Christmas

This Christmas Eve, slide into one of the wooden booths at chef-owner Keith Corbin’s sunlit restaurant in West Adams or order the restaurant’s signature California soul plates to complete your holiday spread at home. The regular menu with black-eyed pea fritters, smoked chicken and sausage gumbo and fried chicken with house-made Fresno hot sauce will be available for dine-in alongside the full beverage menu, with a wine list that highlights BIPOC and women producers, and cocktails including a creative limoncello martini. For those who prefer to enjoy the soulful spread at home, choices include smoked honey butter ham and house-smoked brisket with smoked apple barbecue sauce as mains; sides like cornbread bites, mac and cheese and brown-buttered candied yams; and banana pudding and brown-butter chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Catering orders must be placed online by Dec. 21 and will be available for pickup or delivery on Christmas Eve. Last-minute Christmas Eve takeout orders can also be placed via GrubHub. Adams Wine Shop, the restaurant’s neighboring bottle shop, will be open on Christmas Eve for those who need a last-minute host gift, with mulled wine kits available for purchase.

If you’re looking for the best Christmas market to visit this month then the good news is Hoppa has done the research for you and worked out the cheapest place to get into the Christmas spirit.

The airport transfer specialists have been analysing dozens of European winter getaway destinations, looking at the average cost of accommodation, reading the Tripadvisor reviews and adding up the price of a pint.

And the European spot that is the most cheap and cheerful this Christmas is…Prague! I must say I have to agree with them as I was lucky enough to travel to the picturesque city of Prague two years ago in the run up to Christmas and it probably is the most Chrismassy place I’ve been to.

With its stunning buildings, cobblestone streets, and historic Old Town Square, Prague is a pretty great place to visit all year round – especially in December when the Christmas lights are twinkling and locals are chanting traditional Czech carols.

READ MORE: Christmas market resembles Beauty and the Beast with cobbled lanes and £2 mulled wine

It has an iconic Gothic Church, a 20-Metre Christmas tree and is circled by dozens of wooden chalets selling everything from Trdelník (chimney cake) to Czech Marionettes (hand painted ornaments) and puppets.

And alongside a very good-looking Christmas market, you can expect to find a rather impressive 4,811 attractions to keep you amused. Scoring 7.5 out of 10, the average cost of a 3-star hotel in Prague is just £74 and the average cost of a pint is £2.17 according to secretldn.com

There are also some great restaurants where you can sit down and enjoy very reasonably priced food and drink while you people watch. You can expect to pay around 250-400 CZK (approx. £8 to £14) for a dinner with drinks, with street food being even cheaper.

And there’s so much choice – from classic dishes like Goulash, Svíčková (beef in cream sauce) or Vepřo knedlo zelo (pork, dumplings, sauerkraut) to mulled wine and roasted nuts.

In fact, the Christmas market is so picture-perfect, it’s been named the most photographed Christmas market in Europe, according to various media outlets and Prague City Tourism.

There’s still plenty of time to visit – the market runs annually from late November through early January, transforming the square into a fairy-tale scene dominated by the soaring Gothic towers of Týn Church and the Astronomical Clock.

One of the best things is that it might only be a two-hour flight from the UK but once your feet firmly land in the Old Town Square, you feel like you’ve stepped into the past. And you can get there for as little as £27 return (if you book it far enough in advance) leaving plenty leftover for a few £2 pints of Czech lager.

The 10 most affordable European winter getaway destinations:

1. Prague, Czech Republic
2. Bansko, Bulgaria
3. Sofia, Bulgaria
4. Budapest, Hungary
5. Tallinn, Estonia
6. Kraków, Poland
7. Tirana, Albania
8. Belgrade, Serbia
9. Bratislava, Slovakia
10. Vilnius, Lithuania

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A MAJOR bridge used by around 20,000 drivers every day is set to be demolished on Christmas Day.

The Winterstoke Road Bridge in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was built during the Second World War to serve aircraft factories and now sits in the heart of the town’s suburbs.

The 80-year-old structure crosses the busy Exeter to Bristol railway line and has reached the end of its life.

It is already closed for 18 months while a replacement is constructed.

North Somerset Council has confirmed the demolition will take place on December 25 – the only day of the year when no trains run in the UK, allowing work to be carried out without disrupting rail services.

Council leader Mike Bell said: “Winterstoke Road Bridge has been a mainstay throughout the lives of Weston residents, first in its integral role in our aviation history, then later serving homes and businesses across the area.

“In recent years the bridge has enabled around 20,000 journeys each day, testament to the part it plays in our local transport network.

“It is a crucial route, which is why it’s important that the ageing bridge is replaced with one built to last for the next 120 years.

Replacing Winterstoke Road Bridge represents a major long-term investment in local infrastructure, helping to protect and increase road capacity while strengthening the network for future growth.

The new bridge will also encourage walking and cycling and remove existing weight limits for heavier vehicles like buses.

The bridge’s wartime origins date back to 1940 when the RAF requisitioned Weston Airfield as the Battle of Britain raged overhead.

After Winston Churchill created the Ministry of Aircraft Production, Oldmixon became one of three local sites chosen to expand aircraft manufacturing.

In 1941, the first Bristol Beaufighter rolled out of the factory and the Winterstoke Road Bridge was built so workers could reach the site more quickly.

After the war, the bridge opened to the public as the area switched from building fighter planes to producing prefabricated aluminium homes to help tackle the housing shortage.

Aviation remained a major part of the local economy for many years, including aircraft maintenance and Westland Helicopters.

North Somerset Heritage Champion John Crockford-Hawley said:
“The original Winterstoke Road Bridge is a monument to the long-standing pride that our area has in local aviation history, as well as our collective appreciation for the role that the RAF has played.

“Though we must now say goodbye to the historic structure and make way for a new bridge, the wartime stories of Winterstoke Road, the factories and the iconic Bristol Beaufighter will live on in the pages of our rich local history.”

The bridge closed to traffic in November and is not expected to reopen until 2027.

A temporary footbridge has been installed for pedestrians and cyclists, but drivers must follow a diversion via Flowerdown Bridge.

North Somerset Council has warned that the Airport and Runway roundabouts will be “extra busy” during the works.

The new 60-metre bridge will weigh more than 2,000 tonnes and will be supported by 24 deep steel-cased concrete piles drilled 35 metres into stable mudstone to stop it sinking into Somerset’s soft ground.

Due to tight space on site, contractors can only complete one pile every other day.

Utility cables and gas and water mains beneath the bridge will be diverted first. The replacement structure will then be built off site in sections and lifted into place by crane.

WHEN it comes to Christmas dinners, Brits take it very seriously, from getting the right amount of crunch on roast potatoes to whether Yorkshire puddings belong on the plate.

So when I found out that the luxury department store Harrods and the bargain pub chain Wetherspoons both offer festive dinners for the same price, I had to go out and see exactly which was better.

Each dinner costs £15, and I took everything into account from initial impressions to taste and texture to value for money.

I thought I’d start on a high, by heading to Harrods in the heart of London for the first of the two options in my Christmas dinner taste test.

I’d been teased by social media posts about just how good their Christmas Dinner Box is, seeing influencers tucking into thick slices of turkey crown with lashings of gravy and hot cauliflower cheese.

It’s Christmas time so naturally the shop was heaving with both tourists and the rich regular shoppers, so I make a swift beeline to the Food Hall.

Thankfully there’s an easy way to find the roast dinner – follow your nose and look for the spinning chickens on the Rotisserie Counter.

You’ll then see a suited and booted staff member whose job it is to gate-keep the long queue, which took 20 minutes to complete on my visit.

My meal was a tad sloppily-placed into a cardboard lunchbox. But you can’t deny that for just £15, it’s huge.

It comes with two thick turkey slices, three cuttings of ham, eight roast potatoes, one stuffing ball wrapped in bacon and sage, a long pig in a blanket, cauliflower cheese, cranberry sauce and a splash of meat gravy.

With a smile, I was handed over my weighty dinner, but it came with a new challenge; where to eat it.

Unlike Wetherspoons, Harrods offers no seating, so having to find somewhere to eat it before it got cold was slightly frustrating.

Faced with eating my lunch standing on a busy London street, I had to high-tail it back on the tub to my the office to dig in.

I started with the star of the show -the turkey. And I was very impressed with out moist it was , after all, we’ve all tucked into a home-cooked Christmas dinner that’s much too dry.

The marmalade-glazed ham was lovely too, although it was quite fatty along the side. But once that was cut away, the meat itself was soft, nicely flavoured and not too salty.

Of course no Christmas dinner is complete without roast potatoes and these had a great herby flavour.

They weren’t as crisp as I’d like, probably because they’d been sitting underneath the meat while I travelled o the tub, but you couldn’t argue with the fluffiness inside.

The stuffing ball was generously sized and, in my opinion, fancy. It came wrapped in bacon and a whole sage leaf; nothing like I’ve made from the Paxo box at home.

The cauliflower cheese is a great addition as everything sits on the creamy surface, not to mention it was delicious.

There wasn’t a lot of gravy, but I’m sure that if I’d asked for another ladle full they wouldn’t have said no.

And love it or hate it, I had cranberry sauce on my dinner. Not a lot, but enough for that sweet flavour and, as you might have guessed as it’s Harrods, was full of actual whole cranberries. 

However, how does it compare to its Wetherspoons rival, charging the same amount?

My next stop was to The Pommelers Rest Wetherspoons on Tower Bridge Road in London.

The standard price for ‘sliced turkey breast and winter vegetables’ Christmas dinner is £14.99 – however in London you pay an extra £1, so costs £15.99, including a soft drink.

It’s detailed as having four turkey slices, along with pork, sage and onion stuffing, roasted Chantenay carrots and parsnips, Maris Piper mash, two pigs-in-blankets, peas, cranberry sauce and gravy, as well as a soft drink.

It doesn’t sound too bad, right?

I will say, the huge portion on the classic Wetherspoons blue and white patterned plate was much bigger than the Harrods version, so it’s great if you have a hearty appetite.

But that’s where the positives ended. It had thin slices of turkey, of which I only counted three rather than the promised four.

Not only did the potato mash have a crusty skin on the top, but its a sacrilege to have mash rather than roasties.

There were two tiny pigs in blankets, two small carrots, some cubed parsnips (which together I doubt made one whole one) and a flurry of green peas.

Even the gravy was a let down, tasting like it was made from granules.

The cranberry sauce came in a pot on the side which I appreciated – but when it came to taste it was very artificial and packed with sugar.

Maybe it wouldn’t have felt too dissappointing if I hadn’t already tried the Harrods alternative.

But it didn’t feel like the usual great value for money that you get from Wetherspoons meal deals.

The only way Wetherspoons could trump Harrods is the fact that it has seating, and was a much bigger serving.

But I’d rather be standing on a busy London road, eating my lunch from a takeaway box than tucking into the festive dinner at a table in a warm pub.

For more on taste tests, Sun Travel checked out the UK’s best ice cream shop which serves Aperol, Pimms & cornflake scoops.

And Sun Travel also tasted the new viral Dubai chocolate ice cream served at a top London attraction – it was a huge disappointment.

THE last time Britain had a white Christmas was 15 years ago – and its unlikely to be one this year either.

But there is one way of guaranteeing one in the UK thanks to a holiday lodge that has a sneaky way to make sure you have snow.

You can get festive quite easily with cosy log fires, a cup of mulled wine, and a classic Christmas dinner.

But there’s one thing that would make it that extra special – a blanket of snow outside.

And Holiday Lodges have announced a stay that will actually guarantee snow – thanks to hidden snow machines throughout.

Tucked away in the heart of Wales is its White Christmas Lodge where in December guests will wake up to snow outside.

The description reads: “From the moment you arrive, you’ll step into a winter wonderland. Fully decked out in Christmassy decor and covered in snow”.

The lodge sleeps up to eight people and has its own hot tub, games room, cosy living and dining room along with icy lake views and you can stay there from £350 per night.

For further festivities, you can add a “decorate-your-own tree” experience or a festive wreath-making class.

In the evening, the kitchen is full-kitted out so you can relax with a cup of hot chocolate, mulled wine or spiced cider.

Not to mention it’s the perfect place to watch movies like Home Alone, Elf and for classic fans, White Christmas.

There might even be a special visit from Santa himself.

The following morning you’ll actually get to see snow falling outside (thanks to the hidden snow machines too).

The lodge has captured attention on social media too. TikTok‘s @_miawootoon said “I feel like it would be the most incredible experience in the world to have a white Christmas – why hasn’t it been done before?”.

@alexandratealeaf added “it looks like it’s straight out of a Christmas movie”.

More details are yet to be announced and the lodge isn’t available for booking quite yet.

But if you’re interested in a stay at the White Christmas Lodge next tear then head here to register your interest at holidaylodges.co.uk.   

For more on Christmas, check out the popular UK attraction with the tallest Christmas tree in the WORLD – and they need a crane to decorate it.

And here are 15 unusual places to see Santa this Christmas from underground mines to water attractions.