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Christmas in Oxford

Mom83

100+ Posts
Our family will be spending December 18-30 in Oxford visiting with our family there. In addition, family members from Wales are coming to visit with us for a few days, too.
Is there anything special that others can recommend we see or places near Oxford that we can visit during the holiday season?
The guys are heading up to Manchester for a football game one day…we women were thinking of Blenheim Palace that day for us.
Any suggestions for events or Christmas markets nearby would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
 
I recall there being a big christmas market in Manchester, so perhaps the two could be combined?

On the whole I don't think the UK does xmas markets particularly well. Difficult to put my finger on it, but I guess overall there is a feeling of unimaginative commercialism:
- Very little effort by the organisers into anything beyond selling stalls to stallholders
- Few stalls where the stallholders made any of the stuff they're selling
- Lots of stalls selling generic xmas stuff they bought wholesale
- Other 'usual suspects' market stalls, again selling stuff they bought wholesale

Often there are specific exceptions, so there's usually something to appeal in every xmas market, but I wish for my tastes, that there were more.

There's only one locally I've enjoyed, very much a craft-centric xmas market, not too heavy on the xmas stock, but a large proportion genuinely artisanal.
 
Thank you for the reply, Ian!
Unfortunately, only the guys are going to Manchester and they will only be interested in going to the football game that day.
As far as other Christmas Markets, I now see that we will be arriving too late in December for them anyway…so I guess it is for the best that they are generally nothing special. I was intrigued by the one at Blenheim Palace, but that ends the day we arrive...the other holiday events happening there should be interesting to see though.
Do the Cotswolds do anything special for the holidays? Lights, etc?
Where is the local “craft-centric” market to which you refer?
The last time we were in the area was October 2018…I found some beautiful and unique Christmas decorations that I purchased and brought home.
We are all looking forward to spending Christmas in the area…we have visited often at other times of the year, but we have always wanted to visit during the Christmas holidays.
 
Thank you for the reply, Ian!
Unfortunately, only the guys are going to Manchester and they will only be interested in going to the football game that day.
As far as other Christmas Markets, I now see that we will be arriving too late in December for them anyway…so I guess it is for the best that they are generally nothing special. I was intrigued by the one at Blenheim Palace, but that ends the day we arrive...the other holiday events happening there should be interesting to see though.
Do the Cotswolds do anything special for the holidays? Lights, etc?
Where is the local “craft-centric” market to which you refer?
The last time we were in the area was October 2018…I found some beautiful and unique Christmas decorations that I purchased and brought home.
We are all looking forward to spending Christmas in the area…we have visited often at other times of the year, but we have always wanted to visit during the Christmas holidays.
Apologies - that craft market will be a long way away. It's in Norwich, in the old shoe factory.

However worth looking for craft markets wherever you are, as there will be plenty. Also worth seeing if any local farmer's markets also have craft stuff.

If heading to the Malverns, I see this event is on 2nd Saturday of December https://www.visitthemalverns.org/event/malvern-artisan-craft-market/2022-12-10/

This one is not far from Oxford and is listed for 17th December

This one also on the same day and also near Oxford

However I fear that if you're just missing the Oxford xmas market, I see that's 1st-18th Dec, so these might also be too early for you.

If you're still around in January, then many of those events are monthly, so you might be able to catch them then.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions, Ian. It looks like we are going to just miss these markets as we do not arrive until December 18…and we fly home December 30.
Next time we will have to try to visit a bit earlier in the month!
 
Are you going to do some day trips into the Cotswolds? You could do a nice circular drive to Burford, Bibury, Cirencester, Fairford (great church with medieval stained glass windows), Lechlade and the William Morris house. The western part of the Cotswolds is beautiful - but I think you know the area from previous trips.

The ancient Uffington Horse hill drawing south of Oxford.

And, of course, an easy train ride into London.

(Edited to add Bibury!)
 
Yes, we will take a drive through the Cotswolds for sure! We usually visit Upper and Lower Slaughter, Bibury, Chipping Campden, Stow on Wold, and Burton on the Water. I do not believe we have ever been to Fairford or Lechlade…those are on my list now! It has been many years since we visited Cirencester…we will try to stop there, too.
I was just thinking we should try to train into London one day if the weather is nice…is it decorated nicely for the holidays?
Thanks so much for these suggestions, Pauline!
 
Well, we have made a few plans for our Christmas holiday visit. My daughter, her mother-in-law, and I are taking our 3 year old granddaughter on the train into London from Oxford for a Peppa Pig Tea bus tour…this should be fun for a 3 year old who loves Peppa Pig. The nice part for the adults is that the bus passes by many of the iconic London sights.
We also just bought tickets to visit Blenheim Palace…both to walk the Illuminated Christmas Lights Trail and a visit inside the Palace for The Kingdom of the Snow Queen Re-imagination.
We are hoping to have dinner someplace in Woodstock after Blenheim…does anyone have a restaurant there that they would recommend? Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
 
Well, we have made a few plans for our Christmas holiday visit. My daughter, her mother-in-law, and I are taking our 3 year old granddaughter on the train into London from Oxford for a Peppa Pig Tea bus tour…this should be fun for a 3 year old who loves Peppa Pig. The nice part for the adults is that the bus passes by many of the iconic London sights.
We also just bought tickets to visit Blenheim Palace…both to walk the Illuminated Christmas Lights Trail and a visit inside the Palace for The Kingdom of the Snow Queen Re-imagination.
We are hoping to have dinner someplace in Woodstock after Blenheim…does anyone have a restaurant there that they would recommend? Thank you in advance for any suggestions.
We stayed in Woodstock for a couple nights pre-COVID and visited the palace also, really enjoyed it! Woodstock is charming. We ate in a local pub that was good but Im sure there are more upscale places around.
 
ncp…so good to know that the Palace and the town of Woodstock are nice places to visit! I will start checking out restaurants there for dinner after our visit to Blenheim…we do not need upscale as we will have our 2 young grandchildren with us (3 years and 5 months), so I will look for more casual places.
 
ncp…so good to know that the Palace and the town of Woodstock are nice places to visit! I will start checking out restaurants there for dinner after our visit to Blenheim…we do not need upscale as we will have our 2 young grandchildren with us (3 years and 5 months), so I will look for more casual places.
I’d be happy to look up the name of the pub we ate at if you’d like, I keep all those records. I remember there being at least several on the Main Street In Woodstock.
 
ncp…if it would not be too much trouble, I would very much like to know the name of the pub you visited. Thanks so much!
 
I’ll look it up and get back to you. We stayed in a charming B&b that had a tea room, I’ll get that name too.
 
We decided on The Black Prince for dinner in Woodstock after Blenheim Palace…Fingers crossed that it is good.
 
That looks good and may well be where we ate, I couldn’t come up with my records easily, sorry. May still find them but you really can’t go wrong in Woodstock from what I remember. Have a great time!
 
Our family will be spending December 18-30 in Oxford visiting with our family there.
More planned strikes over the Christmas period. I hope they won’t affect you. I have a thread about them.

 
Thanks, Pauline! I was not aware of this.
We are flying into Heathrow from Dulles on 12/17…arriving 12/18 early morning. So, hopefully that will go smoothly. We are renting a car and driving up to Oxford for our 12 day stay.
We are planning to take the train into London from Oxford for the day on 12/20…fingers crossed there are no rail disruptions that day. If there are, we will drive. No other rail travel is planned after that during our stay.
But we are flying back on 12/30, so things might be problematic that day.
Hopefully our family there will be updated on what is occurring and can advise us if we need to adjust our plans.
Thanks so much for the alert!
 
It is with regret that I suggest you don’t try and get a train into London on Dec 20th. The whole Christmas period is now disrupted with strikes and engineering works.
Reduced services on non strike days threaten to make any journey uncertain.
I have a visitor due to visit me by train this evening, I’ll update you about his journey !
 

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