Wentworth Woodhouse Christmas crew has been busy all year prepping its home-grown ‘Night Before Christmas’ festive extravaganza.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…’
So begins the much-loved children’s Christmas poem, A Visit From St Nicholas, composed in 1822.
But at Rotherham’s Stately home Wentworth Woodhouse, plenty has been stirring for over 10 months, in readiness for its home-spun festive event inspired by the story.
Its visitor-led Yuletide experience ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas launches on December 4. It runs until December 29 (excluding Mondays and statutory holidays), along with a spectacular light trail in the West Front Gardens, which opens on December 4.
The familiar story of St Nicholas’s arrival unfolds for visitors in the mansion’s State Rooms.
The State Corridor will be transformed into a snowy tundra and the Van Dyck Room will become a Christmas Eve bedroom scene, complete with a beautifully dressed antique bed.
Other rooms will feature a gift-laden Christmas morning scene and a Victorian Christmas feast.
A trail of smartly-dressed character mice, plus gingerbread men, toy soldiers and sugar plum fairies awaits. And the Christmas stockings – all six feet of them – will be hung by the
Whistlejacket and Statuary Room chimneys with care, exactly as Georgian poet Clement Clarke Moore described in the poem he penned for his children.
The most stunning scene will take up the mansion’s famed Marble Saloon. A giant Nordic sleigh will stand in a moonlight forest beneath a starry sky. Families can climb aboard the sleigh for a magical festive selfie.
This will be Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust’s second ‘home-spun’ festive spectacular. 2023’s event, A Tale As Old As Time, was inspired by classic fairytales. Over 16,000 visitors flocked to see the Grade I Listed mansion in an enchanted slumber.
Find out more and book tickets here: https://wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk/whats-on/twas-the-night-before-christmas/
