8 Most Festive Pubs in the UK
Who doesn’t love heading to the local pub at Christmas time? There are some establishments that really embrace the festive season, offering everything from baubles, ornaments, and thousands of Christmas lights. But it’s not just the decorations that make pubs so special during the holidays. Pubs are at the heart of British culture, known for their wide selection of ales, craft beers, and ciders that bring people together. They’re the perfect place for socialising with friends and family, whether you’re enjoying a festive pint or catching up over a warm mulled cider. For football fans, pubs also offer the ideal spot to watch live matches, and for those wanting to raise the stakes, the top betting sites allow you to place a wager online while you enjoy the game. Whether it’s the friendly banter, Christmas carols, or a roaring fire, these festive pubs offer the perfect setting for holiday cheer. We here at Heart Britain are therefore celebrating the 8 most festive pubs in the UK. Check them out…
1. The Churchill Arms
image via www.telegraph.co.uk
Hot on the heels of The Marine is The Churchill Arms in Kensington, London. Offering 11,500 exterior lights and 90 hanging baskets, as well as 57 Christmas trees, even The Grinch would struggle not to feel all warm and fuzzy inside off the sight. The pub’s decorations started off as just flowers and plants at the beginning, but the festive cheer has just grown and grown over the past thirty years.
Step inside The Churchill Arms and you’ll find a ceiling laden with memorabilia, and beautiful garlands and wreaths that creates an authentic English Christmas atmosphere. While the Christmas pub decorations might cost landlord Gerry O’Brien £30,000 per year, you can guarantee he’ll most definitely make up for the price in customers.
2. The Marine Pub
image via www.dailymail.co.uk
Christmas isn’t Christmas without a trip down to the pub – and walking into The Marine in Eastbourne, East Essex, will make you feel as though you’ve stepped inside some magical wonderland, that also offers beer and plenty of Christmas spirits.
Pub landlord Phil Saunders and 20 regulars annually get together to put up the pubs 450 set of lights, taking them up to a fortnight to adorn festive cheer across the pub – and costing him £500 a month. The ceilings are also complete with plenty of tinsel, mistletoe and garlands for some truly festive fun.
The Marine pub first began its Christmas collection 30 years ago, and all the decorations now have an estimated worth of more than £10,000.
3. The Angel Pub
image via www.derbytelegraph.co.uk
Peter Clay, the owner of The Angel in Ripley, Derbyshire, once stated he has “the most Christmassy pub in England” – and he might just be right. The Angel offers 53 Christmas trees in various sizes, with the largest tree of 22ft costing £1,000 alone. Unlike many other pubs, The Angel encourages customers to participate in helping to decorate the pub, allowing them to hang baubles on trees.
As you go to step into the pub, you cannot miss the 9ft golden angel above the pub’s entrance, which was once used on the set of the old soap opera Crossroads. Mr Clay began decorating the pub at Christmas just three years ago, and it has also gained the interest of the local community – as well as the national press.
4. The Hanging Gate
image via simonpendrigh.com
If you want a jolly holly Christmas, you just have to drop into The Hanging Gate pub in Chapel-en-le-Frith, the Peak District, but you will probably never want to leave once you do. The pub is decorated with 27,000 lights and 6,000 baubles – and claims to be the pub with the most Christmas decorations in Great Britain, which have cost a total of £25,000.
According the The Hanging Gate landlord, Mark Thomas, it takes three weeks to completely decorate the pub, which also offers candy canes. Yum! Once Christmas is over, it takes an incredible three to four days to take all the Christmas decorations down once again.
5. The Summerhouse Pub
image via www.mirror.co.uk
The Summerhouse Pub is most definitely a family pub – because where else offers a Disney themed Christmas wonderland. The festive pub decorations have been inspired by the hit animated movie Frozen, and last year featured a fantastic 17ft tall Olaf snowman from the children’s film.
Each year the pub aims to be a little bit different with its Christmas decorations, a tradition that has been carried on by pub landlady Karen Kennedy for 13 years. In 2014, you could view everything for an ice mountain made of waterfall lights, a Frozen corner with soft toys from the film and the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post. The scene took workmen two weeks to create, and required 25,000 bulbs – not forgetting a £1,200 per month electricity bill. We can’t wait to see what they do this year!
6. The Blisland Inn
image via www.dailymail.co.uk
While other pubs may offer Christmas decorations aplenty, The Blisland Inn in Bodmin, Cornwall, offers a hand-painted 3D nativity wall mural, which was painted by local artist Janet Shearer in 2009. The incredible mural depicts the birth of Jesus Christ, making it appear to guests that the pub offers another room. It’s what Christmas is all about, after all!
7. Old Manor Pub
image via www.dailymail.co.uk
If a giant inflatable Santa Claus doesn’t scream Christmas, we don’t know what does. That’s why you just have to adore the Old Manor Pub in Potters Bar, Herts. Back in 2011, the pub began decorating the pub with a 30ft inflatable Father Christmas on the top of the pub’s roof – and it even illuminates at night. The giant Santa cost the pub an incredible £3,000 and is so big that it can often be spotted by planes.
8. Chequers Pub
image via www.watfordobserver.co.uk/
Christmas is the season of goodwill – a ideology that is celebrated by The Chequers Pub in Hendon. Instead of adorning their pub with a Christmas tree and other festive decorations, they decided fill the pub with army nets and sandbags that were donated by the Royal Air Force Museum.
The reason? To raise as much money as possible for British troops, as customers could have a photo taken by the army den for just £2 – and all the proceeds were directly donated to Help for Heroes and Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA).
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