)
Cabbages & Roses Dress
My husband has several suits which are rather stylish in linen, tweed and heavy drill cotton but aren't office lounge suits, so that's what he'd wear.

If the main meal is dinner in the evening, then something like this.
Sister Jane
Klements doomed voyage dress

And my husband would probably check black tie wasn't expected and if it wasn't would probably upgrade to a lounge suit.

Thank you so much for replying. This has definitely made me feel more confident that people won’t be in ball gowns at breakfast and I won’t stick out in jeans/normal trousers in the daytime!

The dresses are really nice examples and hopefully I’ll have something along those lines in the wardrobe that will do (if I can acquire some non trainer shoes!)

are there any photos on the hotel website or facebook page that might help you to judge what people usually wear?
There's some decent party wear in the supermarkets at the moment if you don't want to spend a fortune on something you won't wear again.

That's good advice. The stuff I linked to is stuff I get/ will get enough wear out of to justify the price. At supermarket level Tu had ( on the website anyway) nice velvet suits and a black ballerina style dress which was very elegant.

I looked over the whole website, Facebook and Instagram and there was only one photo of one person! And she was in a swimming costume so that didn’t help much 😆. But I ended up emailing and asking if there was a dress code for Christmas Day/lunch and they said there’s no particular dress code it’s just general smart. So that’s put me a bit more at ease that there will be different versions/levels of “smart” and I won’t e.g. be the only one not wearing a ball gown!

But now I have another question - meals and drinks are included, and the hotel is cashless, so will I be expected to tip? I assume no one will refuse a cash tip but is it an actual expectation?