Christmas in historic town in England that Americans would enjoy

[Pavlovthecat]

My american relatives are coming to UK for christmas, we are going to get a place to rent for all of us.

We have done this before, had a great time but were in the middle of nowhere. This time we want somewhere a little less rural for the poor folks not used to literally being stuck in the middle of nowhere(bad weather several years ago!).

So, they have stayed in Devon and also in Cornwall (again, very rural, for our wedding, BIL spend most of one day lost trying to find our place from his as all the roads looked the same and it was dark due to rain/lots of trees!).

Now, they have expressed an interest in Manchester/Nottingham (christmas fair apparantly, and also Robin Hood etc!) but, they also want to do a day trip to London (the boys do, for footie). My DH is also going to working for some of it so we want it to be vaguely commutable from West Devon so he can come up for a few days.

This means Manchester is probably not the best place - any ideas of location where there is some history, some things to visit, but also where we can get the pub without risking being hit by a speeding tractor at 11pm when walking home, and maybe some 'shops' for shopaholic SIL?

I second Winchester, beautiful medieval town, also fab-u-lous choral music around Xmas fom choristers, much free. Connection to London vv good.

Fab pub near Winchester brews own ale here. Have not been wih little one though they are gen v friendly, good cheap food.

York has plenty to offer visitors - historic sights, shopping, plenty of places to eat. Trains for London take 2 hours and are pretty frequent.

OH and I took some American visitors to York a few years ago and they were blown away by the place.

Cirencester? or Gloucester?

Chester. Americans love it.

Deal in Kent! Not only because I live here but its steeped in history, we have two castles one of which the late Queen Mother used to come and stay in, you can visit and see her rooms, they would love that! The as they have a passport take them over the channel from Dover just 6 miles down the road to Calais they have lovely markets etc at Christmas too. 3miles from Deal is ancient Sandwich, anotehr big hit with the yanks!