Santa's House
Santa's House
A note from Iain
The best present I was ever given came in an envelope. Inside was a few nights somewhere I had always wanted to go, and the anticipation lasted longer than the stay itself. A stay is the gift people talk about at the table, plan around in January, and remember for years.
This Christmas we would like our readers to give your house. Santa's House is a five-week run of hotel gift vouchers inside the Sunday Edit, from 22 November to the edition of 20 December. Each week we will introduce a small number of member hotels as the perfect gift, written in the same voice we use for every feature, with a direct link to buy your voucher from you.
You know our readers and you know what they respond to, so we won't labour the point. They trust our selection, and a voucher for one of our houses is exactly the kind of present they like to give.
If you would like your house to be part of it, simply order your place here, or let's speak this week.
The idea
Santa's House is our list for hotels: a short selection of member houses, presented as the perfect Christmas gift. A voucher for a stay away is something to unwrap now and look forward to all year.
The hotels run as a feature inside the Sunday Edit for six consecutive weeks, from 8 November to the edition of 20 December. Each appears in the editorial style of the Sunday Edit, with an image, a short introduction and a direct link to buy the voucher from you.
Alongside the editions, a pop-up store on theaficionados.com lists every participating hotel, and stays live until 23 December 2026.
Your place in Santa's House
The participation rate is GBP 400 (€473) pre-launch, and GBP 700 (€828) after the pre-sale closes. This is an editorial feature written in the style of the Sunday Edit, not an advertisement.
For this, your hotel receives:
A feature in the Sunday Edit during the six-week run: an image, your hotel name, a short introduction written by our editors in the house style, and a link to buy your voucher
A place in the Santa's House on theaficionados.com, live until 23 December 2026
UTM-tagged links, so you can see the traffic from both in your own analytics
You remain the point of sale. Guests buy the voucher directly from you, you send it out, and we take no commission. Vouchers should be valid for 12 months from purchase, and your own last postal and online ordering dates for Christmas apply.
Timeline and what we need
The pre-order rate follows the same dates as Iain's List, and places are confirmed in the order they are agreed.
Fri 23 October – Deadline for binding registration at the early-bird rate of £400
Fri 30 October - Your file submission to us
Thu 5 November - Final copy shared with you for a fact check
Sun 8 November - Sunday Edit one; pop-up store goes live
Sun 22 November - Sunday Edit two
Sun 29 November - Sunday Edit three
Sun 6 December - Sunday Edit four
Sun 13 December - Sunday Edit five, the final edition
Wed 23 December - Pop-up store comes down
Please send everything in one file: ideally a photograph of the voucher itself, a high-resolution image of the hotel (no text on the image), your core wording for the introduction, the voucher options and prices, the link to buy, and your last postal and online ordering dates for Christmas.
