5 Stately Homes in England to Visit This Holiday Season
I have been traveling around, taking in as much Christmas spirit as possible… you just don’t get Christmases like this in Orlando. There’s something magical about going to a massive house that a fairy tale princess should be living in and seeing it all dressed up from Christmas. Wow, stately homes in England during the holiday season are simply divine…. did I just use that word? Yep… sticking with it.
5 Stately Homes in England to Visit This Christmas
These are my top five favorite stately homes that you should check out or add it to your list for next year!
Chatsworth House
This home is beautiful without the decorations, so of course with the Christmas dressings, it’s more magnificent than ever. You might recognize this place as Mr. Darcy’s home from Pride and Prejudice or where Kiera Knightley played The Duchess (Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire really did live here and she really was stuck in a loveless marriage with her husband and his mistress…. don’t know what I’m talking about? Watch the movie or google it!)
They have a different theme every year and I wasn’t sure what to expect, all I knew is this was the most talked about Christmas celebration at a stately home in the UK and I had to see it for my own eyes. Over the past years they have themed the home to The Nutcracker, Charles Dickens, and even Alice in Wonderland. This year (2018) was Once Upon a Time, so all of your childhood stories and fairy tales. I was super excited!! Unfortunately no Beauty and the Beast (my favorite), but there was Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Aladdin, The Snowman, Peter Rabbit, and Jame and the Giant Peach to name a few (yeah, there’s more than that!).
The theme for the 2019 Christmas season is In a Land Far, Far Away…
Each room is a different fairy tale and it’s elaborately decorated as you walk through. The one thing I didn’t like about the process was you felt rushed walking through. You can take your time and there’s no limit to how long you are in the house, but there’s waves of people walking in and it feels like they are pushing you into the next room, so just be aware of that when you visit and know that you can take your time!
Once you are finished walking through the house, you can check out the Christmas Market with over 100 stalls!! Definitely worth the visit if you are already visiting the house.
Related Post: Christmas at Chatsworth House
Castle Howard
This house is huge! It’s been a filming location for many TV shows and movies and over 200,000 people visit this stately home every year! This is another elaborately decorated home for the Christmas season. This year (2018) the theme is The Twelve Days of Christmas and I love how they delivered it. It puts Castle Howard on top of my list of stately homes to visit during the holiday season!
The theme for the 2019 Christmas season is A Christmas Masquerade.
The turtle doves room had an elaborate dress made out of evergreen trees and the three french hens were hidden in their nests around the room for you to find, but I really liked how everything came together in the long gallery. You had lords leaping, maids milking, geese laying, golden rings… everything!
My favorite room was the Marie Antoinette styled dressing room with crazy colors and even a cow wearing a wig (it was the maids a milking verse of the song) and a highlight was definitely the 26 foot Christmas tree in the grand hall with the cascading lights in the background. So perfect and homey with the fire crackling and the soft Christmas carols echoing through the hall.
Once you are finished walking through the house, you have free reign of the gardens. Unfortunately, they turn the Atlas Fountain off, which is a highlight and Instagram perfect photo spot during the summer, nonetheless, still worth the walk around. There’s also follies placed around the property which are a short walk away from the main house with uninterrupted views of the landscape. The walk around the pond to get a long shot of the house is also nice.
It’s only a quick day trip from York, reasonably priced for the amount of time you spend there and how elaborate the decorations are and if you get there (on a weekday) when the house first opens, you can pretty much have it all to yourself!
Related Post: Christmas at Castle Howard
Hardwick Hall
Oh, Hardwick Hall is one of my favorite stately homes in England and add the holiday season into the mix and it’s perfect. I love the Elizabethan style home with the floor to ceiling windows and I love the story of Bess of Hardwick, a 17th century boss lady that was the second most powerful woman in her time (right behind Queen Elizabeth I). She built this house with her own determination and money and draped the walls with her expensive tapestries and draped the tables with her expensive rugs (carpet was too expensive to walk on, so you displayed it and had your guests admire it so they could see how wealthy you were).
This is another home that has been used as a filming location for TV and movies, most notably this manor home was used as Malfoy Manor in the Harry Potter series and it makes an appearance in the trailer for the new movie Mary, Queen of Scots… so you know it’s going to be in the movie!
There are normally three floors available when the house is not dressed for the holidays, however they have blocked off the throne room and long gallery which is at the top of the house. It’s not as elaborate as Chatsworth or Castle Howard, but definitely worth a visit because there’s tons of decorated Christmas trees at every turn and in every corner.
My favorite was the twinkling indoor igloo that you could relax in and snuggle up to the fur chairs as you people watch. Can I get one of those for my house? Seriously. It was also fun to pick out the small details, like the red tinsel nose they added to the antlers above the entrance hall. It does get busy in the house, but if you arrive when the house opens, then you’ll have no problem enjoying your visit with fewer people.
Once again the gardens are open and you have them all to yourself. It’s nice to walk around the back of the house and see the cool-looking yew trees and the pond in the center that was not for decoration, but in case the house caught fire.
Carlton Towers
Carlton Towers is another easy day trip from York (if you are renting a car), it’s a little bit harder any other way, but it makes this Victorian Gothic country house a real gem to see (A.K.A. definitely needs to be at the top of your holiday season Stately Homes). It’s not open to the public that often so you need to check online when tickets are available. It is a big wedding venue and has a very Downton Abbey feel to it. Fun fact: if you have ever watched the TV show Victoria, this house was used as one of Queen Victoria’s residences.
It makes it the cheapest option on the Christmas stately homes list (it’s only £5.00 entry), but you can make a nice morning out of it because once you are done with the house, you can walk outside and downstairs to the tea rooms for some light refreshments.
This is not the most intricately holiday decorated home, but it has a very unique tower, the staircase is pretty awesome, the fire is going if it’s chilly outside with very snuggly, inviting couches to relax on and the exterior and interior detail with the architecture is beautiful and intricate.
You can visit the Carlton Towers website and stay up date on open dates and times.
Charlecote House
Charlecote House is located near Stratford-upon-Avon, you know, Shakespeare’s birth place (legend has it, he was caught poaching in the deer park that this house resides on- but who knows!). This beautiful Victorian style home is residence to the Lucy family and the Christmas theme this year is all about the first Christmas after the first World War ended in 1918.
The house is heavily decorated but not as elaborate as Chatsworth or Castle Howard. The early 1900’s music playing in the background will really transport you back (think Glenn Miller Orchestra – Moonlight Serenade *so romantic* also listening to it right now, you’re welcome) and there’s some WWI items that are from the estate on display.
Some of my favorite highlights were the small details (like the presents wrapped in brown paper and tied with string), the library which in itself is beautiful, but when you add a Christmas tree it’s somehow a hundred times better, and the minimalist decorated trees because you still wanted to celebrate Christmas, but the conflict and pain from the war was still fresh on everyone’s minds (on top of that, rationing was still in place and you took what you could get – not a lot). In case you’re wondering, that Christmas at Charlecote was a joyous one and everyone returned home safely.
Are you visiting some stately homes this holiday season? Which ones?! As always, you can send me any questions you have in the comments section!
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