Visiting Biltmore at Christmas

Biltmore is the house that George Vanderbilt created – a house in the country for his family and friends. It was opened to them on Christmas Eve 1895, so Christmas is a very special time at the estate. George, Edith and their daughter Cornelia lived at Biltmore and the family have continued to live there to this day. The present head of the family is Bill Cecil who runs the estate as a family business. The design of the house was inspired by the chateaux of the Loire valley, though it is generally thought that most was taken from the chateau at Blois.

 We arrived for our four day stay to warm, crisp weather and our rooms at Biltmore Inn were beautiful, with views across the countryside to the house and beyond. Almost as far as the eye can see, belongs to the estate – about 8,000acres. We enjoyed every minute of our stay, as we were busy all the time. Within walking distance of the Inn there is Antler Village, where we were able to take in the Winery tour. They deliver wine to almost every state in the US, but Louisiana was not on the list, what a shame. The wines were very interesting and we had fun tasting them. The extensive gift shop is very tempting as was filled with Christmas related items as well as gifts inspired by the Tiffany exhibition being held in  the museum. This was another date in our diary and we loved walking around the beautiful display of stunning lamps.  We would love to have bought some postcards as there was a ban on photographs, but none were forthcoming.

The first evening we took the visitor bus across to the House where we were treated to a candlelit tour of the interior complete with 57 Christmas trees – all lit and decorated to match their surroundings. Some rooms had several trees, colour matched to the décor of the room. And in the winter garden there was a choir singing with a harp and violin playing, too. What a magical experience; all warmth and light and nostalgia. The largest tree was in the vaulted dining room - almost reaching the ceiling that stretched up several floors. This had already been changed out once due to the tree dropping its needles, and they expected that it would be changed again before Christmas. All that effort of dressing, dismantling and dressing again takes place at night when the house is closed to visitors, from 9pm. It must take the best part of the twelve hours or so to have everything ready for the next day’s opening.

We also took the architecture tour during the day so we could climb high up onto the roof and take in the view across to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Apparently, the guests could take a two day journey to stay at the hunting lodge in these mountains, camping in the forest on the way, never leaving the Vanderbilt estate. It was a trek of some 15 miles taken on horseback and with waggons. Servants went ahead to prepare the camp as well as the Lodge for visitors. We also had a close-up view of masonry details, gargoyles and the gold leaf decorated copper roof that bears the Vanderbilt crest.

From the roof we could see the reflecting ponds and the beautiful conservatory. This meant a walk through the fine but slumbering gardens to the Glasshouse that was superbly decked out for Christmas with many poinsettias, decoratively leaved plants and subtle decorations.  Underneath is the garden centre with gardeners’ gifts for sale. We didn’t indulge as we were flying off again and those sorts of things would not fit in the luggage – oh for Terry Pratchett’s luggage with the many feet!

No trip to the Asheville area around Christmas would be complete without a visit to the Gingerbread completion and exhibition at the Grove Park Inn. This amazing place reminiscent of some Austrian hunting lodge only many times bigger is host to an enormous display of gingerbread creations for some six weeks over the holiday period. Anything goes as far as the gingerbread creators are concerned and we saw some mind blowing designs. The overall winner this year had created Old Mother Hubbard’s Shoehouse complete with laces, windows, doors, a roof and characters busying themselves inside the rooms.  A real feat of ingenuity. Others we liked were the mice and their sewing machine, a merry-go-round horse, a box of chocolates and a box of Christmas decorations not to mention some wonderful houses, too.

So  time flew by and after an evening of celebrating birthdays, wedding anniversaries and just being with friends in the Dining Room, we said our farewells and flew off to our various families to celebrate Christmas.

Biltmore Estate
Grove Park Inn
Asheville
North Carolina