Castle Howard at Christmas

Hi there everyone

I promise that this is the last of my 'Christmassy' posts for Christmas 2017.

One of the '50 things' on my list of what I want to do before I hit 60 is to visit Castle Howard. Its somewhere I have never been, but have seen pictures of many times. What better time to visit than at Christmas?
The 'Angels on High' Christmas event ran from 18 November to 23 December 2017, which was perfect for us, with our November holiday just happening to coincide with the first week. We even managed to take advantage of their earlybird discount of 20% ... bonus.

It was a fairly bleak day for our trip, but at least it wasn't raining, and it was lovely to see the lights all twinkling in the Christmas trees lining the driveway as we made our way to the main entrance.

Once inside, out of the damp and the gloom, it was a different story. It all felt a lot more cosy, as we were greeted by the first of, what would be many, beautifully decorated trees that we would get to see during our visit.

The first show stopping thing that we saw was the main staircase, which was truly breathtaking. Because of the lighting it was just so difficult to capture a photo that did it justice, but here are my best efforts, which are by no means spectacular but do give an idea ...

All the rooms and hallways were elaborately decked out for Christmas ...

... but this tree has to be the most spectacular that we have ever seen ...

It was absolutely laden with the most ornate and beautiful glass Christmas decorations ...

... and topped off with the most beautiful of angels ...

The way the event was laid out and lit did make it all a bit disorientating at times and it was hard to quite work out where we were but they had really gone to town on decorating, there was definitely plenty of oohing and ahhing going on ...

Every room held a new surprise ... like this model of Castle Howard ...
... and the dining table set for Christmas lunch ...
When entering one of the galleries we were just taken aback. The ceiling was all decked out with ribbons in oranges, reds and yellows and there were angels suspended above us. There was a live singer performing and it was all just beautiful ...

Eventually, we'd seen our last Christmas tree and it was back out into the gloom of the afternoon, where we braved the cold for a brief wander around the grounds ...

I am so glad we visited at this time of year. It was just magical and really helped us both get in the Christmas spirit.

I think we need to come back again though ... it would be lovely to see the house laid out as it normally is and to see the gardens at their best. Castle Howard is now closed for the season and re-opens on 24 March, so maybe we will get a trip in over the Summer.

This one isn't quite crossed completely off my list yet. 😉