It was a very merry Christmas for the Standen family who stayed in 1 Roundham Heights in Paignton for their festive celebrations, as they were the lucky winners of our Christmas prize draw.

The family were picked at random in our prize draw and won £250 worth of Christmas gifts.

The surprise gifts included a remote controlled helicopter, some chocolates from Hotel Chocolat, a wallet, a Great British Bake Off cookbook, children’s games and Lego.

Many thanks to all of you who completed our multigenerational holiday survey, we’ve drawn our 5 lucky winners!

Each of the entrants below has won a fabulous Purely Devon Hamper crammed with West Country goodies.

Winners

We’ve teamed up with leading publishers Little, Brown Book Group to give away a copy of Fiona Walker’s latest novel to five lucky Facebook fans.

To enter, just leave a comment below the image of the book cover on our Facebook page telling us the most romantic spot in Devon.

The competition ends tomorrow so click below to enter and let us know your thoughts.

Congratulations to the winner of our Dartmouth Food Festival competition – Tracy Noble from Oxfordshire.

Tracy entered our competition at the Dartmouth Food Festival back in October 2011, and she’s the lucky winner of a £500 voucher towards a break with Blue Chip Holidays!

Many thanks to all of you who entered the draw, and we wish Tracy a fantastic holiday. 

A family from the West Midlands, got more than they bargained for on their recent trip to South Devon. Having had their home burgled the week before their Christmas holiday, the last thing they expected to find was a bag full of swag waiting for them in their Brixham holiday home. But that’s exactly what they got.

However, instead of a haul of stolen items the swag bag in question turned out to be a Santa’s sack stuffed full of Christmas presents that they’d won in a secret Santa sur-prize draw held by Blue Chip Holidays.  This case of karma turned out to be a matter of pure chance.

Congratulations to Jack Knights who is the overall winner of the 2011 Blue Chip Holidays writing competition!

Jack wrote about his stay in Brixham’s Mooring’s Reach and won the November stage of the competition, and his moving piece stood out as the winner of the year.

Jack has won a £500 Blue Chip Holidays voucher, so we look forward to welcoming him and his wife Jean to one of our properties very soon.

There’s not much explanation needed for this one, with only 10 days to go until we’re reaching for our New Year’s outfits we’ve listed our ten favourite events across the South West. They say it’s always the quiet ones, and some of the sleepiest towns and villages in Devon and Cornwall come into their own on 31 each year!

Dartmouth

Dartmouth’s celebrations are so renowned that it was featured in The Guardian’s Top 5 New Year Parties poll. The winding streets of the port fill with thousands of revellers in fancy dress, and the fireworks light up the River Dart.

Thank you to everyone who entered our recent travel plans and holiday habits survey.  Nearly 3,000 of you responded, which is tremendous.

The information gathered will help us understand your holiday preferences so that we can provide an even better service to you on your next visit to one of our many lovely holiday homes.

Congratulations to Denise Jones from Southport - the winner of our September writing competition.

Denise wrote about a holiday in Cornwall’s Looe, and was awarded £50 of Marks & Spencer vouchers for her efforts!

Denise stayed at 12 Creekside in Looe and enjoyed exploring the area’s beaches, family attractions and history.

We've picked a winner for our August writing competition, and this month it was Lin Guest's entry that caught our eye.

Lin was inspired by the Bridgwater Carnival and wrote about how it topped off her family holiday in Somerset for us.

Click here to read the winning entry by Lin, from West Midlands.