Christmas in Christchurch and Bournemouth

About Christmas in Christchurch and Bournemouth

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

At the western end of our coast, Christchurch and Bournemouth make a fine Christmas pair: an ancient Priory town with a lights switch-on festival in its High Street, and next door a seaside resort that turns its Lower Gardens into a trail of lights, with an Alpine market, outdoor skating and a pantomime. In 2026 Bournemouth’s Festive Trail runs from 12 November to 3 January and Aladdin plays the Pavilion from 5 December.

Christchurch sits where the Stour and the Avon meet, around its great Priory church; Bournemouth begins a few minutes west along the shore. Together they make a two-day Christmas break at the far end of the coastway.

Christchurch: the lights and the Priory

Christchurch Town Council holds the town’s Christmas lights switch-on as a festival day on a Saturday in late November, with the High Street closed to traffic, live bands, local traders and food stalls, and the lights switched on at 5pm. Christchurch Priory marks Advent with its reflective service From Darkness to Light, holds a Parish Christmas Fayre and Craft Market, and hosts Christmas concerts through December; its programme is on christchurchpriory.org.

Spend a day in Christchurch and an evening on Bournemouth’s Festive Trail.

Bournemouth: the Festive Trail and the market

Bournemouth’s Festive Trail, from 12 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, is a free, interactive light display winding through the Lower Gardens to the seafront, with Santa’s Express, a Christmas Tree Maze and Santa’s Workshop along the way. The Bournemouth Christmas Market, an Alpine market with its Alpine Lodge bar in Bournemouth Square, runs from 12 November to 31 December 2026.

Skating

SKATE Bournemouth, an outdoor rink in the Lower Gardens with a rink-side bar, opens from 12 November 2026 to 3 January 2027. If it rains, the Cool Coast Ice Rink at the Bournemouth International Centre, the largest indoor rink on the South Coast, runs from 28 November 2026 to 21 February 2027.

The pantomime

Bournemouth Pavilion’s 2026 pantomime is Aladdin, from Saturday 5 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, with James Cartwright of Coronation Street as Abanazar and Morgan Jackson as the Genie. There is a captioned performance on Monday 21 December and a relaxed performance on Wednesday 30 December.

Our advice: stay in Christchurch, walk the Priory and the quay by day, and take the bus or train to Bournemouth for the trail after dark.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Christmas in Christchurch and Bournemouth before you go.