Evening Standard (London): Last-minute Christmas breaks

British tradition

Pack your finery and your walking boots for a traditional Christmas house party at the 16th century White Swan Hotel (01751 472288), a former coaching inn near the North Yorkshire Moors in Pickering. Price starts at pounds 395 per person.

Palladian mansion Ston Easton Park, between Bath and Wells, has a few rooms left for its three-night Christmas package. From pounds 720 per person, including champagne reception and dinner on Christmas Eve, six-course Christmas Day lunch, black-tie dinner with dancing and roulette on Boxing Day, plus transport to midnight mass at either Wells Cathedral or Downside Abbey on Christmas Eve, and Boxing Day trip to Wincanton races or to tour Georgian Bath with a pantomime visit.

Pride of Britain Hotels (01761 241631).

The rates at two adjoining 18th century, Grade II-listed cottages in Port Navas, south-west Cornwall, have been reduced by 40 per cent for Christmas week - so even if you can't spare the whole seven days, they're still a good deal. Available together for a group of 10, or individually, they sleep four and six guests respectively; pounds 355 (from pounds 592) for the smaller and pounds 465 (pounds 776) for the larger through Helpful Holidays (01647 433593; www.

helpfulholidays.com, refs S411F and S410F).

Festive flights

Flights to a number of European destinations from Heathrow via Amsterdam are on offer from KLM (08705 074 074; www.klm. com), including Geneva for pounds 100 return, and Venice for pounds 107 return. Bookings must be made by Wednesday.

You can still get to Toronto on Christmas Day with Quest Travel (0870 442 3513) for pounds 299 return on American Airlines via Chicago. Minimum stay one Saturday night.

And one hot deal

Here's a last-minute chance to spend Christmas in Vegas. Virgin Holidays (0871 222 0305) has a four-night break departing 22 December for pounds 769pp, including direct flights from Gatwick, and four nights at the Excalibur hotel.