Christmas December 2011, Provence, France. in Menerbes
Last Christmas we rented a lovely house with good friends in Menerbes, a beautiful village in the Luberon region of Provence*. It was a wonderful holiday filled with delicious food sourced from the markets (every second day we would venture out to a different village to do our shopping), long afternoons spent in front of the fire, strolls into the village for coffee at the Cafe du Progres, morning drives along winding country roads (which resulted in some car sickness... and it wasn't just the little kids that were affected! Plus one memorable drive where our passenger van ended up stuck down a ditch and which resulted in much shrugging of shoulders, oooph ooh-la-la-ing from the French gentleman who stopped to help us), a very special Christmas morning with lots of presents, giggles and champagne, and cold nights tucked up in our pajamas watching Arrested Development and Seinfeld. 
If you are wondering where to spend Christmas, I can highly recommend both Provence and the Dordogne region of France (we spent another Christmas with friends in Tremolat which was brilliant). Markets and supermarkets are open and (other) tourists are few and far between. The weather was beautiful (cold, crisp and clear) and accommodation is much more reasonably priced than in the peak Summer season.
We loved our Christmas in Provence!
*yes, that village made famous by Peter Mayle in his book A Year in Provence.