Christmas in Suffolk – Shopping, Eating & Drinking!
Love it or loathe it, Christmas happens every year so we like to embrace it here at Woodfarm and invite you to Suffolk to do some Christmas shopping in our beautiful county. There are fabulous annual events and an abundance of places to eat, drink, shop and generally soak up Christmas in Suffolk.
By the end of Summer we are always completely SOLD OUT for Christmas in Suffolk.
As so many people are clearly think about spending Christmas in Suffolk, we thought we would let the world know about some of the things going on around Suffolk at that time of year.
Not only does Woodfarm take on a real festive feel at the start of December, but so does most of Suffolk. I know lots of places get into the spirit but for me, Suffolk (I’m not from round these parts) has always seemed to do it really well. There are a few of my favourites in this Blog Post, as well as some general info but having lived in Suffolk for many years now I’m constantly impressed with the ambience it seems to adopt this time of year and despite Summer being a distant memory, there still seems to be an air of cheeriness all around.
Bury St Edmunds is a great place to start your Christmas in Suffolk! Whilst the Christmas market itself is always early on and many of our guests love to go there, the general feel of Bury this time of year is fabulous. There are some wonderful boutique type shops in Bury, as well as a small modern town centre with a smattering of the major department stores. The architecture here is fabulous and with the addition of the Christmas lights, it brings a real warmth to the town. Bury is definitely one of my favourite places to do my Christmas shopping. Woodbridge, Lavenham and Long Melford being the others. We’ll get to them.
Between us and Bury St Edmunds is the fabulous annual Christmas Pop Up shop at Blackthorpe Barn. It’s a mahoosive old Suffolk barn (we like them) with absolutely everything in there you’ll ever need to decorate your home for Christmas, including the tree itself! They have a huge selection of trees in a range of varieties and sizes. Many of the decorations at Woodfarm come from Blackthorpe as they have some lovely stuff here. There’s also a great cafe to rest your bones too.
Christmas time in Lavenham & Long Melford is possibly the most you’ll feel like you’ve stepped back a few hundred years. I love these two places anyway and they are just a stone’s throw from each other, within easy reach of Woodfarm Barns. The architecture is stunning; a lot of which is unequalled anywhere else in my humble opinion. And with the addition of Christmas lights and all the trimmings, Lavenham and Long Melford both take on a magical charm all of their own. I’ve written previously about the two medieval towns so you can see what I had to say in that post.
There’s an annual Christmas fair around the beginning of December. It’s well worth checking our availability just for this. Check here for what we have available.
Closer to home you can get all the festive eats you’ll need at our local Deli at the Chilli Farm. Just up the road from us, Kate has all her seasonal goodies in then so you can grab a whole load of tasty treats to take back to your cottage if you’re here, or home for Christmas. We’ve had another great year of working together, with Kate feeding so many of our guests and supplying more hampers than ever to our guests. They do fabulous brunches, lunches and afternoon teas or you can just grab a quick coffee whilst you do your shopping.
Another amazing bespoke Christmas shop is the Redhouse Christmas Barn. There’s a clue in the title folks and it really does do what it says on the tin! It pretty much does the same thing as Blackthorpe Barn but they are in completely opposite directions from Woodfarm so the great thing is you just decide if you want to base your day out around Bury St Edmunds, Lavenham and Long Melford, or head to our wonderful Heritage Coast and experience Southwold, Aldeburgh or Woodbridge. Simples! Redhouse has a superb range of trees, decorations and gifts so well worth planning this into your day. And they’ve even been on Blue Peter!
And talking of Woodbridge…
I’ve already brought you Blog Posts all about Woodbridge and the River Deben. Have a look so you can combine your Christmas activities with some of the things I cover in that Blog Post. Woodbridge itself has such a lovely traditional feel to it any time of the year, which is one of the reasons I love it, but again, at Christmas it takes on a whole new feel. There’s always a Christmas street fair but even if you miss it, Woodbridge still has a great deal going on and some wonderful pubs and restaurants to enjoy Christmas in Suffolk.
So these are just a few of my favourite things as the saying goes. There’s tons more going on but you won’t have time to do it all. So if you fancy a pre-Christmas shopping break and make the most of the festive activities, then head over to our availability and prices page to see what’s what and get yourselves in pronto.
But remember, Woodfarm Barns is for life, not just for Christmas! Talking of which, have you seen our daft Christmas advert we did last year? No? Well have a look on Youtube; we had fun doing it!…
Have a lovely Christmas all!
