The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word NOEL
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
N
O
E
L
More clues leading to the result NOEL
- Christmas season to the faithful, ultimately
- Christmas prize giver, heartless
- Losing heart, book holiday period
- Christmas verse taken from book
- Word in carol’s original verse is missing
- Xmas season to bode ill, ultimately?
- Coward say to strike out verse from fictional work
- Ultimately drawn to the traditional Christmas
- Trotsky maybe has returned for Christmas
- Coward, possibly, initially nervous over entering lift
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "winter festival" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case winter festival = noel.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does NOEL mean?
NOEL noun- Christmas
- A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediaeval origin, sung in honor of the birth of Christ; a Christmas carol.