Watching a Christmas classic is an essential part of the yuletide season, and for many, this means sitting down to laugh and cry at The Holiday.
Starring a lovelorn Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, alongside Jude Law and Jack Black, the Nancy Meyers film follows a transcontinental home swap between rural England and Hollywood.
Alongside the turbulent, blossoming romances, the 2006 flick conjures up a hankering for the British landscape, especially during scenes in the particularly snug, countryside cottage.
Iris’s (Winslet) chocolate-box hideaway is filled with mix-matched chintz fabrics, exposed beams and rolltop baths. Outside of the rural escape, we also find our characters running through snow-coated Surrey, the countryside of the Cotswolds and sunny southern California.
So light the fireplace and put on your favourite woolly jumper as you discover the quaint country pubs, Tuscan-style mansions and other standout filming locations behind The Holiday.
Where was The Holiday filmed?
Holmbury St Mary, Surrey
Sadly, Iris’s Rosehill Cottage is not a real home. Interior scenes were shot at Sony Pictures Studios, and the stone walls were built on a London soundstage, a real-life property inspired the set.
Honeysuckle Cottage in Holmbury St Mary – complete with honey stone, a chimney and a wooden entrance gate – is the traditional bolthole behind the design. The property was previously listed on Airbnb in December 2022 for superfans to stay in a replica of Iris’s home, but has since been removed.
Godalming, Surrey
After arriving at Iris’s cottage, Amanda (Diaz) shops for essentials – wine, spaghetti and sourdough – at the local shop in the market town of Godalming in a red Mini Cooper.
This slice of the Surrey countryside sits 30 miles south west of central London and backdrops several scenes of Amanda finding her feet in rural England.
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Shere, Surrey
The quintessential English village of Shere sets the scene for many charming landscape shots throughout the movie. Amanda runs across a footbridge over Tillingbourne Stream, and it’s at Shere’s country pub, The White Horse, where the frazzled Californian and Graham (Law) enjoy a drink together.
The Grade II-listed boozer dates back to 1425, is rumoured to have been a former smugglers’ pub in the 17th century, and is still open for The Holiday fans to enjoy traditional British dishes by a roaring fire.
Wonersh, Surrey
Cameras rolled in Wonersh to capture the exterior of Graham’s festive family home at real-life property, the Mill House. Wonersh, a civil parish in the Surrey Hills National Landscape, is considered one of the wealthiest postcodes in Britain.
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Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Amanda and Graham take their lunch date to the luxury Cotswolds wedding venue Cornwell Manor. The private 2,000-acre estate near Chipping Norton is sadly not open to the public but can be exclusively hired for weddings and events between June and September.
San Marino, California
The exterior scenes of Amanda’s 10,324-square-foot Tuscan-style Californian mansion were filmed at 1883 Orlando Road in San Marino.
Built in 1928 by legendary architect Wallace Neff, the seven-bed, seven-bath property has an estimated market value of $11m (£8.3m). As for interior scenes, those were filmed at the Sony Studios.
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Brentwood, California
Screenwriter Arthur Abbot’s glamorous old Hollywood home is located at 163 Rockingham Avenue in the Californian city of Brentwood – a good few hours away from “neighbour” Amanda’s place in San Marino.
The mansion, built in 1914, was formerly owned by American actress and comedian Phyllis Diller and, according to Zillow, sold for $9.35m (£7m) following her death in 2012.
What can I watch The Holiday on?
Can’t make it to Surrey this Christmas? You can catch The Holiday on Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video in the UK. It can also be rented from the Sky Store and Apple TV.
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