Short answer: Eight Devon National Trust properties do Christmas this year. <strong>Saltram opens first on Friday 20 November</strong> and most run to 3 January. Each house has picked a period: Killerton is 1923, Buckland Abbey the 1950s, Greenway the 1940s, Castle Drogo the 1970s and Coleton Fishacre the 1920s. <strong>Saltram has no Father Christmas this year</strong> and Arlington Court had not confirmed one, so do not travel for Santa without ringing first.
Four decorated rooms in the mansion, festive displays in the garden follies, a family trail, a decorated orangery and castle folly, and a second tipi doing hot chocolate. Festive choirs on December weekends, with Plymouth choirs appearing for the first time.
Booking is essential for the house, in half-hour timed slots, and members have to book a slot too even though entry is free — that one catches members out every year. Garden-only visits need no booking. No extra charge for the Christmas house beyond normal admission. Parking £3 a vehicle, free for members. Tickets are non-refundable.
Father Christmas will not visit Saltram this year. The property says so on its own page, so if Santa is the reason you are going, go somewhere else — the six Devon grottos are here.
It is the closest of the eight to a city: Plymouth is twenty minutes.
A 1923 Christmas with the Acland family, through the ground-floor rooms. The first-floor fashion exhibition is closed for the season. There is an outdoor children’s play trail through the garden, parkland and chapel grounds, and it is on hard paths, so it works with a pushchair or a wheelchair.
The vintage helter skelter is the thing children remember: 15.55 metres, open daily, £1 a ride or £5 for six. Check Visitor Reception for times.
House ground floor open daily 11am to 4pm, last entry 3.30pm. Closes at 2pm on Christmas Eve and shut on the 25th and 26th. No booking for a standard visit, and after 2pm is the quieter half of the day. Relaxed hours sessions do need booking.
Open 10am to 3pm, closed 25 and 26 December. Of the eight this is the one with the most going on rather than the most decoration.
The Great Barn has a forest of trees, a market stall, a post box for letters to the North Pole, a photo opportunity in Father Christmas’s sleigh and a town-square tree. The abbey itself is a 1950s Christmas with period records, traditional toys and a Ritz-style party. The Great Barn display uses pulsing lights, which is worth knowing if anyone in the party is sensitive to them.
Choirs: Moorland Mandolins on Saturday 5 December at 12noon and 1.15pm; The Faggottinis on Sunday 6 December, 11am to 1pm; South West Chamber Choir on Saturday 19 December at 12noon and 2pm; Lynher Singers on Sunday 20 December at 12noon and 2pm.
Historic cookery: Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December, 11am to 2.30pm — how Christmas dinner was cooked on rationing, and after it.
A storybook Christmas in the house and grounds. Open Saturday to Monday only from 21 November to Monday 14 December, then daily from 19 December to 3 January except the 24th, 25th and 26th. That Saturday-to-Monday pattern is the single most important thing on this page: turn up on a Wednesday in early December and it is shut.
Christmas open evenings on Tuesday 1, Tuesday 8 and Tuesday 15 December, 12pm to 7pm — the only chance to see it after dark.
The North Devon Handmade Collective pop-up market runs 21 to 23 November, and members can bring a friend free from 21 to 30 December.
Father Christmas is not confirmed. The property’s page says details are "coming soon", while the Trust’s county page advertises Arlington with Father Christmas. Ring before you drive, especially from Barnstaple or Ilfracombe.
These four are running a Christmas but had not put dates on their own pages when this was checked on 9 November. The themes are confirmed; the dates are not.
Castle Drogo, Drewsteignton — a 1970s Christmas, with tinsel, paper chains and coloured lights. The Dartmoor one, and the only castle of the eight.
Greenway, near Dartmouth — a 1940s Christmas with teddy bears and evacuee children. Agatha Christie’s house, and the hardest to park at: it has a booking system for the car park in normal season, so check.
Knightshayes, near Tiverton — the ground floor of the house and the formal garden.
Coleton Fishacre, near Kingswear — a Roaring Twenties Christmas party, marking a hundred years.
With young children: Killerton, for the helter skelter and a trail you can push a buggy round.
For the most to see: Buckland Abbey, if you time it for a choir weekend.
Nearest a city: Saltram, twenty minutes from Plymouth.
After dark: Arlington Court, but only on 1, 8 or 15 December.
Not for Santa: none of them reliably. Saltram has ruled it out and Arlington has not confirmed. The grottos page is the one for that.
Trust membership covers entry at all eight but not the helter skelter at Killerton, and not parking at Saltram. Houses close earlier than the grounds in winter, and last entry is typically half an hour before closing — the 3.30pm last entry at Killerton means a 4pm arrival is a wasted drive.
All eight shut on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. What is actually open in Devon on Boxing Day is the page for that, and what is open in Devon in winter covers the rest of the season.
The five Devon light trails overlap with all of these dates, and every December date in Devon has what else is on the same weekend. The Christmas markets are in Exeter, Tavistock and Totnes.
Pick a town and plan the day around who's with you.
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