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Across the world’s finest hotels and restaurants, luxury Christmas lunches have become a festive art form. They are not merely meals, but orchestrated experiences where candlelight, crystal, and cuisine meet in perfect harmony. The scent of roasted chestnuts and truffle butter fills grand dining rooms; Champagne flows as live carols echo beneath chandeliers. For the well-travelled, Christmas Day is as much about where you dine as whom you dine with – and the tables that matter most are those where tradition meets impeccable service and a touch of theatre.
This year, the festive menus of the great hotel dining rooms are already set: ornate salons in London and Paris gleam beneath garlands; Dubai’s seaside resorts unfold their culinary opulence in the sun; and Hong Kong and Sydney reinterpret the classics under warmer skies. Each experience captures the essence of place, presenting a celebration that feels as timeless as it does indulgent.
Below, Luxury Wanderings presents a curated selection of the world’s most distinguished destinations for an unforgettable festive lunch in 2025.
London: A Season for Tradition and Theatre
1. The Ritz London
The Ritz remains the definitive Christmas address. Beneath its Louis XVI ceilings, guests are welcomed with vintage Champagne before a six-course menu that honours British produce with a touch of extravagance: hand-dived scallops, roast bronze turkey with chestnut stuffing, and a flaming Christmas pudding crowned with brandy cream. A live orchestra fills the room with carols, completing one of the city’s most coveted holiday experiences.
2. The Dorchester
Christmas Day lunch at The Dorchester is a masterclass in polished comfort. At The Grill by Tom Booton, dishes such as venison tartare with caviar, tournedos Rossini glazed in Madeira, and a dark-chocolate yule log are delivered with effortless grace. The Promenade, meanwhile, offers a grander feast, Champagne service, and carollers moving between the tables. Few London hotels capture the warmth and splendour of the season quite like this.
3. Claridge’s
In its art-deco glow, Claridge’s turns Christmas into a refined ritual. The festive menu combines native lobster, roast turkey with all the trimmings, and the hotel’s iconic Christmas pudding, while the famed Claridge’s tree – always a design statement – forms the backdrop for elegant family gatherings. The experience feels both traditional and fashionably current, a balance only this hotel seems able to strike.
Paris: Gastronomy Wrapped in Gold
4. Ritz Paris
Within the Ritz’s gilded salons, Christmas lunch is served as an indulgent dégustation. Expect dishes such as langoustine with caviar, Bresse capon with truffled jus, and a Saint-Honoré from François Perret’s celebrated pastry atelier. Every element reflects the house’s refined rhythm – candlelight, polished silver, and attentive service that never feels rushed.
5. Le Meurice – Le Dalí and Alain Ducasse
Across the Tuileries, Le Meurice creates an elegant fusion of haute cuisine and festive comfort. Alain Ducasse’s kitchen offers oyster and Champagne, lobster and venison, and a clementine vacherin finale, while Le Dalí offers a lighter brunch option complete with scallops, poached poultry, and Cédric Grolet’s art-like desserts. Guests linger as a pianist plays softly under mirrored ceilings – Parisian gastronomy at its seasonal best.
Dubai & Abu Dhabi: Extravagance Under the Sun
6. Atlantis The Royal, Dubai
At Atlantis The Royal, Christmas Day becomes a culinary spectacle. Across multiple restaurants, overflowing seafood towers, truffled turkey carvings, and gold-leaf yule logs take centre stage. Champagne is free-flowing, entertainers move between tables, and families dine beneath clear winter skies. It’s a festive display of abundance and precision – the Dubai way.
7. Burj Al Arab – Al Muntaha
Suspended high above the Arabian Gulf, Al Muntaha’s panoramic setting transforms Christmas lunch into a once-a-year indulgence. The six-course menu includes Oscietra caviar, lobster, truffle, and wines, each course served with choreographed flair. The view alone makes this one of the world’s most memorable festive tables.
8. Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental, Abu Dhabi
The Palace embraces Christmas with grandiosity worthy of its name. Vendôme presents a lavish buffet of Middle Eastern delicacies, while Talea by Antonio Guida delivers a finer, Italian-inflected affair – think handmade pasta with white truffle and slow-roasted veal. The marble halls glow with fairy lights, and the resident orchestra sets a tone of joyful sophistication.
Asia & Australasia: Contemporary Celebrations
9. Crown Sydney – Oncore by Clare Smyth
Sydney’s sunshine brings a lighter kind of luxury to Christmas. At Oncore, Clare Smyth’s restrained brilliance shapes dishes such as roast duck with spiced plum, Jerusalem artichoke with black truffle, and an ethereal re-imagining of Christmas pudding. Elsewhere in the Crown complex, brunches and Champagne teas fill the day with live jazz and panoramic views across Darling Harbour.
A Celebration Worth Travelling For
Luxury Christmas lunches share a single philosophy: to elevate comfort into ceremony. Whether enjoyed beneath the chandeliers of The Ritz, amid the opulence of Paris’s grand salons, or in the sunlit splendour of Dubai’s waterfront, each setting captures the spirit of the season in its own language of luxury.
At their best, these Christmas dining experiences are less about extravagance and more about presence – the perfect glass of Champagne, the warmth of conversation, and the memory of a meal so beautifully timed it becomes part of the holiday itself.
