Granite Belt Wine Country is Queensland’s ultimate destination for the Christmas Season.
While it may not be snowing here for Christmas, dash through the vineyards and you’ll find the Christmas spirit well and truly alive here.
There are Christmas trees ready to be hand-chosen and gifts with meaning to be found.
Read on to find out why Christmas is the most wonderful time of year on the Granite Belt.
Visiting during the Christmas – New Year period? See our Christmas season holiday hours guide here.
Choose your own real Christmas Tree at a Christmas Tree Farm
Christmas is celebrated year-round at the Granite Belt Christmas Farm, and it’s the perfect place to start an annual family Christmas tradition.
Breathe in the smell of fresh pine in their paddocks of over 10,000 Christmas trees where you can pick out your very own to take home when the harvesting takes place between 30 November – 23 December 2023.
The magic continues when you head into their Mistletoe Store. Find over 20,000 beautifully themed decorations to choose from to decorate your tree and fill your home.
Meet Santa’s animals throughout the year or time your visit with when Santa makes his own personal trip to the farm throughout December.
Stock up on farm-fresh stone fruits
Put the cherry on top of your Christmas long lunch spread with local farm fresh stone fruit from the Granite Belt.
The Granite Belt is Queensland’s largest summer producer of fruit and vegetables. In summer from mid-November, local orchards are laden with apricots, cherries, peaches, plums and nectarines.
Buy them by the box load from family farms open to the public and local fruit and veg stores.
Other summer fruits grown locally in the Granite Belt include blueberries, figs, pears, raspberries and strawberries. Read on here to find out more about strawberry picking.
Buy from the Bush
Save the stress of shopping centre carparks and make the Granite Belt your next Christmas shopping destination.
Here you’ll find gifts around every twist and bend of the Granite Belt with meaning from small businesses that are locally made. From hand-crafted leather handbags and accessories, artworks, country outfitters, luxe skin care makers to boutique stores, you’ll be sure to have Christmas stockings bursting at the seams. Time your visit with the Christmas Markets in the Mountain a 100% local artisan handcrafted market on Sunday 10 December 2023.
Save room in your shopping bags for an incredible range of jams, preserves, cheeses, chocolates and award-winning wines, or even treat someone to their own Granite Belt experience like a locally flavoured cooking class from Cooked from Scratch.
Celebrate the holiday season with a local drop of wine (or two)
Dreaming of wine Christmas? Spread the Christmas cheer or bring in the New Year with a good pour of local Granite Belt Wine.
There are more than 50 cellar doors, plus breweries in the region, meaning you’ll be more than spoilt for choice when stocking up for the public holidays ahead.
From sparkling rose to the Granite Belt’s very own Strange Bird Wines, meet the makers and growers behind bottles at the cellar doors and you’ll be able to truly impress your guests.
TIP: Stop in at local favourites including Jamworks and Vincenzo’s to help platter up a show-stopping charcuterie board with cheeses and preserves or build a personalised gift hamper.
Swap summer surf and sand for canoes and fresh-water creeks
Give the crowds a miss and beat the heat by heading to the hills of high country. The region’s higher elevation comes with mild summer temperatures ranging from 12°C – 28 °C.
Fill your summer days with on-farm produce picking, visiting wine groves bursting with new foliage and exploring the spectacular granite outcrops with freshwater swimming holes at Girraween National Park, Sundown National Park and Nundubbermere Falls camping area. The top spots for watersport enthusiasts are Foxbar Balls and Storm King Dam.
Swap your beach shack stay for cute country cottages to studios in the vineyards, country motels in Stanthorpe’s main street to private luxury escapes for couples in wine country, and gorgeous homesteads and houses, perfect for friends and extended family holidays.
Are you ready to make it a December to remember? Find more Christmas Season inspiration here.