Best Cornwall events December 2022

Date: 1-25 December 2022
Type: Santas grottos and opportunities to meet the big jolly red man across Cornwall in the run-up to Christmas
Suitable for: Kids who love Father Christmas!
Location: Everywhere. Click the ‘Read More’ button below or discover our dedicated feature on grottos: here!

Date: Thursday 1-Sunday 4 December 2022
Type: Four-day Yuletide celebration with food at its heart as celebrity chefs including Rick, Charlie and Jack Stein, Pete Murt, Paul Ainsworth, Phil Vickery and Angela Hartnett take part in cookery demos and talks
Suitable for: Foodies and visitors who want to explore an exclusive Christmas market, see a firework display, enjoy some live music, follow a lantern parade and just experience the seaside town as it goes all festive
Location: All across the Padstow waterfront, including on Riverside and South Quay

Date: Friday 2, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 December 2022
Type: Festive artisanal market in the heart of Cornwall’s beloved seaside town
Suitable for: Christmas shoppers who want to buy local and find something a little different and arty
Location: St Ives Guildhall, Street-An-Pol, St Ives

Date: Friday 2, Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 December 2022
Type: Festival with 18 gifted bands and artists spanning all blues and blues-rock genres and styles
Suitable for: Blues, rhythm and rock music fans!
Location: Tencreek Holiday Park, Polperro Road, Looe

Date: Wednesdays-Sundays between 2 & 24 December 2022
Type: Many believe this is Cornwall’s premier Christmas farmers market
Suitable for: Christmas shoppers who want an artisanal gift, some fab festive food and much more besides
Location: Lemon Quay (and a few surrounding areas), Truro

Date: Saturday 3 December 2022
Type: Celebration of Christmas and festive shopping in the heart of Saltash, brought to you by the Saltash Chamber of Commerce
Suitable for: Festive types who want to shop for Chrimbo goodies and watch ‘community groups showcasing their activities’
Location: Fore Street (‘transformed into a pedestrian haven’), Saltash

Date: Saturday 3 December 2022
Type: A ‘Quentin Tarantino tribute’ band and stage show that uses stylised themes from his movies
Suitable for: Fans of the iconic director’s films who want to see this all-singing, all-dancing theatrical performance
Location: Old Bakery Studios, Malpas Road, Truro

Date: Saturday 3 & Sunday 4 December 2022
Type: A fairly big festive market with loads to browse, plus there’ll be visits from Santa and performances by the Holmans Male Choir, Stithians Band and Porthleven Town Band
Suitable for: Anyone wanting to meet their local craft makers and shop for unique festive gifts, foods and decorations
Location: Heartlands, Dudnance Lane, Pool, near Redruth

Date: Saturday 3, 10 & Sunday 4, 11 December 2022
Type: Beachfront Christmas market on the first and second weekends in December that raises cash for the Cornwall Air Ambulance
Suitable for: Chrimbo shoppers in the market for crafts, artisanal products, mulled wine, festive food, live music and kids activities
Location: The Promenade, Carbis Bay Beach, Carbis Bay, near St Ives

Date: Saturday 3 December 2022-Sunday 8 January 2023
Type: The fascinating Charlestown museum transforms into ‘the most festive place in Cornwall’!
Suitable for: Families who want to experience ‘the UK’s longest tunnel of indoor festive lights’, step into a giant snow globe, take part in Christmas craft activities, wander through Narnia’s frozen forests and eat at a mini German market
Location: Shipwreck Treasure Museum, Quay Road, Charlestown, near St Austell

Date: Sunday 4 December 2022
Type: Described as a ‘one-man whirlwind tour of prehistoric Cornwall’, this family show covers archaeology, fossils, druids, wizards, giants, Stone Age man, erupting volcanoes and, of course, dinosaurs!
Suitable for: All ages, particularly kids. This is a puppet show with Cornwall stories, songs, laughs and bizarre characters
Location: The Tolmen Centre, Fore Street, Constantine, Falmouth

Date: Thursday 8 December 2022
Type: Annual celebration marking the alleged discovery of tin in Cornwall by St Picrous
Suitable for: East Cornwall families who want to keep the old tin miners’ traditions alive. There’s usually a supper involved and family celebrations on the second clear Thursday before Christmas, with the retelling of Cornish piskie stories like the one about a man who was taken by the mischievous imps to a wine cellar on a previous Picrous Night
Location: In homes all over the eastern parts of Cornwall

Date: Friday 9 December 2022
Type: Wintery orchestral concert by the BSO called ‘Christmas Classics’
Suitable for: Fans of classical music lovers, awesome orchestras, intimate churches and, well, Christmas!
Location: St Endellion Church, St Endellion, near Port Isaac

Date: Friday 9 & Saturday 10 December 2022
Type: What it says on the tin: a Christmas market at the famous brewpub and coastal inn over two days and evenings
Suitable for: Gift and food shoppers and anyone wanting to catch the St Agnes Silver Band between 7pm and 9pm on the Friday
Location: Driftwood Spars, Trevaunance Road, St Agnes, near Perranporth

Date: Saturday 10 December 2022
Type: A ‘darkly comic evening of macabre mini plays all with a festive flavour’ inside a village hall a few miles outside Bodmin
Suitable for: Theatregoers who adore ‘deliciously depraved takes on the holiday season’. If you like dark humour, you’ll love this!
Location: Blisland Village Hall, Blisland, near Bodmin and Wadebridge (although the show plays Falmouth, Redruth, Launceston and more Cornish towns in December, so check the official website!)

Date: Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 December 2022
Type: A Christmas extravaganza across Falmouth that includes a festive land train, curling lane, ice rink and charity grotto
Suitable for: Families and kids who want to get into the festive spirit at the town’s exclusive Christmas market while enjoying children’s vintage rides, live music, choir singing, a live nativity show, ‘snowy streets’ and a big Insta-worthy snow globe
Location: Various venues across Falmouth including The Moor outdoor space off Killigrew Street

Date: Monday 12-Saturday 17 December 2022
Type: Mousehole harbour lights switch-on is this year staggered across an entire week due to ‘concerns about large gatherings in the confines’ of the village on the far western reaches of the Duchy
Suitable for: Anyone who wants to make their own event! The lights are illuminated between 5pm and 10pm every day between the Monday and Saturday but there’s no set event this year. They are mostly all switched off between 8pm and 9pm on Monday 19 December to remember those lives lost in the 1981 Penlee lifeboat disaster
Location: All across Mousehole‘s harbourside areas

Date: Thursday 15 December 2022
Type: Christmas carol, poetry, storytelling, choral music and traditional winter folksong performance inside the grand cathedral
Suitable for: Religious and non-religious alike as this show by the Baebes explores the winter festival and its pre-Christian origins
Location: Truro Cathedral, St Mary’s Street, Truro

Date: Thursday 15 December 2022
Type: Traditional miners’ holiday named after St Chewidden, who is said to have discovered ‘white tin’. It is predominantly held in the western reaches of Cornwall
Suitable for: Families who keep the old mining traditions alive. The holiday is always on the last clear Thursday before Christmas
Location: Celebrations and special dinners are held in homes across the western parts of Cornwall

Date: Sunday 18 December 2022
Type: Marine life watching session between 11am and 1pm with the Seaquesters, a science marine recording team run by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust
Suitable for: Anyone with an avid interest in marine wildlife who wants to get those binoculars out! Its the ‘Christmas special’ National Coastwatch Institution public watch in St Ives so ‘Christmas hats at the ready’, apparently
Location: St Ives NCI Station, Island Road, next to Porthgwidden Beach and St Ives Head, St Ives

Date: Wednesday 21 December 2022
Type: Winter solstice festival that revives traditional Cornish midwinter customs. Actually, it’s a six-day arts and community fest in Penzance but the big event is the final day on 21 December
Suitable for: People who want to mark Cornwall’s midwinter traditions and also watch fire performers, ‘Obby ‘Osses, lantern processions, carol singing, strolling bands, storytelling and much more besides
Location: Across Penzance, however much of the celebrations happen in Chapel Street and in the Quay area

Date: Thursday 22 December 2022
Type: Festive comedy show by the six-foot-one Cornish comedian who’s basically Jethro, Tommy Cooper and Elvis rolled into one!
Suitable for: Adults who like good local humour from the Duchy’s number one funnyman. Expect stories, jokes and music too
Location: Lane Theatre, just off the A392 at Lane on the edge of Newquay

Date: Friday 23 December 2022
Type: Probably the best Cornish feast day of them all. The people of Mousehole toast the bravery of Bawcock, who battled savage stormy seas to bring in a massive haul of fish when the locals were starving. And thus the famous ‘stargazey pie’ was born and this celebration that takes place in the village every 23 December
Suitable for: Anyone who loves a good lantern procession, a local Bawcock impersonator, a celebratory atmosphere and a slice of stargazey pie from the local pub
Location: All across Mousehole, including the Ship Inn on South Cliff

Date: Sunday 25 December 2022
Type: Christmas Day. We couldn’t help it. We just wanted to say Merry Christmas!
Suitable for: One and all!
Location: All across Cornwall

Date: Monday 26 December & Sunday 1 January 2022
Type: Controversial festivals in Padstow where people paint their faces black (it was used to be called ‘Darkie Days’), raise cash for charity, play music, dance in the streets and just basically have a lot of fun
Suitable for: People who want to see a fascinating slice of Cornish culture that has its roots in the historic pagan midwinter celebrations and the old tradition of ‘guise dancing’, where people disguise their faces with masks or black paint. Note: this is a controversial event for obvious reasons. We leave it up to you if you want to witness the spectacle of blackened faces…
Location: All across Padstow

Date: Thursday 29 December 2022
Type: A unique 2pm cathedral carol service for pets just after Christmas
Suitable for: Dogs, cats, snakes, hamsters, guinea pigs, lizards, budgies, parrots, rabbits, goldfish and, oh, all pets are welcome!
Location: Truro Cathedral, St Mary’s Street, Truro

Date: Saturday 31 December 2022
Type: New Year’s fireworks show at 7.30pm so that kids get to be part of the celebrations. There’s then the traditional fireworks show at midnight as well for the adults
Suitable for: Families. Meal vouchers for £3 will be given out to the youngsters for exchange at local eateries. Happy New Year!
Location: Truro. The best vantage point is from Lemon Quay