1. Gloucestershire: Westonbirt's Enchanted Christmas Trail
Amazing what you can do with some coloured lights and a tree – or in this case 15,000 trees spread over 600 acres of Grade I-listed woodland. The Forestry Commission's National Arboretum at Westonbirt opens at weekends for early evening walks along a mile-long trail of illuminated oak, hazel and beech trees, young maples, hollies and towering pines, their trunks and winter branches bathed in a medley of red, yellow, green and electric blue light.
• Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings (from 5pm) until December 21. Adults £7, children £3; +44 (0)1666 880220; forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6xclux
2. Cornwall: Mousehole's harbour lights
The Mousehole Harbour Lights show, in its 45th year, must be one of the least commercial Christmas displays in the country. Put up unfashionably late on December 13, the lights are produced by community volunteers (the floating sea serpent centrepiece – roughly 40ft long – was built by a local carpenter in 1973); the strings of Chinese lantern look-alikes that line the fishing-village harbour walls are upside-down plastic beach buckets. The array of light-up shapes reflected in the waters include three ships, a dolphin, a whale and, out to sea, a Celtic cross mounted on rocky St Clement's Isle. The free show, attracting crowds of people, relies entirely on public donations.
• December 13 – January 2, daily from 5 – 11pm; mouseholelights.com
3. London: Geffrye Museum's Christmas Past, Christmas Present
The Geffrye Museum's permanent exhibition of the English home goes festive for the season with each of its 11 period room sets dressed for the occasion. The story of Christmas past begins in 1630 in a "middling London home" decked with evergreen foliage and ends in 1998 with a dinner party in a Shoreditch loft apartment (Heal's baubles, Champagne and turkey à la Nigella – those were the days). In the intervening years, you can see aesthetic movement twig decorations (circa 1890), an early fake tree in a 1930s lounge (love the retro cocktail tray), and original paper decorations (the wonder of post-war Woolworths) in a 1960s living room.
• Until January 4. Admission free; +44 (0)20 7739 9893; geffrye-museum.org.uk
4. Cornwall: Eden Project's Field of Light
Cornwall's Eden Project pushes the boat out with a "Winter Wonderland" of food, music, markets, decorated trees and weekend ice discos, but the star of the show is the spectacular Field of Light – an illuminated installation by artist Bruce Munro. On the roof of the Biome Link, between the two iconic Eden greenhouses, Munro has arranged 6,000 stem-like acrylic rods, each topped with a bubble of glass, threaded with 24,000 metres of fibre optic cable. The magical light show is one of many technological up-grades of a sculpture inspired by a trip to the Australian Desert, 15 years ago.
• Until January 4. Adult evening admission (after 3pm) £9, children £5; +44 (0)1726 811972; edenproject.com
5. Kent: Leeds Castle's Nutcracker Suite
Moated, medieval Leeds Castle near Maidstone opens for a series of festive evening tours. First wander around the illuminated Wood Garden before taking a guided tour of the castle where 10 of the Tudor rooms have had a theatrical makeover inspired by Tchaikovsky's classic Nutcracker Suite. One, the Catherine of Aragon room (where Henry VIII's first Queen hung out in 1530) has gone all Sugar Plum Fairy with a silver-candy tree, a tableau of prancing ballet dancers and lots of glitter. There will be hot chocolate, Christmassy music and an "ice and snow express" shuttling between castle and carpark.
• December 15, 16, 17. Adults £15, children £10 (booking essential); +44 (0)1622 880008; leeds-castle.com
6. Dorset: Santa train from Swanage
The Swanage Steam Railway is one of a number of heritage branch lines running Christmas specials – in which vintage engines chuff through wintry countryside while a Santa dishes out gifts to cheery passengers. From Swanage, the standard gauge steam train and a row of 1950s carriages travels through the Isle of Purbeck to Norden, via the hilltop ruins of Corfe Castle. The 12-mile journey (there and back) takes roughly one hour. Ticket prices include a Christmas gift for every child, mince pies and, for adults, a festive drink.
• Services run four times a day, on December 6, 7, 13, 14 and 20-24. Tickets £10.50 (children under 2, free); +44 (0)1929 425800; swanagerailway.co.uk
South Wales: Skate at Cardiff's Winter Wonderland
The magnificently baroque city hall is the setting for the Welsh capital's annual Christmas-season skating rink – an open-air apron of ice complete with ice café bar, a heated terrace for spectators, an old-fashioned fairground carousel, a helter-skelter tower and the 60-metre big-wheel, the Admiral Eye. From the latter, on one of 40 rotating gondolas, you can look down on the twinkling lights of the city, the twirling skaters, the funfair and beyond to the Millenium Stadium and a floodlit Cardiff Castle.
• Until 4 January. Adults £5.50-£8.50, children (aged 3-12) £5.50. 02920 230130, bmibabycardiffwinterwonderland.com.
8. North Yorks: Christmas at Castle Howard
York's magnificent country pile presents "the Family Home at Christmas", a chance to take a peek at the honourable Howards' festive decorations (Mrs Howard herself scaled a scaffolding tower to hang glitter on the 18ft tree in the great hall). A row of sparkling trees lines the entrance to the house, in which a dozen state rooms are decked with baubles, candles, foliage, twinkling lights and a tinkling piano. You can also see the Brideshead Restored exhibition (both the 1981 TV adaptation and the 2008 movie, were filmed at Castle Howard).
• Until December 21 (daily 11am-4pm). Adults £10.50. children (4-16) £6.50); +44 (0)1653 648444; castlehoward.co.uk
9. Lake District: Christmas at Muncaster Castle
After celebrating its 800th anniversary on December 1, this creepy Cumbrian castle, said to be one of the most haunted in England, gets dolled up for Christmas in Victorian style. Resident-owner Peter Frost-Pennington, dressed as a servant in the 1880s, leads parties of Sunday afternoon visitors around the decorated castle's grand reception rooms. There will be mulled wine, oil lamps and log fires (the castle has 84 fireplaces), as well a Darkest Muncaster sound and light show outside in the grounds.
• Sundays, 1.30-3.30pm, from 7 – 29 December. Adults £12.5, children (5-15) £6.50); +44 (0)1229 717 614; muncaster.co.uk/victorian-christmas-castle
10. Aberdeenshire: The Enchanted Glen
The ancient woodland of the Glen Tanar Estate, near Aboyne, presents a weekend show of sound and light – a kaleidoscopic display of colour viewed on a 20-minute walk which delves into corners of the Royal Deeside grounds not usually open to the public. The event includes guest appearances from the Cairngorm reindeer herd, magic displays and workshops. Snow is a good bet. Tickets include a return coach transfer from Aboyne to the Glen.
• December 12 – 14, from 4.45pm. Adults £9.50, children £5.50 (under 4s, £1); 08444 999 990 / 01224 641 122; enchantedglen.co.uk
