Have an Abbey little Christmas
Lady Carnarvon reveals how the Yuletide spirit comes to castle
Aristocrat on festive season at real-life Downton:
Lady Fiona Carnarvon cranes her neck to take in the 20ft Christmas tree at Highclere Castle – the setting of ITV’S hit period drama Downton Abbey – and admires her work.
Draped in white sparkling lights, its branches hang heavy with baubles and ornaments – many “scuffed family decorations” that span the generations. Its decoration has involved high ladders, many hands, and two hours of fun and nostalgia.
And the lady of the house is thrilled. A University of St Andrews graduate, she is not afraid to get her hands dirty.
For her, a successful Christmas is all about the planning and the people. “It’s good to sit down and think what are you going to do and what are the choices you are going to make,” she said. “It helps you spend your money more wisely.”
Soon she’ll be turning her attention to Highclere’s dining room, hung in yellow silks, and a gleaming table that on Christmas day will be piled with crackers, extravagant blooms, napkins folded like bishop’s mitres, sparkling crystal and silver.
It could be straight from a scene of Downton. But this is the real thing and Highclere – which has welcomed royalty, world leaders and film stars – is home not only to the down-to-earth woman who introduces herself simply as Fiona, but also her husband Geordie, aka George Herbert, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon and godson to the Queen.
Lady Carnarvon – whose book Christmas at Highclere – is out now, admits she began planning for the festivities in the early autumn, around the time Downton the movie – whose sequel is currently being worked on – was being filmed at the castle.
But the festivities go far deeper than the stately glamour of the country pile. It is a time, she says, to remember those less fortunate, and lost loved ones.
The countess, whose lineage includes Mackenzie of Kintail, reveals: “My grandfather, Brigadier William Aitken, grew up in Scotland and was an outstanding golfer of his time. His father Henry Aitken was a QC in Edinburgh and a professor at the University of Edinburgh.
“My father, Ronnie, was evacuated to Loch Rannoch during the
Second World War. He ended up going back to school in England, but dad adored Scotland and was very proud of being
Scottish. I visited Scotland as a child with him and I spent three wonderful years in St Andrews. Geordie also loves Scotland.” Her mother Frances’s family hailed from Chiddingstone Castle in Kent. But, says Lady Carnarvon: “I lost my parents when I was 28. They both died of cancer. My father had just had his 60th birthday. My mother died four years later. I have five younger sisters.
“It made you think about what matters in life, so for all the glamour of Highclere, for all the beauty of the building, what matters for me is the family, and community; the people who work for us. And it’s about memories. There are so many different memories food can conjure up; like using up the turkey leftovers. Funnily enough, before Geordie’s mother died I was talking to her about this and it was the same old thing, putting the mincer on the table and using up the turkey, making turkey rissoles. It is about the simple memories.
“It’s also about some of the games we played, the charades, or the sardines, or flying kites round the castle, which I love doing. I know it’s not very grown up, but I still enjoy it.
“And it’s about people, and conversation. It’s a time to put down the phones and devices and ask people how they are or what they are up to. These are some of