Deck the country halls - out top picks for a British stately homes Christmas experiences

BHT writers Scott Reeves and Susie Kearley share their top picks for a stately Christmas experiences including wonderful Christmas light displays at historic houses around Britain.

Chatsworth House 

Chatsworth House really knows how to put on a show. Every December, the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire is transformed beyond all recognition. Snow White in the sculpture gallery and Cinderella in the chapel? That would be 2018, when Chatsworth was dressed up to celebrate classic tales. A Dutch wedding feast in the dining room and Canadian maple leaf arches in the chapel corridor? That would be 2019, when the Palace of the Peaks was redesigned as a land far, far away. These are Christmas decorations like no other, sumptuous and elaborate designs in one of Britain’s most lavish country houses.

“Christmas is so special for us and, to make it special for our visitors, we have a different theme every year,” the Duchess of Devonshire told a film crew that recorded their preparations for the most recent festive season.  “Chatsworth was built to have a lot of people in it, so it’s good of people to come.”

It’s a far cry from 2001 when the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire first had the idea of opening Chatsworth at Christmas. Until then the house was shuttered during the winter months, but the Dowager Duchess wanted to raise local spirits (and some much-needed income) after a summer that saw the countryside ravaged by foot-and-mouth disease and effectively closed off to visitors. The hastily organized first year saw little more than a few party hats on the statues and tinsel on the paintings, but it proved so popular that Christmas opening became a regular part of the calendar.

Christmas is now Chatsworth’s busiest time of the year with 200,000 people descending on the Derbyshire estate to view the magnificent decorations. “It’s grown and grown, it’s got bigger every year, so for us it’s a lot of preparation,” said the Duchess. More than a year of planning culminates in a busy four-day blitz when a couple of dozen members of the estate staff must deck the halls with boughs of holly (and 30 Christmas trees, 60,000 baubles and a million fairy lights).

They are not the only ones putting up decorations in such elegant and elaborate surroundings. Hundreds of stately homes and country houses now follow the Chatsworth example and throw open their doors in December, although not all undergo such huge transformations. Many hark back to Christmases past, dressed to reflect a particular time period important to that property and recreating the festive celebrations enjoyed by their lucky residents.

The person most responsible for what we now think of as a traditional British Christmas was actually German. It was Prince Albert who popularized the Germanic tradition of carrying a fir tree inside the house; an 1848 engraving of him decorating a tree with Queen Victoria and their children made the Christmas tree a must-have for middle-class families who wanted to copy their monarch. Now a well-decorated tree is as much a symbol of Christmas as Father Christmas himself.

Cragside

A traditional Victorian Christmas is celebrated every year at Cragside in Northumberland, a country house built for super-rich industrialist William Armstrong. Throughout December, parts of the house are decorated in a manner that the Armstrong family would recognize. Holly garlands wind through the balustrades as you ascend the stairs to the bedrooms where children are preparing to hang up their stockings in the hope of a present or two. Downstairs is a lavish Christmas tree festooned with lights and the kind of pretty paper decorations that Victorian children would have made with their governess.

Ightham Mote

Victoriana is the order of the day at Ightham Mote in Norfolk too, despite it being a medieval manor. The moated house is usually decorated as it was in the time of the Colyer-Fergusson family, who acquired the house in 1890. Similarly, Culzean Castle in Ayrshire is presented as though the Marquess of Ailsa is enjoying a Victorian feast in the dining room while his servants do their best to mark the season below stairs.

Moseley Old Hall

Moseley Old Hall in Staffordshire goes further back in time, keeping Christmas to the very best standards of 1651. This was the era when the Puritans waged war on Christmas, thinking it a wasteful festival that encouraged sinful activities, but the residents of Moseley Old Hall had little time for Oliver Cromwell’s strict laws. Yet Moseley was unashamedly Royalist, one of the hiding places used by Prince Charles – the future Charles II – when he went on the run after the Battle of Worcester, so its residents did their best to mark Christmastide.

There are no anachronistic Christmas trees here, but expect Moseley to be dressed in evergreen garlands of holly and mistletoe. Costumed cooks work in the kitchen and encourage visitors to help stir the plum pudding (which doesn’t actually contain plums – pre-Victorians used “plums” to refer to raisins) and mince pies (which, unlike today, do include minced meat, usually mutton, alongside fruits and spices). It’s Christmas, but not as we know it – although a great many guests leave Moseley with a newfound respect for the simple traditions of the 17th century Christmas.

Tredegar House

Things are a little different at Tredegar House in South Wales. This 17th-century mansion house was a family residence for 500 years, so it is apt that changing Christmas traditions are explored from room to room. It really brings home how some of what we think to be long-standing Christmas customs are actually relatively new innovations.

Chartwell

What about the more recent past? Why not celebrate Christmas with the Churchills at Chartwell in Kent, family home of the wartime Prime Minister who faced down Hitler. Interior decoration wasn’t really Winston’s thing so most of the festive touches were left to Clementine, who chose the classy gold and glass baubles and picked greenery from the estate for the mantelpieces. Vintage cards hang on the wall; the list of well-wishers was a who’s who of the world’s greatest and most powerful leaders.

Chartwell’s décor varies from year to year. Sometimes presented as though the Churchills are celebrating Christmas in the interwar years; most recently the house was dressed as it was in 1947, a year that Winston left the family behind for a painting holiday in Marrakech. That enabled the focus to shift towards how Clemmie, her daughter Mary and son-in-law Christopher celebrated Christmas without the overbearing presence of the house’s most famous resident.

Churchill lived at Chartwell but he was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, another property that makes a special effort for Christmas. A one-mile illuminated trail winds around Capability Brown’s parkland and gardens, and there is no better place to enjoy a hot chocolate or warm mulled wine on a crisp winter evening. The magical after-dark experience features illuminated trees and waterfalls, a tunnel comprising more than 100,000 lights and lasers that shoot into the sky and project onto the house.

Blenheim

The Blenheim illuminations have become an annual tradition, but the displays inside change every year in the manner of Chatsworth. Recent themes have included transforming the house into Alice’s Wonderland, complete with rabbit-hole corridor and the Mad Hatter’s tea party, or exploring the tale of Cinderella from the unhappy servant’s bedroom to a glass-inspired ballroom.

A touch of fantasy has become a key ingredient of Castle Howard’s festive decorations too. “Many people return year after year to get their festive fix, whether to take inspiration back for their own home designs, or simply just to marvel at how an already beautiful property can be transformed into this magical place, a veritable festive film set that you can walk through and admire,” explained Castle Howard’s Abbigail Ollive. “Each year’s designs are totally different, and the jewel-like sapphire blues, ruby reds and golden amber bring a whole new color palette to this year’s displays.”

Castle Howard

You may know the North Yorkshire home of the Howard family as the fictional Brideshead in both television and cinema adaptations of Brideshead Revisited. However, Castle Howard’s design team was inspired by its Italian baroque architecture to host a Christmas masquerade in 2019. A troupe of mischievous pantomime actors provided live entertainment as they wandered the rooms and corridors and the long gallery became a festive version of Venice’s Grand Canal. A year earlier, the long gallery was the culmination of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Each room moved visitors through the song, with swans-a-swimming across the Crimson Dining Room table and the obligatory partridge in a pear tree at the top of the staircase.

It may take three weeks to decorate Castle Howard for Christmas, but the 67,000 visitors through the door appreciate the effort that dozens of decorators, designers, engineers and artists go to. It’s similar at Chatsworth House, where planning begins 18 months before the doors open for the Christmas rush. “For the visitors it’s a very special time and we’re thinking about next year already,” revealed the Duchess of Devonshire. Why not join her for Chatsworth’s next artistic interpretation of the festive season, or hunt out a historical Christmas at one of Britain’s other magnificent stately homes?