Christmas in Totnes: Lights, Markets and a Festive High Street
Totnes does Christmas the way it does most things. With proper local feeling, plenty of small businesses involved, and a slight reluctance to switch the lights on before late November. The result is a festive High Street that feels handmade rather than corporate, and a string of December evenings that are worth planning a trip around.
This is the atmosphere guide. If you are looking for what to actually buy as gifts, see our separate shopping guide. Here we focus on the lights, the markets, the music and the eating.
The Christmas Lights Switch-On
The town’s festive calendar opens with the Christmas Lights Switch-On, organised by Totnes Town Council and held in the Market Square and Civic Hall on a Tuesday afternoon in late November. It is free, family-friendly, and properly small-town.
From around 3pm there are children’s crafts (jam-jar lantern making is the perennial favourite), the Totnes Brass Band plays, stilt walkers and a jester drift through the crowd, and pupils from Totnes St John’s and The Grove Primary sing carols. The Mayor turns the tree on at 5.30pm and a cheer goes up that you can hear from the top of the High Street.
This is the kind of event that families with young children plan their weekend around. Tip: get there by 4pm, claim a spot near the bouncy snow globe, and have an early supper booked somewhere on Fore Street for afterwards.
The three Late Night Shopping Tuesdays
December’s biggest evenings in Totnes are the three Tuesday Christmas Markets and Late Night Shopping dates, typically the first, second and third Tuesdays of December. The town stays open from 3pm to 9pm, the regular Tuesday quiet vanishes, and the place fills with carol singers, mulled wine stalls and around seventy artisan stalls.
The markets bring together local makers and small businesses showing handcrafted gifts, art, decorations, clothing, jewellery, homeware and food. Most of the shops on Fore Street and the High Street also stay open late and lean into the atmosphere with small drinks tables, choirs in doorways and seasonal window displays.
Even if you are not buying anything, the late-night evenings are worth attending purely for the feel. Bring a hat, bring children, and walk the length of the High Street slowly. Each of the three Tuesdays has a slightly different mix of stalls.
Where to eat over the festive period
The town’s restaurants take Christmas seriously, with festive menus running from late November through the second week of January.
For a long lunch
The Royal Seven Stars on the Plains runs a generous Christmas lunch menu and you can take it slowly by the fire in the lounge. The Bull Inn at the top of Fore Street is the place for ethical, local-sourced festive cooking.
For dinner with mood
The Curator wine bar runs a small but excellent winter menu and is the right place for a quiet pre-Christmas evening. Rumour on the High Street is reliable, atmospheric and has been booking up early in December for years.
For something different
Out at Dartington, the White Hart runs festive lunches in the courtyard rooms and the Barn Cinema typically programmes a Christmas classics season. Combining the two makes a strong evening out.
Family activities and things to take children to
The Switch-On is the obvious one, but there are smaller moments worth pinning to the fridge.
- Carol services. St Mary’s Parish Church at the top of the High Street holds traditional carol evenings in the run-up to Christmas. The acoustics in the old church are wonderful with a full congregation.
- Father Christmas trips. The South Devon Railway in Buckfastleigh, fifteen minutes up the line, runs Santa Specials through December. Steam train, Father Christmas, mince pie. It books up fast.
- Buckfast Abbey at Christmas. The Abbey Church is one of the most atmospheric places to attend a Christmas service in Devon and is open all year. The gardens are free.
- The Sunday Food and Craft Market. Held in the Civic Hall Square on the first and third Sundays of the month, a good gentle outing on a non-Tuesday.
The look and feel
One of the reasons Totnes works at Christmas is that almost none of the lights are corporate. The town council and a fundraising committee buy and hang them, the shops light their own windows, and the trees on the Market Square and outside the Civic Hall come from local growers. Walk the High Street from the Plains up to East Gate after dark and you will see what we mean. It looks less like a department store and more like the town actually celebrating itself.
Where to stay if you are coming for the evenings
The late-night Tuesdays are the obvious reason to spend a night rather than a day. Independent guesthouses on the High Street and around the riverside fill up first. The Royal Seven Stars on the Plains is the easiest if you want to walk straight out of your front door into the festivities. Anywhere out in Dartington, Ashprington or Stoke Gabriel gives you a quieter morning after.
December is the month when Totnes feels most itself. Plan around a Tuesday, plan around the Switch-On, and let the rest of the town do the work.