Forget those Christmas card scenes with a robin sitting atop a snow covered hedge with a cosy little cottage with a roaring log fire in the background.

The reality for many of us is rows of semi-detached boxes full of bored, bloated inmates imprisoned in their own homes (with relatives they don’t like) because it is too wet and windy to venture outside.

Yet more and more of us are refusing to accept this scenario and instead we are heading for the winter hot spots to get a dose of Christmas sunshine.

The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) is predicting that more than one million of us will be escaping to the sun over Christmas and New Year.

If you are amongst them, then where are you most likely to be headed and where can you expect a guarantee of a winter tan?

Canary Island and Spain

In a list recently published by ABTA, the most popular destination this winter is the Canary Islands and Spain.

Richard Angwin - Wiltshire weather is his expertise.

A ticket to the Canaries is a passport to sunshine. Even during December sunshine averages around 6 hours per day. Daily temperatures average 22 degrees Celsius (72F) even on Christmas Day.

Southern mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands can be almost as sunny as the Canaries at this time of the year but they are generally much cooler. Maximum temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius (59F) are similar to those of late April or early May here in the West Country. One day in three yields at least some rain.

France, Florida and the Caribbean

France is proving a surprisingly popular destination at this time of year. Some fine Christmas weather can be had along the Cote d’Azur, from Toulon to the Italian border. But with average temperatures only around 11 or 12 degrees Celsius (52 to 54F) it is unlikely to be warm enough to bear all on the beaches.

Florida and the Caribbean are also proving popular. The hurricane season has long passed and temperatures are generally in the mid to upper twenties Celsius.

Some of the Caribbean Islands can be quite wet although most of the rain comes in the form of heavy showers around the middle of the day.

Florida can be very hot and humid during the summer but the weather in December and early January can be almost perfect - warm (24 degrees Celsius), dry and with low humidity.

Portugal, Austria and Italy

Also making ABTA’s list of top ten winter destinations are Portugal, whose Algarve coast can be quite sunny but also unsettled, and Cyprus which has an excellent sunshine record.

Austria and Italy are in eighth and ninth places respectively. Whether visitors are heading to cities such as Vienna and Rome, the sun spots of Sardinia and Sicily, or the ski slopes is not clear. But a week’s skiing in one of these countries’ Alpine resorts can be an excellent way to get a suntan.

India

A surprise entry into the top ten is India. For much of the country December and January are the driest, coolest months with lots of sunshine and virtually no rainfall.

There is a good deal of scientific evidence to support the idea that a spell of winter sunshine can have a significant impact on our general wellbeing.

With the increasing accessibility of more and more destinations and cheaper flights it has never been easier to escape the grey skies of a West Country winter and head for those blue skies..