York in November - Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Hi there everyone

Well, Martin is back at work and I am trying to get back into some kind of routine, so its time for this week's post.

It feels a bit strange sharing a Christmassy post as we are well into January, but we saw such a lot on our trip to Yorkshire in November, that its taking a while to get through everything.

Hopefully you may see something that you will feel worth putting on your list to start to get you into the Christmas spirit for next Christmas ... its never too early to start planning!

Whilst up in Yorkshire we spent quite a lot of time in York, which was looking very festive. We visited two National Trust properties in the city centre ... Goddards House, which is just a short walk from the centre of the city and Treasurer's House, which is tucked at the back of the Minster.

The National Trust says that Treasurer's House is ...

"A picturesque town house nestling in the centre of York, with many tales to tell."

We agree, it is a very picturesque house and it is literally right in the centre of the city so very easy to access if on a visit ...
Having had a wander around the outside of The Minster ...

... we entered through the property's gardens ...
Its not a huge property, but there is plenty to see and it was lovely to see the rooms all subtly decked out for Christmas ...

The staircase looked particularly spectacular ...

We also picked up an 'Oddities Tour' leaflet which points you in the direction of some of the most peculiar an unusual elements of the House collection. We would certainly have missed pretty much all of these without the leaflet, so its well worth looking out for.

It is quite a small property, compared to some we have visited and, all told, we probably only spent about an hour there. There is a basement cafe if you want to have a pit stop, but we were planning on tea in Bettys, so, for once, we didn't pay a visit.

It was starting to get dark when we came out of Treasurer's House, so it was a good time for a wander round the Christmas markets, which were looking and feeling very festive ...
We were very tempted by some of the treats on sale, but managed to resist ...
We retraced out steps, back up through The Shambles ...

... and past the Christmas funfair ...

... and made our way to Bettys for a very welcome pitstop.

There was only one thing left for us to do before heading back to our cosy cottage and that was to track down this little imp for a quick selfie ...

We have both been to York many times, but never at this time of year and it was a real treat. It was bustling, really busy, but just felt so festive we both loved it. It really seemed to start Christmas off, be it a bit earlier than normal. 🎄🎄🎄

While we were in Yorkshire we also managed to make a visit to Castle Howard for their 'Angels on High' Christmas event, which was also well worth a visit and a post of its own, so I'm not quite done for Christmas just yet. 🎅