Every year since 2014, Tom and I have visited Chatsworth at some point in December to see the house decorated for Christmas. Each year has a different theme; this years is Once Upon a Time and we both agree that it is our favourite theme so far! As is tradition on here I'll take you on a virtual tour of the house, and I'll link all the previous years at the bottom of this post.
This year we ended up going the same weekend as Chatsworth hosted its Christmas Market, and so we had to park about a 20 minute walk away (still in the estate) rather than in front of the house like we usually do as it was really busy. This was fine as it wasn't raining at the time (there were a few cars getting stuck in the mud where we parked) and on the walk to the house we actually came pretty close to the deers of the park!
We had never been to the market before; in previous years you still had to pay extra for parking even if you had booked to go in the house, but this year it was all included. I would say if you want to go to the market that you actually book to go in the house, because our ticket was around £25 for the house, gardens and farmyard as well as being able to look round the market, and people were paying £20 just to park for the market on the day. It was a really good Christmas market but I wouldn't pay that much to park and have a look around.
After having a little look around the market and making a mental note of where to return to later, it was time for our visit to the house! What we really liked about this years theme was that it ran throughout the house but every room featured a different story such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, James and the Giant Peach and Mary Poppins, rather than focusing on one story for the whole house. The attention to detail demonstrated the amount of effort that had gone into curating each room, and all of the decorations were beautiful!
After looking round the house our tummies were rumbling, and normally we go to the fancy restaurant but unfortunately for us this year it was fully booked! (Next year we'll definitely prebook a table). We ventured out to the market and found a hotdog stand, which after a bit of a faff with needing to pay at one point to receive playing cards to then hand to the server in exchange for our hotdogs (?) we got our lunch. After lunch we headed into the gardens, and had a short walk around before it started to rain.
We went and had a brownie and a drink in the cafe, before looking round the stable shops and the market properly. We did stop off at the farmyard on the walk back as I hadn't realised this was included in our ticket in previous years, and although it was nice to see the animals I think this is aimed more towards families with children.
As this was our fifth Christmas at Chatsworth trip, it was really nice to have something additional to have a look around and I definitely think we'll go back again next year when the market is running. The market has finished now, but you can still see the house decorated for Christmas until the 6th January (this is in no way a post affiliated with Chatsworth, I just love going and think you will to!). Do you have anywhere you visit every Christmastime?
Jess x
Previous years:
Looks fantastic, as you said, all the work that must of been put in for organising and putting up the displays....😍😍
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