Wednesday 21st November 2018

It was a cold and overcast morning as we headed off along the A64 to Castle Howard to look at the house in its Christmas refinery.

This year’s theme is ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ and has been designed by theatrical designers Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Bretta Crecke. I always enjoy looking around the house but at Christmas time it really becomes a home, with the warming log fires burning it always feels quite special as you walk through the state rooms. The house actually opened for Christmas mid-November and will be open till December 31st excluding Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. 

This year’s decorations are far more ambitious than I have seen before whilst still retaining the Victorian theme, which can be clearly seen throughout all the rooms. The start of the tour as always starts by climbing the stairs of the ‘Grand Staircase’, the rail and balustrades have been lavishly decorated, including the standard lamp half way up. The ‘China Landing’ has a twig tree nicely decorated with glass baubles too.  As you round the corner and enter ‘Lady Georgina’s bedroom and Dressing Room’ there is a beautiful sculptured floral dress adorned at the side of four poster bed. The adjoining dressing room is full of wrapped Christmas presents piled high on the settee, chairs and dotted around the Christmas tree in front of the fireplace. After passing through the dressing room you enter the ‘Castle Howard Dressing Room and bedroom’, another beautifully decorated room, with a huge floral display which fills the fireplace and another Christmas tree alongside of the 19th century bed. After leaving this bedroom you turn into the ‘Antique Passage’ which has been tastefully decorated with arrangements of twigs, branches and ferns placed between the busts, statues and marble urns all finished off with some carefully placed lighting. At the end of the passage you turn right and enter the huge ‘Great Hall’ with its lovely warming fire burning in a beautiful ornate fireplace. Standing tall at 26ft is the Norwegian Spruce Christmas tree, decorated with around 4,000 baubles. A huge cascade of white lights and baubles hang from one of the balconies forming a dramatic waterfall effect. As you leave the hall and climb the stone stairs to the ‘High South’ I always pause to have a look over the balcony and admire the domed ceiling which although was destroyed by fire in the 1940’s has been long since restored during the early 1960’s. On reaching the top of the stairs you enter the ‘High South’, this part of the house was badly affected by the 1940’s fire and this year has been part transformed into a Victorian kitchen and adjoining room into a dining room. The work involved in setting the dining table for twelve people was remarkable, the cutlery, glasses and floral arrangements on the table left little room for the food itself! Above the table is a beautiful decorated hanging mobile suspended from the ceiling with lots of figurines hanging from the twig formed frame. On leaving the ‘High South’ you follow the route back down the stairs and into the Library/office, this is one of my favourite rooms of the house, I, although I have a very nice and homely office at home, feel quite at home in this room, the roaring fire, desk, surrounded by shelves of books, wonderful. The adjoining room is the ‘Garden Hall’ and this year has been filled with three ‘twig’ trees, the room, cleared of all furniture is in darkness less the lighting from the glass lights suspended from the trees, each glistening and forming magical shadows on the walls and ceiling. In the adjoining ‘Cabinet Room’ is a stunning scale model of Castle Howard, surrounded by miniature figurines and animals.

The ‘Music Room’ looks an absolute picture, the small Christmas trees to the side of the sumptuously decorated fire surround, drum kits laid out around the room, tunics and costumes from the Howards family collection with miniature soldiers lined out just above the key board of the piano/harpsichord, all in keeping with the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ theme.

The adjoining room is the ‘Crimson Dining Room. The beautifully decorated mirrored dining table is adorned with fine china and seven swans a swimming, candelabras and a glass chandelier suspended from the ceiling. From here the next room is the ‘Turquoise Drawing Room’ with two small white three legged milking stools either side of the heavily decorated fire surround, a farm animal standing in front of the fire and an unusual Christmas tree ladened with all kinds of regalia, topped off with a peacock sitting on the top of the tree.

The final room in the house is the ‘Long Gallery’ at some 160 feet in length, halfway along is the Octagon with four huge oak book cases. The gallery encompasses the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ theme with drummer boy statuettes, maids and lords a leaping suspended from the ceiling along its length. Hanging from the ceiling in the Octagon are five huge gold rings that slowly rotate within themselves. On our visit were two young ladies playing the piano in the Octagon, the sound they produced and the acoustics in the chamber was amasing, we sat and listened to them for at least ten minutes. On leaving the ‘Long Gallery’ we descended the stone stairs and turned left into the ‘Chapel’. The Nativity scene was laid out in front of the alter. The lighting and decoration in the Chapel is beautiful, I seem to recall the lighting was enhanced several years ago which highlighted the outstanding craftsmanship and workmanship in the room. The Christmas tree situated in the Chapel lobby has been decorated with handmade decorations, many of them written by local schoolchildren it was nice to spend a few moments reading some of the hopes and wishes the children had written on them. On leaving the Chapel we followed the route through the well-stocked Xmas shop and into the ‘Fitzroy Restaurant’ for brunch. A lovely Christmassy visit. I think we will be back again before Christmas though as it is so nice.