Four homes fit for Father Christmas, from dream chimneys and reindeer stables to a house — with sleigh parking — on North Pole Road
It's the time of year when we stop and wonder what Father Christmas is doing to get ready for his big day — and just as importantly, the sort of house he'd need to live in to prepare.
In the search for a house for Father Christmas, where else to start but the North Pole? Savills are selling a house on North Pole Road. You'd think that it would be a shifting ice-track in the Arctic; instead, it's a country lane in a village near Maidstone.
The asking price is £1.25 million for this rather amazing converted water tower, with five bedrooms and over 5,000 sq ft.
The best bit, for budding Santa Claus wannabes, is the roof terrace that's seemingly perfect for take-off and landing in a sleigh. And a spot of sunbathing in summer.
All that said, it's a house with only one chimney — and that's not good, because when you only work one day a year, you'll need decent year-round practice facilities to make sure that you can enter and exit houses easily.
So how about Denham Place, in Buckinghamshire? It has six of the finest chimneys we've ever seen.
Denham Place is a 'Grade I Listed mansion with spectacular interiors in the style of a palace', to use the agent's phrase.
The down-side is that it's grand — very grand, in fact, and arguably the finest private home on the market in Britain today. That comes at a cost of £45 million, which we'd imagine Jolly Old St Nick would rather spend on presents for the good children of the world.
All this forgets one big issue: the reindeer. They'll need stabling, and a nice environment that suits their nature. So while England has plenty of fine equestrian property that could be repurposed for reindeer, something further north seems a better bet.
So how about Ormiston Castle? It sits in a beautiful spot in West Lothian, with a six-bedroom main house for Mr and Mrs Claus and the elves, and some truly lovely stables and paddocks for the reindeer to enjoy when they're not skimming over the rooftops of the world. It's for sale at £4.2 million via Strutt & Parker.
Now we come to think about it, though, six bedrooms really isn't enough for all the elves — they might be small, but there are plenty of them and we don't think they should be too cramped.
The solution might lie at Birchill Farm in Devon, which has 20 bedrooms of accommodation, and is for sale at £2.2 million through Fine & Country.
It's not all in one building, though: the Christmases and family can have the main house, which even has a Christmassy-looking kitchen.
The elves, meanwhile, can live in the string of holiday cottages which come with the property — they're all fully-furnished and equipped. It has stables and paddocks, too, and while it doesn't have the cool climate of Scotland, it is at least in the West Country, so plenty of rain is guaranteed.
The perfect house for Father Christmas? We might just have found it.
