sand

I LOVE Christmas. The lights, the food, wandering around a market convincing myself another overpriced mulled wine counts as supporting a small business…

But I also love being warm and not spending a fortune – in fact, ideally, I’d like to indulge in all three.

So where can you get a decent, cheap holiday with a bit of December sunshine and proper Christmas festivities?

Somewhere with markets to browse, streets full of lights and perhaps even a visit from Santa after an afternoon at the beach…

Well, I scoured holiday deals to find exactly that.

I found Christmas stalls beside a Lanzarote beach, a giant sand-sculpture nativity in Gran Canaria and a Portuguese city that fills its squares with festive markets and entertainment.

And to go with them, I found five nights with direct return flights from £115pp and average December daytime temperatures of 20°C.

Here’s where I’d go for a festive break that still leaves a bit more money for the presents.

7. Funchal, Madeira from £215pp

Madeira would be my pick if the Christmas stuff is a big part of why you’re booking.

The Avenida Arriaga Christmas market runs from 1 December to 10 January, with regional produce, crafts and seasonal food.

Nearby, Praca do Municipio’s Christmas Village runs from 4 December to 6 January, bringing storytelling, creative activities, traditional games, magic shows and performances into the city centre.

Funchal’s average December daytime high is around 21°C.

Go before Christmas week and you can catch the build-up ahead of the busiest festive period, and I’d personally give the centre here several evenings of the trip.

Spend the daytime on the gardens, sea views and tucking into a long lunch, then head into Funchal for the market and lights.

With a market and a separate Christmas village, there’s more than one festive stop to work into the stay, and this is where I’d be most tempted to go back for another evening.

The five-night deal I found is at Estrelicia Hotel for just £215pp – a perfect a base for getting out into Funchal.

Book a five-night room only stay at Estrelicia Hotel from 14 December 2026, with direct return flights from Bristol, from £215pp.

6. Las Palmas, Gran Canaria from £245pp

This is a super-niche one that I love: Las Palmas builds its Christmas nativity out of sand.

So if you’re combining Christmas with a beach holiday, that feels extra-appropriate.

The Belen de Arena on Las Canteras beach brings together international sand sculptors to create an outdoor Christmas display beside the Atlantic.

And it’s free to visit too, which leaves more money for lunch, and no admission ticket to add to the holiday budget.

Gran Canaria’s coastal climate averages daytime highs of around 22°C in December.

Earlier December is ahead of the island’s busiest festive weeks.

And Las Palmas is a working city too, so the beach is only part of what you’re coming for.

That’s the attraction for me: the promenade and sand sculptures one morning, shopping and exploring the centre another – you can have a beach holiday here without actually spending every day on the beach.

The deal I found is at Bex Holiday Homes, with your own apartment for the five nights, coming in at £245pp in mid-December.

Have breakfast before heading out and keep a few things in for lunch, then you can spend on restaurants you actually fancy, rather than paying to eat out three times every day.

Book a five-night self catering stay at Bex Holiday Homes from 12 December 2026, with direct return flights from London Stansted, from £245pp.

5. Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote from £210pp

For Christmas activities close to your accommodation, this is the deal I’d choose.

The Christmas craft fair at Plaza de las Naciones, beside Los Pocillos beach, runs from 10 to 13 December.

There’s craft stalls, food and drink, musical performances, workshops, children’s activities and even a visit from Santa.

I’ve picked an 11 December departure so you can catch the fair that weekend. – the hotel is in Los Pocillos too, so the location works as well as the dates.

Lanzarote’s average December daytime high is around 22°C, and the early part of the month offers a more relaxed atmosphere than the Christmas and New Year peak.

Make the fair part of the weekend, then leave the rest of the stay for the beach and promenade, and there’s your Christmas outing sorted.

Puerto del Carmen makes the recharge days easy too – walk along the seafront, choose somewhere to eat, sit down, then possibly choose somewhere else to eat (I personally see no problem with that itinerary whatsoever.)

Club Pocillos Apartments overlooks the sea from the main beach road and it’s self catering, so you can keep the easy meals cheap. Not a bad deal at all for £210pp!

Book a five-night self catering stay at Club Pocillos Apartments, adults only, from 11 December 2026, with direct return flights from Bristol, from £210pp.

4. Corralejo, Fuerteventura from £190pp

Corralejo’s Christmas build-up starts at El Campanario, the outdoor shopping and restaurant complex whose central square hosts its lights gala from 21 November.

It’s also home to regular Thursday and Sunday craft markets, giving December visitors somewhere to browse for presents and stop for a drink among its colourful streets and Canarian balconies.

Fuerteventura averages daytime highs of around 22°C in December.

I’d go earlier in December, when it’s generally quieter than the Christmas holiday period – you get the resort before the festive holidaymakers arrive in bigger numbers.

Corralejo is my choice if the beach is still the main reason you’re booking.

The harbour and old town cover eating and drinking, and you should save some time for the enormous beaches and dunes too – they’re a big part of why I chose this resort!

As for a hotel, I tracked down a deal at Suites Maxorata Beach, complete with big rooms that feature a kitchenette.

So you can sort breakfast there, keep a few things in for lunch, then head out for dinner.

Book a five-night self catering stay at Suites Maxorata Beach from 6 December 2026, with direct return flights from London Stansted, from £190pp.

3. Lagos, Portugal from £145pp

Lagos would be my pick for a quieter few days, with the Christmas village giving you a reason to head into town.

Its Praca do Infante hosts the festive village’s stalls from 28 November to 24 December, within a wider Christmas programme featuring Santa’s house, workshops, entertainment and seasonal shopping.

It’s in the town square, so you can browse the stalls as part of an afternoon out – no need to make it a separate day trip.

December brings daytime highs of roughly 18°C across the Algarve and a much quieter feel in Lagos than during the summer holiday season.

Take advantage of that for the coastline and old town, because in winter this place suits people who are happy with a walk, a coffee and a long lunch, rather than a jam-packed itinerary.

Have a look around the Christmas village afterwards and that’s a very decent day away.

WOT Lagos Montemar is a hotel close to the centre, which is where I’d want to be for this trip, and I found a mega deal here in December for just £145pp. Bargain.

Book a five-night room only stay at WOT Lagos Montemar from 6 December 2026, with direct return flights from Newcastle, from £145pp.

2. Malaga, Spain from £140pp

This is the one for anyone who likes a beach holiday but gets restless sitting in the same place for five days.

Stay by the sea in Torremolinos, then head into Malaga for the Christmas lights.

The city’s Calle Larios and Plaza de la Constitución host festive light-and-music displays from 27 November to 4 January.

Leave time to explore the old centre around the music and light displays – personally, I’d make a night of it, with a few stops for tapas.

Christmas shopping is much easier to face when there’s dinner involved, and especially when average December highs are around 19°C.

Torremolinos is quieter than in summer, but winter visitors keep the resort going – perfect for December break with places to go when you leave the hotel.

Then you can just head into Malaga when you fancy a busier evening.

Lazy days by the sea, a proper night out for the lights – that would be my plan!

I found a great deal at BLUESEA Solaris on the beachfront at La Carihuela for £140pp.

The beachfront location is the selling point for me here, because you can get straight out from the hotel for a walk or find somewhere for lunch.

Book a five-night room only stay at BLUESEA Solaris from 13 December 2026, with direct return flights from Exeter, from £140pp.

1. Bugibba and Valletta, Malta from £115pp

At £115pp, Malta is where I’d start if keeping the cost down is your main priority.

Valletta’s Christmas in the Capital runs from 25 November to 31 December, with illuminated streets, a Christmas tree, a nativity scene, concerts and family entertainment.

Fairyland runs at Triton Fountain Square and the Floriana Granaries from 4 December to 3 January too – put both on the list for an evening in the capital.

December afternoons average around 18°C, and for walking around Valletta, I’d take that over dragging myself up its streets in the summer heat.

Plus, the major sights are generally quieter than in summer.

Do those during the day, then stick around for the lights and Christmas entertainment.

Bugibba would be my seaside base, with trips into Valletta for the Christmas stuff – that gives you somewhere by the water to come back to.

Topaz is less than ten minutes’ walk from the seafront, so you can head out for a stroll whenever you fancy.

That’s the accommodation sorted without using up all your spending money before you’ve even arrived.

Book a five-night room only stay at Topaz from 7 December 2026, with direct return flights from Bournemouth, from £115pp.

If you’d like to live near the water along the spectacular California coast at some point in your life, you have a number of options.

You can settle in, say, Culver City, which is several miles inland, and wait for rising tides to arrive.

Or, if you just can’t wait that long, I saw a listing you might be interested in. It’s in Capitola, near Santa Cruz, right next to the wharf. The three bedroom, two bath, 1,850-square-foot condo, one of a string of Venetian, pastel beachfront homes, is listed for $3,995,000.

“The beach is your backyard, the cool ocean is your pool,” says the promo.

Given what’s happening right now along the California coast, you might not have to leave that condo to go for a swim. But UC Santa Cruz oceanographer and geologist Gary Griggs, who has seen the thrashing of that row of homes in previous years, is not going to make an offer.

“I’ve got a number of photos,” he said, “that show waves breaking over the top.”

Someone will buy the place, eventually, despite the chance of it becoming a fish tank. California is flush with dumb money and bad judgment, and an insatiable romance with an epic 1,200-mile shoreline.

But it’s time to rethink the relationship.

Last weekend in Long Beach I said a few words at the 50th anniversary of the California Coastal Act, which has kept our shoreline from looking like Atlantic City or Miami Beach by balancing sensible development with conservation and public access.

“The coast is never saved, it’s always being saved,” I said at the 50th, borrowing as I often do from the late Peter Douglas, hammering home the need for constant stewardship, from one generation to the next.

But in an ironic twist, part of the parking lot was underwater, a tractor had raised a berm to hold back the ocean, and just to the south, homes were being thrashed by waves. The coast wasn’t being saved, it was being reclaimed by the sea.

From there I headed south for a friend’s planned birthday party on the sand in Newport Beach, but city streets had been flooded and beaches were closed. The party was moved indoors.

We have not seen the worst of it, with a fall forecast that includes the possibility of an epic Super El Niño that could coincide with king tides, Kelvin waves and a peak lunar nodal cycle, all of which my colleague Rosanna Xia laid out a couple of days ago.

It’s not going to rain hammerheads and sea horses, I don’t think, but coastal destruction could be dramatic.

“We’re likely going to break a number of water level records,” said Timu Gallien of the UCLA Coastal Flood Lab. “It’s not implausible to see some of the piers wiped out, or breakwaters or jetties.”

“This is a glimpse of our future,” said former California Coastal Commission Director Jack Ainsworth. “This is it. It’s here.”

Some low-lying communities have been warned for years to prepare for rising sea levels, Ainsworth said, but have put off the inevitable.

In some areas, the only sane maneuver is what’s called “managed retreat,” meaning relocation of structures farther inland. But that is fraught with legal and political challenges and resistance.

Look, if you want to live on the sand and can afford to do so, good for you. But the general public should not be on the hook for your losses. Along the entire coast, public infrastructure that we all benefit from is under threat, including roadways, parks and railroad tracks, and that’s where any public investment ought to go.

Among the tools available are sand berms, cobble berms (sand on top of small stones), jetties, dredging and relocating sand, and below-surface breakwaters. Living shorelines, such as those along the Orange and San Diego county coasts, involve piling sand atop boulders or smaller stones and covering the berms with vegetation.

But these projects don’t happen overnight, Gallien said. “Right now we’re seeing reactive responses. OK, let’s throw up some sandbags and plywood.”

Kelsey Ducklow, coastal resilience director for the Coastal Commission, said the agency has awarded millions in grants for local planners to study the threat to their communities and come up with plans. Some locales are further along than others, Ducklow said, but there’s no single strategy that will work everywhere, and one typical response is, “Yeah, we know we need to do something. But where’s the money to do it?”

The three choices we have are mitigation, adaptation and suffering, Griggs said. We’re likely to do some of each, but on the mitigation end of things, sea walls, rock revetments and armored cliffs are temporary fixes.

“In the long run, there’s nothing we can do to hold back the Pacific Ocean,” said Griggs, 83, who has been teaching for 59 years. “Everything we do is a Band-Aid, and comes with different price tags and lifespans.”

Griggs was featured in Xia’s award-winning book “California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline,” which explores the impact of sea level rise and community responses that range from denial to respectful intervention.

Precious ecosystems are under threat, Xia wrote, “trapped between rising water on one side, pavement on the other.” And multiple Southern California beaches that are “so deeply tied to the state’s heart and soul” could be lost.

I asked Xia what she thought about the rising threat this year.

“So many people think about the coast as a place — a place that doesn’t move,” she said. “But the coast in reality is a living dynamic process that changes every time a wave crashes ashore. That’s the heart of the issue — we’re fundamentally trying to impose permanence onto a space that is meant to be constantly changing.”

We haven’t been the best stewards of the planet, and maybe what’s happening now is a bit of a reckoning. From the first time I saw the California coast as a young lad on vacation from the hot interior, I think I understood that the truest way to love the sea was to fear and respect it.

I now have more fear and more respect.

And maybe, too, a deeper love.

steve.lopez@latimes.com