By Ferne Arfin
United Kingdom Travel Expert, about.com
English Heritage is celebrating Christmas in style this year, with events, music, workshops and festive food at many of the castles, monastic ruins, royal hideaways, historic gardens and ancient places in its care. Like the National Trust, English Heritage has limited December openings when some of its properties are decorated in period styles and host events sympathetic to their style and history.
Though the National Trust is a non-profit membership organization and English Heritage is a government department, the two are similar in their role of managing historic properties open to the public. The difference is that while National Trust properties tend to highlight elements of social history, the English Heritage estate covers buildings and landscapes of political significance - castles, battlefields, ancient monuments.
During
the holiday season, it's all about taking part in festivities with a
historic flavor, in magical, often medieval, environments.
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Keep in mind that many of these properties are
unheated and concerts and events may take place outdoors - so plan on
dressing up warm. Here's a selection of events taking place at English
Heritage locations for Christmas 2013.
Christmas as We Know It
Many
of the Christmas traditions we're so familiar with became popular
during the Victorian era. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband,
brought the Christmas tree from his native Germany and it was an almost
instant success with fashionable Victorians. Decorated cookes, garlands
and wreaths, caroling door-to-door, were all Victorian innovations.
So it's only fitting that Osborne, Queen Victoria's retreat on the Isle of Wight, is getting into the holiday spirit with public events.
Take a festive guided tour
on a Saturday or Sunday before Christmas, and let an expert guide
explain how the holidays were celebrated when the royal couple and their
nine children were in residence.
The rooms, tables and trees will
be decorated for a typical Victorian Christmas. The cafe will be well
stocked with holiday treats for hot and cold lunches and afternoon teas.
The grounds, parkland and beach will be open for a brisk, winter walk.
Carols and Concerts
Kenwood House,
overlooking London's Hampstead Heath, reopened to the public at the end
of 2013 after extensive restoration. You may recognize this house from
scenes in the 1999 movie Notting Hill. It was the backdrop to the period
film-within-a-film that Julia Roberts' character was in when Hugh
Grant's character tracked her down. It's famous for its collection of
Rembrandts, Gainsboroughs, Turners, Reynolds, and Vermeers, and for its
library, considered one of the most important designed by Robert Adam in the country. It's also the location of a knock-out Orangery where you can enjoy a mid-December Carol Concert while sipping a glass of wine or a soft drink.
Other carol concerts are scheduled for:
- Goodrich Castle, in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, where it will be carols by candlelight.
- Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden in Warwickshire, carols by candlelight
- Brodsworth Hall and Gardens near Doncaster in Yorkshire will have several choir concerts in its entrance hall. And they're expecting Father Christmas to put in an appearance too.
- Rievaulx Abbey will host a local brass band playing seasonal festive music and there will be a chance to buy special holiday gifts.
Ghostly Encounters
With
properties this ancient and historic, it stands to reason there will be
a few uneasy spirits lurking around. Back at Kenilworth Castle, the
evening Christmas Ghost Tour
is so spooky, you have to be at least 16 years old to take part. The
guided tour around the castle and gatehouse will include stories of the
ghosts of Christmas past.
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The Victorians liked to scare themselves silly with tales told in semi-darkness around a roaring fire. At the Victorian Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens in Morpeth, Northumberland, the "Lady and Gentleman" of the house will relate ghost stories for adults only. Ghost Stories for Christmas promises to be a chance to experience the eerie atmosphere of the darkened hall by candlelight.
Family Fun
Take
part in quests and family fun trails in several English Heritage
properties. Collect clues and solve mysteries, indoors and out, to win
prizes, while enjoying festive and historic holiday decorations.
There are family fun trails and events at:
- Wrest Park in Bedfordshire
- Framlingham Castle in Suffolk
- Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire
- Old Sarum , the ancient castle and famous "rotten borough" near Salisbury and Stonehenge
- Carlisle Castle, a Medieval castle on the site of a Roman fortress that was a working military base well into the second half of the 20th century.
- Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight
Free Event
London's
Kenwood House (see above), is open pretty much every day and admission
to the house and its main collections is always free. The weekend before
Christmas, 2013, families are invited to join in a range of creative, 1760s themed activities.
The holiday season in the mid-18th century was a time of lavish galas,
charity and gift giving. Visitors can try making splendid masks, money
boxes and old fashioned wreaths. And it's all free.
