It’s Christmas Eve, pine logs are crackling in the fireplace as you sip a glass of mulled wine and enjoy a mince pie. The children are meeting Santa around the hotel Christmas tree and someone else is preparing the turkey.
This is the image being sold by Dublin’s Merrion Hotel for the festive season, but that hands off, carefree Christmas in the five-star hotel is not cheap. A three-night stay in the Georgian hotel from December 24th to 27th will set a couple back €3,450.
Peter MacCann, general manager of the Merrion, says the hotel is “delighted” to be sold out over Christmas, and will remain full until January 4th.
He says more than 50 per cent of those staying over the festive period are repeat customers, and that the hotel will start to see third generations of its “Christmas regulars” soon. Most of the people staying on Merrion Street Upper are Irish, with guests coming from overseas primarily visiting family here.
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MacCann says Dublin hotels have seen a shift in the atmosphere around Christmas, with increased demand whereas previously it was only rural properties that had the “wonderful party atmosphere”. The period has also become a popular time for wedding celebrations.
For some, the offer of delicate finger sandwiches, gingerbread, Viennese bridge rolls and mince pies in the Merrion is worth the cost.
Outside the capital, some falconry might be called for, in which case Ashford Castle, on the banks of Lough Corrib and the river Cong in Co Mayo, is another option.
With mulled wine and mince pies served upon arrival on the 24th, the festive season will be off to a good start. Christmas Eve dinner will be held in the George V Dining Room – the dress code is lounge suit by the way. Santa will arrive at 10pm with gifts for all guests.
After a leisurely breakfast on the day itself, Lough Corrib is the next destination for a morning cruise with hot whiskeys and traditional music. Then you can dress down to smart casual for a buffet lunch before assembling the family for a Christmas portrait at the castle’s tree, before black tie for your gala Christmas dinner.
St Stephen’s Day will be more active; a scavenger hunt is available from 1pm with falconry or archery on offer after lunch. During dinner, expect to be entertained by “wandering minstrels” before you experience a “leisurely breakfast” followed by a “fond farewell” on the 27th.
[ Restaurants to book for the week between Christmas and new yearOpens in new window ]
This three-night experience in Ashford costs €3,727.50 per person sharing at the most affordable rate, a Corrib room. Its more exclusive options include the presidential suite, which has a price of €9,675.00 per person sharing based on two people per room – or a total of €19,350.
This year will be the eighth Christmas at the Shelbourne Hotel for the property’s manager, Lucius Farrell. An institution in Dublin city, the hotel has a two-night package, starting at €1,830, from the 24th to the 26th.
“Christmas is a period you do not mess with,” Farrell says, “You want to make sure that people have a residential, warm and comfortable experience when they stay.”
The clientele over the period is a mix of expats coming home to visit family, and Irish families either looking for a less stressful festive experience, or looking for a change in dynamic after losing a family member or after welcoming a new member. “It’s a real collage of people,” he says.
The highlight of the period is the arrival of Santa Claus after breakfast on Christmas Day. “It’s like the pied piper,” he says, with the children staying in the hotel flocking to the red-suited man as he enters the diningroom and following him out to his chair by the Christmas tree to receive presents from the hotel.
For the staff, however, the crucial thing is to manage all of the bags that customers arrive with. More so than any other time of the year, lost parcels around Christmas could be catastrophic.
The five-star Castlemartyr Resort in Co Cork has its own unique selling point – Santa will give Rudolph and the gang a rest, instead arriving by helicopter.
This is the eighth year for Brendan Comerford, the general manager of Castlemartyr, to ensure his guests have a Christmas to remember at the resort.
“Christmas is a happy time, but sometimes families go away for Christmas to a hotel for a specific reason,” he explains. “Sometimes they will have lost a loved one, maybe it is a couple and their children have emigrated, or are staying with the other side of the family this year.
“You meet people that want to come away from home, sometimes for these reasons, and so it is our job to make that a special occasion and feel like a home away from home,” he says.
This year, the Cork resort will be home to a large, extended family from the US, gathering in Castlemartyr to celebrate their ancestral roots. “The grandparents, the parents and their children are all travelling over,” he says.
Comerford and his staff are looking to recreate the homely Christmas experience in the big manor house, which dates back to 1750.
Santa Claus will arrive by helicopter at 4pm on Christmas Eve.
“The kids have their hot chocolate and marshmallow station, get a little gift, before champagne dinner that night in our canopy restaurant for all guests. Then everybody goes to bed early so Santa can arrive in the morning,” Comerford says.
Guests who arrive before the 24th, or stay beyond the 27th will be able to dine at Terre, the resort’s two Michelin star restaurant, which is headed up by new executive chef, Lewis Barter. Over the Christmas period their culinary offerings will be no less fancy, availing of a local supplier known for their “bespoke black leg Turkey”.
The resort’s two-day festive package is “good value”, he says, at €2,800 per couple. The resort is limiting guest numbers to about half occupancy – around 100 of its usual 200 visitor capacity.
“Nobody wants to be overrun on Christmas Day,” he says.
Further afield, rates at Ballynahinch Castle in Connemara, which is owned by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, start at €3,600 for the three-night Christmas experience based on two sharing. This offers a chance to explore the 700-acre estate between “sumptuous” dinners and “lavish” buffets.
The five-star Carton House resort in Co Kildare is offering suites in The Manor House complete with their own Christmas tree. Its two-night stays are available from €1,175 per person, or €2,350 per couple, at the 18th century Palladian mansion.
