Heimdall

If you are going to be away from home anyway, Christmas in a country house sounds like a lovely idea.

janisj

. . . we *hear" people say, "It's so cold, don't come to England!", but when I look up the weather records, it's 30-40 degrees F. . . .

No one that I know of says "Don't come!" But many do say pre-planning a road trip may not be the best idea. I love country house hotel winter breaks and adore the cities -- I try to get to London and/or other UK cities every Nov or Dec. My Birthday is in Dec and I think I've spent 3 of my last 5 in London. Now, IF the weather cooperates a road trip would be great - but one won't know until a few days before boarding their flights. And Sorry, but the hours of daylight is significantly shorter - example: Dec 25 - Chicago a little over 9 hours / Edinburgh a little less than 7 hours. Living in a place is obviously different than visiting as a tourist . . . in deep winter in the midwest one is not strolling through scenic villages, clambering over Roman ruins, looking for beautiful scenery/vistas. taking pleasure drives, etc.

Soap box font off

Tulips

We spend a week in London during the Christmas holidays every year - except for 2020. And we lived in London for 10 years.
Still, the week flies past, we always have much more we want to do. Theatre, restaurants, museums, long walks. I love London at that time, particularly the very quiet christmas eve and day. And the residential areas of London are really quiet then, plenty of lovely pubs to visit.
This year we'll go for 2 weeks if we can.

York is very lovely at Christmastime too.

I would drive - but be prepared to change plans if weather really turns ugly. We haven't seen snow in London in December for a long time.