The UK's best private dining rooms for Christmas parties

For a private Christmas meal in Fleet, this period country-style hotel has The Conservatory, a light-filled private dining room that opens onto the gardens, with the bar right next door.

The restaurant’s festive lunch and dinner menu comes with crackers and mince pies, so ask the team about serving it in The Conservatory. Bed-and-breakfast packages cover overnight stays.

This Grade II-listed Manchester hotel offers more private dining formats than most.

The brick-vaulted Wine Cellar suits an intimate dinner and combines with the adjoining cinema-style Private Screening Room for a festive film night. The Mezzanine Lounge and sixth-floor South Terrace cover other formats, and bespoke festive menus run across every space.

Set on Berryfields Farm near Solihull, this venue has a private first-floor function room with its own sound system, AV equipment and soundproof doors.

That makes it practical for office parties that combine dinner with festive presentations. A December festive menu runs from roast turkey to Jerusalem artichoke risotto, with The Barn Social bar downstairs and The Barn Hotel next door.

Turkey takes a back seat at Lardon, part of Elkstone Studios in the Cotswolds, where much of the European-inspired sharing menu is cooked over fire.

The private dining room - with its warm terracotta walls and vaulted ceiling - suits a long, sociable dinner. Or the whole restaurant can be booked for more grand occasions. 

Food-focused groups will find plenty to talk about at this fine dining restaurant in Masham, where seasonal set menus are cooked over coals and embers.

The downstairs snug works as a private dining room, or the whole restaurant can be booked exclusively. A vegetarian menu and optional wine flights are available, and dishes arrive on head chef Jon Atashroo’s handmade ceramics.

This Hitchin restaurant and wine bar, whose main dining room was once a ballroom, gives smaller groups two private options.

The upstairs room can be laid out around a long communal table or left open for mingling, while the wine bar next door greets guests with a glass of Nyetimber. The Christmas menu runs from Staithe Smokehouse salmon to roast Norfolk bronze turkey.

Set in Edinburgh's New Town, Le Petit Beefbar pairs premium steaks and street food-inspired sharing plates with a standout private room.

The Library, separate from the restaurant, has oak panelling and a grand marble fireplace. Sharing menus run through the festive season for groups of five or more, alongside a festive lunch menu, and the main dining room can be hired exclusively.

Log fires and views across the Candover Valley set the tone at this Hampshire pub on the outskirts of Alresford.

Smaller groups can book the private dining room, which has its own secluded terrace, while bigger parties can take over the whole inn. Seasonal menus draw on produce from the kitchen garden, and boutique bedrooms upstairs take care of the journey home.

Michelin-starred cooking from Tim Allen is the draw at this restaurant in Aughton.

A rear dining room gives family dinners or client entertaining some privacy, or the whole restaurant can be booked. The Christmas menu includes Orkney scallops with black truffle and heritage beef, with a Christmas pudding flamed at the table and optional wine pairing.

The Oak Lounge is the oldest room in this St Albans manor house, with oak-panelled walls and an ornate stucco ceiling dated 1585.

It makes a characterful setting for a small Christmas dinner, and the chandeliered Cedar Suite suits slightly larger groups. For a livelier evening, Snowball Party Nights pair three courses with a DJ, and bedrooms overlooking the lake are available afterwards.

In the village of Grantchester, just outside Cambridge, this modern brasserie offers the upstairs Rupert Room, with its adjoining balcony, and a ground-floor conservatory for private hire.

Groups can also take over the whole venue. Head chef Matthew King’s kitchen works closely with local suppliers, and a late licence suits festivities likely to run on.

Surrounded by vines near Chichester, this Sussex wine estate has private spaces for smaller parties alongside a first-floor restaurant looking out over the vineyard.

The two- or three-course Christmas menu includes dishes such as game terrine and eggnog pannacotta. Groups can add a guided tasting, vineyard tour or cocktail-making session, then stay over in the estate’s luxury lodges.

Just outside Deal in Kent, this family-run 17th-century farmhouse is one of our favourites.

The orange-painted Library can be closed off for smaller groups, or the whole house can be booked with bedrooms for an overnight stay. The Christmas menu opens with sharing dishes before roast turkey with cotechino sausage, celeriac, chestnuts and quince, plus roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Floor-to-ceiling windows over the Kent coast at Westgate-on-Sea give Christmas dining at Finbar's of West Bay a backdrop few function rooms can match.

A semi-private area suits mid-sized groups, while exclusive hire of the restaurant and terrace opens up DJs, live music and a later bar on request.

Set in woodland grounds above the River Nith near Dumfries, this country house hotel goes all in on a traditional Christmas, with open fires, dark wood panelling and leaded windows.

The Nith Room hosts smaller private dinners, the Whistle Room takes bigger groups and a marquee handles full-scale parties. The cosy charm of a proper Scottish hotel at Christmas is hard to beat.

Rather than offering a fixed Christmas package, this Michelin-recommended neighbourhood restaurant in Wallingford shapes each festive event around the group.

A semi-private room hosts sit-down dinners. Canapés such as venison bonbons and beetroot-cured trout suit drinks parties, and bespoke cocktails, vineyard tastings or butchery masterclasses can be added.

This Forest of Dean castle gets dressed for December with Christmas trees and garlanded fireplaces, and the smell of mulled wine and gingerbread drifts through the corridors.

Smaller groups can book one of its intimate spaces for a private dinner, including The Wyndhan, with an in-house team that builds a bespoke festive menu, from canapes to a full Christmas dinner.

Tucked away from the main brasserie, the private dining room at Browns Cardiff suits a small team dinner or family Christmas meal in the city centre.

The three-course festive set menu runs from duck liver parfait and prawn cocktail to turkey with Cumberland pigs in blankets or cranberry-glazed pork belly, finishing with Christmas pudding and brandy custard.

Tucked down an alleyway in central York, this family-run restaurant hosts Christmas parties across distinctive rooms.

Options include the Pink Dining Room with its feathered lighting, the deep-blue Original Dining Room and a larger private dining room. Guests pre-order three festive courses, tables are laid with crackers and place cards, and there is no room hire fee or minimum spend.

Occupying a former gentleman’s tailor in Nottingham’s Hockley, Skein describes its style as 'fine(ish) dining'.

Its first floor can be booked exclusively for a seated Christmas party around banquet tables, or groups can take over both floors with full bar access. The festive menu runs from crab rarebit to a beef Wellington available to pre-order.

Indian home-style cooking made for sharing gives Mowgli a different take on the Christmas table.

It offers a private dining room, semi-private tables and full hire of the main dining room and mezzanine. Set-price festive feasting menus start with bubbles and yoghurt chat bombs, and continue with a host of warming curries and sides.