Cottages to rent for Christmas in England  

Christmas is the most important time of year for families and many families try to spend some time together over Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Families are often dispersed over large areas and the only way to get together is to share the cost of renting a large holiday cottage and enjoying a joint Christmas in an attractive part of England that everyone can get to. Holidaying away from home with extended family can be a mixed bag of blessings because Christmas brings out our optimistic side, we expect to have a nice time, a good Christmas lunch and plenty of cheer. This is entirely possible if everyone around the dining table maintains good manners, a sense of humour and a strong degree of tolerance. Christmas can be testing and with the right planning and attitude, your family can hopefully enjoy a fantastic Christmas.

Self-catering holiday cottages are equipped for holiday living and this does not usually include huge baking tins for that enormous turkey and festively patterned bone china. Your cottage should have crockery, cutlery and cooking utensils for the occupancy stated for usual holiday living but not those special pieces that you save purely for Christmas..

One of the keys to a happy successful family Christmas is planning and bringing the additional items that you will need to cook up that perfect Christmas dinner. You may, alternatively, decide to keep life easy and sweet and go out for a festive lunch instead. More about self-catering at Christmas, away from home.

Everyone has their own personal way of celebrating Christmas. Christmas means different things to different people, some aren't happy unless they attend a carol service, others prefer to wash their mince pies down with as much alcohol as possible. One thing we all have in common is an appreciation of jolly Christmas decorations, good food and Christmas trees.

Any holiday cottage that you rent for Christmas should be decorated for you and have a Christmas tree. This saves the effort of bringing and putting up Christmas decorations although you may wish to supplement them if they are not to your taste. Another key to a successful family Christmas in a rented cottage away from home is to realise that everything about a communal Christmas is a compromise and to accept what you get. With any group of people, even family, there will be some you prefer over others, foods and gifts that you hate and activities that you may prefer not to be included in. Christmas for some must include a game of charades and that to a certain extent is what you should play to survive a family Christmas.

Lots of cottage and houses to rent for Christmas and New Year. Bear in mind that demand is at its highest for Christmas and New Year for big cottages and houses. Start looking early on in the year if you would like a really large spacious houses to rent. Rental period are generally for 1 week although it may be possible to obtain a short break later in the year if a property has not yet been let.

It is always worth looking through the last minute cottage listings if you have left booking late. Some holidays inevitably end up cancelled simply because of life's unforseen circumstances. One person's loss is another person's gain.

Win Christmas gifts to help decorate your cottage or home.

Find out more by visiting our Christmas cottage competition page.