There’s something distinctly theatrical about New Year’s Eve celebrations in the UK; as in fairytales of old, everything changes when the clock strikes twelve. In luxurious self-catering country homes around the nation, sentimentalists gush over the passage of time while hedonists are made merry on magnums of Champagne. And children, once adamant to partake in the New Year’s Eve festivities, snatch forty winks in the arms of snoozing aunties not designed for all-nighters. Meanwhile, quiet celebrations are had in romantic cottages, where canape-scoffing dogs are none the wiser to New Year’s resolutions, and couples share kisses in the hot tub at midnight.
From glittering affairs where doe-eyed grandparents waltz under crystal chandeliers to slumberous gatherings spent counting down the moments ‘til bedtime, New Year’s Eve house parties are as unique as the folk who make them. New year, same them - just the way it’s supposed to be.
Castle India
A luxurious Cornish fortress that happens where The Jungle Book meets Pride and Prejudice, Castle India is the place for rambunctious parties with large groups of friends and family, and everything out of the ordinary. Sip on clementine martinis speckled with gold leaf while whirling around Persian rooms of forest-green and swirling motifs. Set the dress code to Mad Hatter's Tea Party and make like the Met Gala; this fantastical manor in the Tamar Valley is waiting for a kaleidoscopic New Year’s all-nighter.
Morwell
Assemble your coterie and make for Morwell, a luxury farmhouse nurtured by 50 acres of magical woodland. From telling stories by the inglenook fire to cinema room get-togethers with hot buttered popcorn, this home is a slice of whitewashed Cornish cosy that’s made for swapping packed-in New Year's parties for self-catering family gatherings. When the late-night chatterings are done and day breaks on January, devour a breakfast of slow oats before sinking into the clawfoot tub as rain dashes the stone jamb and mullions of this 17th century sanctuary.
The Glasshouse
We’ll see your New Year’s party and raise you a New Year’s hiding place, an inside-out snow globe on the banks of the River Teifi near the Welsh coast. As the season for new beginnings approaches, The Glasshouse offers the kind of New Year that’s all about blowing off the cobwebs in luxury; start a January 1st tradition of wild swimming, then thaw in the hot tub before letting the fire draw the crowds in. While little ones flump in front of festive movies and the family chefs knead dough in preparation for the pizza party, you'll pray for snow to wrap the glass that keeps you.
The Find
Deep in a 16-acre wooded valley near Cheltenham, it’s hard to believe that The Find is not a figment of one's imagination. As if the architects behind the abodes of Winnie-the-Pooh and James Bond mixed up their blueprints, this is a luxury self-catering home forged from glass and stone; a Cotswold trinket that grew a modernist limb. Here is a place for two types of New Year's Eve party: cosy up with the family in the cottage to sip hot apple cider by the fire, before whooping away the evening in a sophisticated black-tie shindig surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass.
Romantic New Year's Cottages
What lovers don’t dream of a New Year’s sojourn, a luxury cottage with a hot tub to escape for midwinter woolgathering while the rest of the world is all abuzz? As one consults their horoscopes for the year of the Water Rabbit, the other fills Champagne coupes and cranks up the hot tub. For couples seeking romantic cottage escapes for New Year, we’ve got just the thing: think Hogmanay hideaways on a Scottish loch at Elemental, midnight snacking on toasted marshmallows at The Limit, and tracing your names with crackling sparklers on the magical humpback bridge to Filly Island. For the ultimate in couples New Year's escapes, take a hop-skip to Limehouse Cottage in Ireland to soak in the carved stone tub as the sun sets on 2022 over Coomasaharn Lake.
Browse our full list of homes with availability over New Year.
