Short answer: Exeter Cathedral runs <strong>twenty-three services and concerts</strong> between 10 November and Christmas Day, and most of the services are <strong>free</strong>. The Advent Procession is Sunday 29 November at 6pm, <strong>midnight mass is 11.30pm on Christmas Eve</strong>, and the two Grandisson carol services on the 23rd and 24th are free but booking is essential. The concerts are ticketed.
Unless it says otherwise, these need no booking and cost nothing. That is worth saying loudly, because the concerts in the same building on the same days do not.
Saturday 28 November, 4pm — Christingle Service. Free, no booking. The one to take small children to.
Sunday 29 November, 6pm — The Advent Procession. Free, no booking. The cathedral in near-darkness, lit as the procession moves through it. If you only go to one thing in the building all winter, this is it.
Wednesday 2 December, 7pm — Hospiscare ‘Light up a Life’. Free, first come first served.
Monday 7 December, 2pm to 3.15pm — The Lord Mayor and Dean’s Carol Service. Free, no booking. A civic service in the middle of a Monday afternoon, which is why it is the easiest of the carol services to get into.
Sunday 13 December, 3pm to 4pm — The Exeter Nativity. Free, but booking is essential.
Tuesday 15 and Thursday 17 December, 1pm — Lunchtime ‘Shoppers’ Carols. Free, no booking. Twenty minutes in the middle of a Christmas shopping trip, and the best-kept secret on this page.
Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 December, 6pm — Grandisson Service of Lessons & Carols. Free, but booking is essential — this is the traditional one and it fills.
Thursday 24 December, 12 noon — Crib Service. Free. For families, and much shorter than the evening services.
Thursday 24 December, 11.30pm — Midnight Mass. Free, no booking listed.
Friday 25 December — Christmas Day. Choral Eucharist 10am, Choral Matins 11.45am, Choral Evensong 4pm. All free, no booking.
Prices are not published on the cathedral’s own listing, so follow the booking link for each.
Tuesday 10 November, 7.30pm — G4 Christmas.
Tuesday 24 November, 7pm — Gabrieli Roar: Mr Handel’s Christmas Story.
Thursday 26 November, 7pm — Christmas at the Musicals.
Friday 4 December, 1.30pm and 7.30pm — Christmas by Candlelight. Two showings, and the afternoon one is the easier with children.
Sunday 6 December, 2.30pm — Handel’s Messiah with the Exeter Cathedral Choir.
Tuesday 8, Thursday 10 and Saturday 12 December, 7pm — Christmas with the Cathedral Choir. Three nights, and the cathedral’s own choir rather than a visiting act.
Friday 11 December, 7.30pm — La La Choir.
Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 December, 7.30pm — Exeter Philharmonic Choir: Carols in the Cathedral.
Friday 18 December, 7.30pm — Karl Loxley: The Songs of Christmas.
Saturday 19 December, 7.30pm — London Concertante: Christmas at the Movies.
Cathedral Green is five minutes from Exeter Central station. From St Davids it is nearly a mile and uphill, so allow twenty minutes or take a bus — people book an evening service, arrive at St Davids because the train was cheaper, and miss the start.
If you need step-free access, check the cathedral’s own access information before you travel: the main West Front is up steps.
City centre car parks are at their worst between 4pm and 7pm in December, which is exactly when the evening events start. Where to park in Exeter has what each costs and which fills first.
The Cathedral Green Christmas market runs from 13 November to 13 December, so for a month the market and the services are in the same place — and the Green is much busier than usual.
Almost every parish church in Devon runs a carol service in the fortnight before Christmas, and almost none of them advertise further than the church noticeboard and the parish magazine. If you want one near you rather than in Exeter, that is where to look rather than online. The village services are usually the week of the 20th, and candlelit.
Plymouth has its own cathedral and the Minster Church of St Andrew; Totnes and Tavistock both do well-attended town carol services around their Christmas events.
Every December date in Devon week by week, every lights switch-on, and what actually happens on New Year’s Eve.
Pick a town and plan the day around who's with you.
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