Christmas in Cornwall

For 32 consecutive years my Christmas holiday was always the same – a traditional Christmas Eve dinner at my grandparents’ house in small town Pennsylvania and Christmas Day at my parents house surrounded by family. Until Christmas of 2013 came around…

Still living abroad in London and with a flight scheduled back to New York in early January for our move back to the U.S., we opted for a sort of “Ode to England” farewell Christmas trip exploring Cornwall,  an area of the United Kingdom we’d always wanted to see.

A Lodge in the Countryside

Quiet and secluded, our rented lodge was equipped with a fireplace and a spacious kitchen, a perfect place to cook our Christmas dinner instead of in our cramped kitchen at our London flat. We woke up to this view throughout the five nights we stayed in Cornwall.

Fishing Villages of Looe and Polperro

On Christmas morning we drove 15 miles to the fishing port of Looe, a scenic town on the south coast of Cornwall.

The view of the harbor, along with the lovely narrow streets of the town we walked through in East Looe, was a peaceful way to begin our Christmas Day.

We were surprised to see an open sign in the window of Larsson’s Coffee House.

Inside we were greeted by some amazing locals who shared jokes and chatted to us about what to see during our stay in the Cornwall area.

From there, we drove 4 miles west to the town of Polperro, another small, picturesque port town. Love at first sight, this town was a pleasure to walk through and explore!

Christmas Day Tradition at the Pubs –

The town of Polperro appeared to be completely deserted. Until we walked by the two pubs in town and discovered where the entire town’s population was hiding out…inside those pubs! On Christmas Day, most of the pubs in this area are open from around 11am – 2pm.

Getting into the Blue Peter Inn proved difficult as it was packed wall to wall with people. We inched our way past a sleeping dog on the pub floor and ducked to avoid bumping our heads on the low ceiling beams as we managed to find our way to the line (“queue”) of people waiting at the bar for drinks.

A lively atmosphere, I observed the scene of families and neighbors engaged in conversation and checked out the mixture of attire – some dressed in casual warm sweaters (“jumpers”), some more formal (those who appeared to have walked directly from a church service to the pub), and others who wore big bright red or green Christmas sweaters complete with Santa, Snowmen, or Reindeer designs.

All in all an unusual Christmas experience, but a very cool tradition!

We stayed at the pub for an hour before leaving the town of Polperro, where we drove back to our lodge to start making our homemade Christmas dinner.

Christmas Dinner – Family Recipes & Cornish Ale

The next few hours consisted of making the ham (“gammon joint”), the glaze (my Mom’s recipe), pineapple stuffing (also my Mom’s recipe), cauliflower and potato casserole where we settled to spend our night eating and trying out the Cornish real ale we purchased!

A Memorable Christmas Day

Cornwall is an absolutely beautiful area of the United Kingdom and I look forward to sharing more more my insights about all the towns and villages we checked out in future posts.

So how do I rate this Christmas? In reality, nothing can quite compare to the feeling of being surrounded by family during the holidays. But knowing we’ll soon be back in the United States permanently helped us to avoid feeling homesick and more importantly, make the most of the time we have left in the United Kingdom.

Spending our Christmas in Cornwall proved to be a fitting end to what has turned out to be two packed-full years of amazing experiences living abroad.