The urban guide to the countryside -

Well, hello!

I'm Hero, editor of Muddy Bucks & Oxon, here to bring you the quirky, cool and downright unmissable in the area.

Gotta Have It

Making plans? Find your perfect Pub, Inn, Hotel, Café, Restaurant or Bar across the Muddy counties.

Booking your family hols?Don't do anything til you've seen Flight Centre's first Family Adventures brochure - and put yourself in the running for a £20k dream trip!
We have Mail!Well this is a sentence I thought I'd never write. The 50 most inspirational women in the UK - including Keeley Hawes, Dina Asher-Smith, Jacqueline Wilson, Thomasina Miers and *splutter* ME!
24 fab Christmas marketsFeeling the need to shop? Here, let us facilitate that with the best local festive fairs.
Ready to hit the slopes?How to look powder perfect on la piste.
Gift Guide for tweensThose pesky tweens and teens are a nightmare to buy for, but relax, we have it, like, totally covered with added hashtags and emojis.

Fri 14 - Sun 16 Dec 2018

Mon 10 - Sun 16 Dec 2018

December 2018

The latest handpicked businesses we think you’ll love

Sweet dreams

One scoop or two? OK, three it is! Dessert cafés are all the rage and your little people will love Creams in Xscape MK for its bubble waffles and Oreo-everything. Buckle in for the sugar rush.
- The Miller of Mansfield, Goring
  
  Friendly pub meets fine dining at this Goring restaurant-with-rooms, a village retreat with serious aspirations. Muddy’s Anna Brech was in there like swimwear.
- Christmas drinkies! What are you having?
  
  Usually face-down in a vat of Baileys throughout December? You can do better than that! Here's our guide to nailing your Christmas drink choices like a pro. Bottoms up!
- The most fun restaurant in Oxford?
  
  A party atmosphere, sexy Sri Lankan street food and killer cocktails - The Coconut Tree in Oxford has got it all going on.
- The perfect pub grub?
  
  Scampi aficionado Jo Sutherland has a lotta love for the classic pub fayre at the newly rebooted Full Moon in Hawridge.

Our honest reviews of the UK’s best schools

Our curated A-Z of the grooviest local businesses

Booking your family hols?

Don’t do anything til you’ve seen Flight Centre’s first Family Adventures brochure – and put yourself in the running for a £20k dream trip!
- Brighton’s Rock ‘n’ Roll hotel
  
  We like nothing more than a quirky and cool weekend bolthole, and there's plenty of both to...
- A fairy tale stay
  
  Muddy goes all 'Rapunzel' and checks into an impressive 15th Century folly for the night with panoramic views over a famous Civil War battlefield.

Our festive fashion Top 10

Invitations piling up and nothing to wear? Well, Cinders, you shall go to the ball (or, er, pub). Muddy’s partywear edit incoming!
Beauty
- Hangover hiders
  
  There's nothing Muddy doesn't know about surviving a hangover. So in the interests of not being mistaken for a dug-up corpse this festive season, behold our five favourite morning after skincare saviours.
- The Popham treatment
  
  Oxford hairdresser David Popham worked with Vidal Sassoon in Sixties London - so he has five decades of cutting experience. Yeah, I think I'll let him loose on my hair!

Panto review: ‘Snow White’ at The Wycombe Swan

Is this panto, starring the gyrating Brendan Cole, the fairest in the land? Well, you’ll just have to read on to find out, won’t you my pretty?
- Review: Alice & Bob…, Pegasus Theatre
  
  A madcap, heartwarming Christmas show for kids at the brilliant Pegasus Theatre in Oxford. Let the wrapping paper battle commence!
- The best books of 2018
  
  Attention bookworms! Put this little lot on your Christmas list and you can thank us later. Muddy's books editor Kerry Potter choose her top 10 tomes of 2018. Has your favourite made the cut?

Back to school?

Feeling the need to feed your brain? There’s loads of ace new academic courses now booking in Oxford for 2019 – and you can be as part-time as you like.
Kids
- The Top 10 kids books for Christmas
  
  The Top 10 books for kids this Christmas - lovingly chosen by The Book House in Thame, purveyors of one of the top kids sections in the county!
- Get yer skates on! The best ice rinks in Bucks, Oxon and beyond
  
  Ice ice baby! Nothing like a whizz around a rink to make you feel festive (followed by a mulled wine obvs). We've rounded up the best ones for your skating pleasure.

Muddy meets Mandy!

Pizza with Brendan Cole, a double act with Christopher Biggins and the blingiest panto dressing room of them all. Mandy Muden, who plays the MIrror in Snow White at Wycombe Swan next month, tells all.
- Muddy makes the glossies
  
  I'm too proud to be modest - check out Muddy Stilettos over SIX pages in the brilliant Psychologies magazine!
- Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?
  
  Tring Park School for the Performing Arts churns out constellations of new generation stars - wanna see the latest batch of A-listers?