Best Christmas light trails near Bristol 2025

I’m all for adorning as many things in twinkly lights as possible, beaming neon-coloured lights into the world and making foliage glitter! One of our yuletide family traditions is to visit one of the magical Christmas light trails near Bristol each December and they never fail to get us into the festive spirit! Here are seven of the best Christmas illumination events in Bristol and the surrounding West Country.

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Christmas lights Bristol 2025

Christmas displays in Bristol

This Facebook group will be rounding up the best places to find Bristol Christmas lights festive house displays around Bristol on Google maps, with coded driving and walking trails. These are Bristol and South Gloucestershire houses that have gone above and beyond with their outdoor illuminated Christmas decorations.

Ashton Court Luminate Trail

Friday 28 November – Sunday 28 December 2025, 4.30-8pm

Luminate: Ashton Court is a brand new winter light trail at Ashton Court Estate in Bristol.

Stretching around 1.3 km through woodland and parkland, it features over 15 immersive installations, music-synchronised lighting, interactive displays, and seasonal food and drink. The trail will take approximately 60-90 minutes to complete.

Christmas lights to visit near Bristol

Avon Valley Christmas Nights

2025 Dates: 29-30 November; 6-7, 13-14, 19-24 December

Avon Valley’s Christmas Experience is a festive adventure bursting seasonal magic.

Enjoy twinkling light displays, enchanting storytelling, a lively Santa Show, and a visit to Santa’s cosy wooden cabin, where children receive a special ‘golden ticket’ to the toy factory.

Families can also enjoy The Grinch show, gingerbread decorating, the magical forest, Santa’s post room, and miniature railway rides.

Book tickets online in advance for Avon Valley to save money and secure your spot

Westonbirt Christmas Lights 2025

Friday 28 November – Wednesday 31 December 2025 – Selected evenings

By day, Westonbirt Arboretum is breathtakingly beautiful, come Enchanted Christmas nights, the forest is transformed into a magical festive feast for the senses, ablaze with colour, twinkly fairy lights and sensory surprises. Grab a hog roast bap and mulled cider from one of the stalls to quaff on your way along the mile-long illuminated trail through the trees and witness the wonder and commotion that comes with elves creating Westonbirt’s Christmas lights walkthrough.

Out of the darkness come glittering disco balls, talking trees and colour-changing decorations hanging from sparkling branches – a new surprise awaits around every twist and turn.

As well as mesmerising light displays for Christmas, there are natural crafts and the chance to get a glimpse of a very special guest from the North Pole…Festive treats don’t get much more magical than this!

Read my review of Westonbirt Light Show here

Sudeley Castle Spectacle of Light

Nov 21 – Dec 30 2025

One of the most beautiful winter lights trails I’ve ever been to, Sudeley Castle’s Spectacle of Light is brimming with wow moments and sparkly thrills. Christmas illuminations are all set against the backdrop of 15th century castle ruins – explore the gleaming grounds, full of glamorous topiary, dazzling plants, flickering flames and sparkling water features. This year’s theme is The Wizard of OZ!

Fuel the festive merriment with whacking great cream-topped hot chocolates on your way round, and soak up the Yuletide buzz emanating from the Salvation Army band, tooting Christmas classics on their instruments.

Keep your peepers open on the journey from Bristol – the Cotswold town of Winchcombe is a quintessentially English town that wouldn’t look out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster’s re-imagining of England in winter. 

Click here to check availability and book tickets to Sudeley Festival of Light 2025

Wookey Hole at Christmas

2025 dates: Weekends from 22 November, daily from 20-24 December

Wookey Hole bedeck their caves with 100,000 festive lights for the Christmas season, turning the subterranean world into a colourful twinkling grotto (with a few Santas and reindeer thrown in for good measure).

Guided tours take you through the magnificent caverns (home to the legendary Witch of Wookey) and then you’re free to explore above ground, where you’ll find a wonderful wizard, gigantic gorilla, fairy garden, animatronic dinosaurs, 4D cinema, live shows, soft play, a Victorian-style arcade and a chance to meet Santa and his elves. 

Click here to check availability of tickets for Wookey Hole Christmas

Festival of Light at Longleat

2025 dates: 8 November 2025 to 11 January 2026

Of all the illuminated Christmas trails near Bristol, Longleat’s Festival of Light is one of the biggest! This year’s Christmas lights festival at Longleat presents British icons with Wallace & Gromit and friends!

The trail will whisk visitors through a spectacle of some of the UK’s most famous landmarks, native wildlife and sights, all creatively-imagined in lantern form.

Belt out carols with Britain’s biggest singing Christmas tree, go on a winter safari, let bats flap past your ears in the Bat Cave, and board the Santa Train to a snow-covered winter wonderland to meet Father Christmas and his elves.

Click here to find out more about the Longleat illuminations 2025

Christmas lights trail at Stourhead

2025 dates – 28 November-31 December 2025

The National Trust’s Stourhead, with its 18th century landscaped garden, lakeside walks, grottoes and classical temples is transformed with over a million twinkling lights at its Christmas lights event.

Wander along the illuminated mile-long trail to see the beautiful gardens dripping with festive colour. Discover gigantic luminescent sculptures rising high into the night sky, glittering trees swathed in light, giant baubles and a fire garden aglow with flames, all enhanced by a soundtrack of festive tunes.

Click here to view prices for Stourhead Festival of Light

Old Down Estate Illumination Trail 2025

2024 dates: November-24 December, 4.30pm – 6.45pm

Old Down Estate’s Christmas lights are back again for 2024. This year, the after-dark event will transport you to themed worlds, including the enchanting Ice Kingdom, Fairy Land, and vibrant Rainbows.

A selection of warming Yuletide treats will be available from the Barn Café – treat yourself to a hot chocolate or mulled wine, go on, it’s Christmas!

Dog-friendly light trail for well-behaved pups on leads.

Click here to check availability for Old Down Festive Illumination Trail

WILD: The Drone Light Show at Seat Unique Stadium

2025 dates: 20-23 December

Aim your eyes to the skies above Bristol for WILD, Bristol’s captivating new drone light show at Seat Unique Stadium.

Watch over 600 drones transform the night sky into dazzling animal-inspired scenes -from desert to jungle, set to a powerful cinematic soundtrack. This 40-minute open-air spectacle is perfect for all ages, with a family-friendly pre-show and food village. Tickets from £9 child / £14 adult, on sale from 16 September.

There’ll also be festive food stalls, local street food, fairground rides, and music at the home of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, Nevil Rd, Bristol, BS7 9EJ.

Step into nature’s magic, reimagined in light.

Find out more about the Wild Christmas drone light show.

ILLUMINATE at Hestercombe House and Gardens, Taunton

TBC

Hestercombe’s Christmas illumination event casts a kaleidoscopic spotlight on their historic gardens, with new water features and musical accompaniments.

The technicolour Christmas displays wind a route through the natural features of the Landscape Garden, towards the Great Cascade, and back down past the Pear Pond and through a ‘Christmas tree’ grove below the Formal Garden, before finishing with a show-stopping display in front of Hestercombe House.

The Bampfylde Hall will be open for hot food, snacks, cakes and drinks throughout the evening.

Read more

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