Fully staffed houses for the two weeks that decide the year — St Barts and the Caribbean, the Alps, and winter sun where the season never arrives. Every one visited and vetted, every rate confirmed in writing, and a dedicated concierge on the file from the day you book.
Festive weeks do not behave like the rest of the year. A seven-night
minimum is the common pattern and Saturday-to-Saturday changeovers are usual,
but both are set house by house — a card states a minimum only where that villa
publishes one, and your proposal confirms it in writing either way. The same applies to
rates: festive figures sit above the published base rate, sometimes considerably, so
where a villa has published its festive number we quote it below, and where it has not
the card says on request rather than carrying a guess.
The cards here are a curated selection, not an availability feed. They
show what we hold for the season; whether a specific window is open is confirmed
property by property when you send your dates.
Directly on Grace Bay, with butler, chef and housekeeper included — the house our specialists suggest first when the brief is a family Christmas on the calmest water in the Caribbean.
Half a mile of private Long Bay beach with the house on it. Chef, butler and transfers are included, and the sand belongs to the party for the week.
A heated pool hanging over Corossol Bay, minutes from Gustavia — the smaller, quieter way to spend New Year on the island where everyone wants to spend it.
Opens January 2027, so it cannot host this New Year’s Eve — it is a January-onward house, and the right answer for a group whose winter plans start after the festive fortnight rather than during it. Taken as a whole private resort, staffed throughout.
A quiet stretch of Thompson Cove rather than Grace Bay — two hundred feet of private beachfront, a sculpted pool with waterfalls, and a rooftop observatory for the island’s night skies. Three master suites with plunge tubs; butler, private chef on three meals a day, housekeepers, gardener and a manager on call around the clock, with non-motorised water sports and an airport transfer included.
Three minutes’ walk from the village, with a lift to every floor and a children’s bunk suite — the combination most festive requests describe and few chalets deliver.
Heated pool, cold plunge, sauna and hammam below; a wine-tasting lounge and a double-sided fireplace above. The house for friends travelling together rather than a family.
The Matterhorn from every balcony, which in Zermatt is a claim worth checking — here it holds. Car-free resort, so arrival is by train from Täsch or by helicopter.
A forest estate rather than a village address: hammam, massage room, glass-walled indoor pool and a sunken hot tub in the snow. The most workable of these for three generations.
A private spa wing across the garden — indoor pool, sauna, hammam, jacuzzi, gym and treatment room — and one of the largest in Verbier. Two living rooms around an 18th-century stone fireplace, a double-height dining room seating twelve, and a chauffeur on call from 8am to 1am.
Also in the Swiss collection: Klosters. On the French side: Courchevel 1850, Méribel and Val d’Isère. Alpine festive weeks are the earliest-booking fortnight we handle — our winter holidays guide sets out the real windows resort by resort.
All meals, open bar and beach-club access folded into one rate, with an infinity pool over the Pacific. One number, no logistics — which over the festive fortnight is worth more than it sounds.
A hundred feet of bayfront with a private dock and a rooftop panorama — New Year’s Eve over the skyline — and, three weeks earlier in early December, Art Basel week.
A hidden path from the terrace down to a beach reachable only through the villa — genuinely rare on this peninsula. Infinity-edge pool, ocean-view jacuzzi, cinema, gym and an alfresco palapa, with chef, butler and concierge on from 7am to 11pm. Two of the seven suites are bunk rooms, which is what makes it work for families.
Ski-in/ski-out inside The Colony, with an indoor spa, a theater and a rooftop hot tub — and the largest party capacity on this page by a wide margin.
Christmas week and New Year’s week are not the same holiday, and the choice between them decides more than the dates — our specialists set out the difference in St Barts: Christmas week vs New Year’s. For the Caribbean specifically, see New Year’s Eve in the Caribbean and Caribbean villas for Christmas; on why the best houses go so far ahead, Caribbean Christmas vacations. If the decision is really Alps or beach, the winter holidays guide is the one to read first.
Dates, party size and whether you want snow or sea — a specialist will come back with what is genuinely still available, and what it includes, within one business day.