© Ville de Saint-Tropez
What's on in Saint-Tropez Christmas & New Year 2018
Our guide to all Christmas and New Year events in Saint Tropez
With a dash of glamour and a tonne of local good cheer, the beautiful fishing village of Saint Tropez glitters and shines over Christmas and New Year, making it an ideal place to visit on your Christmas holiday.
In Saint Tropez, at Christmas time, you’ll find mulled wine and fireworks, an ice skating rink and chocolate fair, and streets hung with twinkling lights. Dine at cosy restaurants with stone cave walls and open fires, go to midnight mass in the local church or listen to live music spilling out over a busy square, coloured lights reflecting off the cobblestones. Perhaps you’ll see a famous resident or two wandering along the seafront in a fur coat on a blustery day, masts of the gathered sailboats rocking in the port. When the sun shines (as it so often does in the southern winter), a Saint Tropez beach club is a great place to be over the Xmas break.
When New Year beckons, the town gathers for a celebration – New Year parties are called 'réveillon' in French, so watch out for any advertised events with this name. While New Year’s Eve is brought in with fireworks and parties, the French traditionally celebrate New Year’s day with a feast, so you’ll also find some elaborate dining events at the local restaurants on the first of January.
Saint Tropez is putting on an action-packed schedule of events over the festive season. Here’s our guide to the top things to do over Christmas and New Year in Saint Tropez.
Christmas village & ice skatiing rink
The 720m2 open-air ice skating rink will be open on until January 6th so you can get out there and have a few twirls (or crashes, depending on your personal level of clumsiness). You can always warm up afterwards with a hot chocolate or a gooey Nutella crepe from one of the Christmas village's stalls. The 'patinoire' will be open from 14:00 to 20:00, closing at 18:00 on December 24th and 25th, and opening at 16:00 on Christmas and New Year's day.
Local Christmas traditions
La Pastorale du Rampeù de Sant-Troupès is a Tropezienne tradition of song, comedy and performance that has been running since the 1950s and is a big favourite with the locals. La Pastorale will be performed at Cinema-Theatre La Renaissance on December 23rd at 15:00, free entry. In the Chapelle de la Miséricordie, on rue Gambetta, there will be a giant nativity scene or 'crèche provençale' with dozens of 'santons', terracotta figurines that depict life in Provence in the 19th century.
Christmas Eve
Santa Claus, the man of the moment, will arrive with a big bag of soft toys to give away down at Suffren Quay in the port at 18:30 on Christmas Eve. This is Saint Tropez so, of course, he will arrive by boat. There will be a light and sound show as well as traditional French carols to herald his arrival. He will make his way to Place de la Garonne in a tourist train, before starting his grand tour around the world. At midnight, the Rampeu Choir will sing carols at the Eglise Paroissiale, and there will be an old Provencal nativity scene.
New Year's Eve
In Saint Tropez, New Year’s Eve happens down at the port. During the day, join the locals around long trestle tables set up on the waterfront for their famous 'Grande Anchoïade' – anchovy dip served with crusty bread and an aperitif. This event has a wonderfully local feel to it, one that is almost entirely missing during the summer months. Yet another reason to visit Saint Tropez at Christmas-time!
As night falls, people gather at the pavement cafes lining the port and in Place des Lices, listening to live music and indulging in Provencal food and wine. Some restaurants will have ‘reveillon’ menus and themed parties happening. When midnight strikes, many people gather down in the port to watch the fireworks light up the sky above the yachts and the distant mountains across the Gulf de Saint Tropez. For dancing until the wee hours, Bar du Port, offering a gourmet 'Saint Sylvestre' menu as well, is a great choice. It’s actually one of the only choices – the famous clubs of Saint Tropez are closed over winter, which is a bit of a shame.
Midnight swim, anyone? If you’re mad enough, head to the nearby town of Saint Maxime for 23:00, where you’re welcome to join the other insane people in a group swim at the beach.
Christmas on the beach
You may not normally equate Christmas with beach clubs but there are few nicer things to do on a sunny winter’s day than head down to the huge stretch of white sand at Pampelonne Beach for a spot of lunch at one of the iconic Saint Tropez beach clubs. Glass of rose in hand, warm sunshine glinting off the wintry sea, a seafood feast before you... the frosts and snows of home will seem a very long way away indeed. Only a very few of the Saint Tropez beach clubs remain open over winter and their opening times vary, so make sure you call ahead. Pearl Beach - Key West is one that does, or you could mingle with the jet-set at atmospheric (and atmospherically expensive) Club 55, which opens up especially for Christmas and New Year.
More inspiration...
If you’re interested in more Christmas events, including what's happening in the surrounding villages, then make sure you check out the details in our events calendar.
