Christmas Day may be the grand finale, but the build-up is a whole mood: stocking up on sweet treats, choosing your tree and watching the lights come on against winter’s darkness.
This Cotswolds House, set in an eight-acre country garden among rolling hills and wooded valleys, will have you feeling Christmas-ready in the jingle of a sleigh bell.
So, here are eight ways to step into Christmas in the Cotswolds House.
1. Return from the honey-stone high street of Cirencester, often called the capital of the Cotswolds, laden with treats from artisan chocolatiers and bakers to hide in the pantry—safe from hungry hands.
2. On the last Sunday before Advent, gather loved ones around a large earthenware bowl to take turns stirring dried fruit, spices and sugar into a Christmas pudding, making a secret wish as you go—a Stir-up Sunday tradition.
3. Set up a decoration station on this antique baker’s table in the peace and quiet of the cottage, threading dried oranges and cranberries onto garlands, cutting out elaborate paper snowflakes and piping icing onto gingerbread.
4. Stand a towering fir tree in the entrance hall and spend an afternoon listening to carols, hanging ornaments on the branches and piecing together the track for a miniature steam train to puff its way around again and again.
5. Wander the garden with a timber trug, choosing seasonal branches, berries and leaves before sitting down in the natural light of a glasshouse to weave your finds onto wicker wreaths, ready to hang throughout the house.
6. In the wooden summer house on the lawn, help little ones pen politely worded letters to Santa in hand-printed notebooks at a vintage pine school desk beneath strings of silver stars.
7. Tend to your kitchen garden plots, picking rosemary and thyme to dry in bunches and crossing your fingers for the first frost to sweeten up carrots, parsnips and Brussels sprouts ready for the Christmas table.
8. Curl up on this raspberry pink velvet sofa by a flickering log burner set in a stone hearth, a tray of walnuts on a striped ottoman at your feet, and make a list or three–ticking off all you need for a perfect Cotswolds Christmas.
Your countdown to Christmas could begin with winning this Cotswolds House, worth £4,000,000, plus £250,000 in cash (paid in instalments) when you enter the Cotswolds House Draw.
The best part? You’ll be supporting Cats Protection, helping to fund a brand new cat centre so that more cats can find care and safety.
Your Cotswolds Christmas could start here.