“We’re a ‘watery’ family,” says Penny Biggs. “We were married by the River Thames and came to Devon on numerous holidays when our children, Eleanor and Oliver, were little. Then six years ago, we were on our way back home to South London after a particularly great holiday when I said to my husband, Christopher, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live on the coast?’ So there and then we decided to make our dream happen.”

The family’s love of water brought them to Totnes, on the banks of the River Dart, but within easy reach of the sea and a multitude of wonderful beaches. Earlier this year, they found what they had been looking for: a 19th-century stable block and storehouse converted in the Fifties. Christopher, who heads a renewable-energy consultancy, Sinclair Consultants, has a ten-minute walk to his office, and Penny, who under her maiden name Little has written more than a dozen children’s books, including the best-selling Biggest Hole in the World, finds plenty of inspiration in the daily bustle of life around her. And, most importantly, their “fleet” – a Laser sailing dinghy and a bigger Swallowboat Osprey – can be kept in the sheds at nearby Steamer Quay.

When it comes to Christmas, the water still plays a big part, with activities dictated by tide tables and wave-chasing. “We’re all looking forward to our first Christmas in this house, but over the past few years of living in Totnes we’ve built up a number of traditions,” says Penny. “On Christmas Eve, which this year will be Eleanor’s 13th birthday, we take our rowing boat down the river and drop off presents to friends who live along the bank.

“On Boxing Day, we like to get out of the house and head to one of the many windswept beaches nearby; most are within an easy 20-minute drive or, on a calm day, an hour’s sail. We take rugs and Thermoses of tea, sticks of French bread and a bucket barbecue to cook sausages or marshmallows on. Then we walk for miles and miles, chasing waves and collecting pebbles and driftwood.”

The beachcombed treasures that have been accumulated over the years have become a part of the family’s festive decorations. On the mantelpiece in the sitting room, under a painting by local artist Anthony Amos, a self-taught painter who uses his fingers instead of brushes, as well as on the hearth, Christopher and eight-year-old Ollie arrange pebbles and shells, then add some painted tin seagulls from a mail-order company called Buy the Sea. The metal birds are securely set into a “nest” of driftwood garlands from the Northumbrian interiors company RE, which has them made by a local collector.

Larger, gnarled pieces of locally found driftwood are draped with twinkling fairy lights to provide an attractive alternative to the more traditional Christmas tree. On top of one of the built-in bookcases that flank the fireplace are a number of framed family photographs. A collage of holiday snaps of several generations of Christopher’s and Penny’s families on the beach in various vintages and styles of swimwear pays testament to the fact that this family’s affinity with the seaside is not just a recent development.

In the open-plan kitchen and dining area, Penny and Eleanor clean and refill jam jars and glass yoghurt pots with night lights, and refuel and test oil lamps that will be hung from the porch around the pale blue front door. White-card letters, one for the initial of each member of the family, are decorated with seaweed-like iridescent shredded paper, silver stars and glitter and will adorn each place setting for Christmas lunch.

Inside the front door, where surfboards and shrimping nets are stacked among layers of outdoor gear, a selection of wreaths by Aspen & Brown of weather-beaten birch shavings and seashells create a festive welcome, and remind anyone who needs reminding that this is a family truly at home by the sea.

www.aspenandbrown.com; www.buythesea.co.uk; www.re-foundobjects.com; www.sinclair-consultants.com

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