Christmas at Blithewold

Each year in late December, the Van Wickle/McKee family would return to Blithewold to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. The household staff would arrive days before the family to ready the house for all the holiday celebrations. The head gardener and caretaker would gather evergreen boughs and cut down a tall tree from the property. The housekeeper and maids would decorate the tree in the entrance and the mantles in each room with the greenery, ensuring that their visitors would be welcomed into a warm house filled with the fragrance of Christmas.

Today’s Blithewold finds our volunteer decorators echoing the spirit of the past by transforming the house for our visitors. Every year we choose a theme that explores the interests of the Van Wickle/McKee family during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then our decorators translate that theme into a dazzling display celebrating the magic of Christmas.

This Year’s Theme:

Tales of Travel
Passages, Crossings and Excursions!

This Christmas we set our sites on journeys abroad with the Van Wickle McKee family. They traveled near and far. By car, by train, by horse, by boat and yes even by camel!

Tour each and every room in the Manor this holiday season and learn about all the adventures they experienced!

Everywhere you look, you’ll be filled with the joy of the holiday season past and present.
Come join us this Christmas at Blithewold.

Visit our program and events page to join us for some seasonal fun.

Learn about our opening hours here.