I always look forward to our Christmas visit to Castle Howard.

This year the stately home has been transformed into 'Alice's Christmas Wonderland' and the house has been given a makeover for the festive period which runs from the from the 15^th November to 5^th January, themed around the story in Lewis Carrol’s 1865 novel.

Alice is planning a huge Christmas party, and she invites us to follow the White Rabbit through Castle Howard’s grand halls and regal rooms with each twist and turn revealing fanciful festive surprises.

As soon as you open the door to enter the house you enter the world of Alice in Wonderland, the Grand Staircase and China Landing always look good but this year they have been transformed into a lush Victorian riverbank, where Lewis Carroll was first inspired to write the Alice stories. Leaving the China Landing we walked along the corridor to Lady Georgina’s Bedroom where Alice had been busy writing her Christmas cards and is planning a spectacular tea party.

The adjoining room is Lady Georgina’s Dressing Room, and is littered with crafting materials, typical of the room where Lewis Carrol raised his ten siblings, as well as doing crafting skills with them, he was a remarkable storyteller and could them entertained for hours on end.

The next room was the Castle Howard Dressing Room transformed into the study of John Tenniel, the artist who illustrated all the Alice books, from here we walked into the Castle Howard Bedroom, where we followed the White Rabbit through the clocks, where Alice is peering through the looking glass, trying to find the rabbit hole in order to deliver her invitations and prepare for her party. Leaving the clocks behind us we headed through the Antique Passage and into the Wonderland and a spiralling well of psychedelic curiosities. From here we headed around the corner into the Great Hall and Wonderland itself with a huge twenty-seven-foot Christmas tree laden with thousands of decorations of all shapes and sizes. A wonderful place to pause for a photograph against the tree and just admire the sheer beauty of this Great Hall. Round the corner from the Great Hall is the New Library transformed into the Mad Hatters workshop with everyone in Wonderland wanting fancy headwear for Alice’s party. Next door in the Garden Hall stands a huge Queen of Hearts, in a foul mood, accusing her Knave of eating all her tarts, she will be going to the ball as long as only croquet is played.

In the Music Room, Alice visits the Lobster Quadrille who are providing the music for her party, quite a sight.

The Crimson Dining room has been completely transformed into total chaos as the Mad Hatter has arranged the tea party. Next door in the Turquoise Drawing Room, Alice visits the caterpillar for some advice, unfortunately he has been smoking mushrooms again consequently does nothing to ease Alice’s concerns about meeting the White Queen.

The White Queen is next door in the Museum Room, playing chess, she is thrilled by the invitation from Alice but absolutely abhors croquet. So, what will Alice do?

Its party time in the Long Gallery South, Alice has invented a new game ‘Chessquet’ if you are the White Queen or ‘Croqhess’ if you are the Queen of Hearts. Heading into the Octagon and Long Gallery South, the tea party is being held and to prevent the guests from missing anything the Mad Hatter has them constantly changing places. Alice, the Queen of Christmas Day, has upstaged the other Queens much to their disappointment.

On leaving the Long Gallery South down the stone spiral stairwell you must pop into the beautiful chapel where the traditional Nativity scene is laid out for all to see.

Our visit ended with a browse through the house gift shop followed by a very pleasant brunch in the Christmas Marquee.

This is another truly amazing Christmas display by Charlotte Lloyd Webber which runs till Sunday 5th January 2025.