CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS THE 17TH CENTURY
Seventeenthcentury winter traditions are on show at Dyrham Park, near Bath, with a poetry trail and scented decorations made from plants and dried flowers. Choirs will sing in the church at weekends.
ROARING TWENTIES
At the Blickling estate, in Norfolk, rooms will take visitors from 1620 to the Twenties, decade of glitz and glamour. Castle Drogo in Devon celebrates in the style of 1926, while Cicely Mary Barker’s flower fairies – created in the Twenties – will be brought to life with a garden trail at Mottisfont, in Hampshire.
THIRTIES AND FORTIES
For jazz-era inspiration look to Upton House and Gardens, Warwickshire, which will be decked out Thirties-style. Hughenden, Buckinghamshire, however, recalls Christmas from 1941-46, when the manor was home to RAF map-makers.
VICTORIAN VALUES
Visitors will find Scotney Castle, Kent, dressed for a Victorian Christmas. Queen Victoria’s holiday home, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, will host games and ghost stories, while Knightshayes, Devon, celebrates with a Victorian Father Christmas dressed in the once typical green.
THE MAIN MAN
Children can hand-deliver their Christmas lists to Father Christmas at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, after being entertained by a jester. At Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, Yorkshire, they can meet him after Christmas tales by the tree; while at Saltram, Devon, he hosts story sessions suitable for children with sensory difficulties. Children can make crafts at Father Christmas’s toy factory at Croft Castle, Herefordshire; or watch him collect his holiday washing at the Victorian laundry at Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire.
IT’S A WRAP
Speke Hall, Merseyside, will be dressed in handmade garlands and paper chains, which visitors can help make. A