Knowing what height of tree you’ll fit into your living room is a challenge many of us face, but what happens when the space you’re filling includes a large floorspace with a huge galleried dome up above? You go for the largest tree you can – and this year’s Christmas tree at Castle Howard is a whopping 28 ft tall – their tallest ever!
The tree is one of the centrepieces of Castle Howard’s Christmas in Narnia event, and this year’s decoration marks a significant departure from the tree’s usual colourful appearance.
“A big part of the Narnia story is the idea that the kingdom is frozen by the White Witch, and the Antiques Passage which leads you to the Great Hall will be an icy wonderland of twigs and the statues depicted as frozen enemies of the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia. When you arrive in the Great Hall, the Christmas tree sits centrally in the room, like it is growing out of the floor and reaching towards the decorated dome up above,” explains baublographer, Adrian Lillie, who leads the team decorating the tree. “We’ve even brought in specialists to cover the tree in ‘snow’ – an amazing process in which the tree was cocooned in tarpaulins and then a paper-based snow flocking is sprayed, creating a snowstorm within the enclosure to make the way it lands on the branches look very natural and realistic.”
After the snow was added, the scaffold gantry was left around the tree to enable the team to hang over 2000 icicles and snowflakes. As the tree is larger than any that have been displayed at Castle Howard before, additional lights were requisitioned, with 1500m of lights carefully wrapped to make sure the tree sparkled from every angle.
Actually getting the tree into the Great Hall through the existing doorway on the North Front was a challenge in itself. As a listed building, the tree has to be squeezed through double glass doors, before it was raised into position and a supportive base built in situ.
“We believe that this is the largest real indoor Christmas tree in the country, standing around eight feet higher than the impressive tree normally installed in Buckingham Palace,” comments the Hon Nicholas Howard, the current guardian of Castle Howard. “It is certainly the largest we have had, both in terms of height and width at the base, which has a huge footprint in the Great Hall – but thankfully leaves a gap on either side for visitors to walk right around it.”
The tree will require constant attention over the coming weeks to keep it looking fresh. A water reservoir will keep feeding the tree so it will remain verdant until 2 January, when the Christmas experience ends.
Tickets to Narnia at Christmas are priced from £19.50 for adults and £12.50 for children off-peak, and £25.00 for adults and £15 for children at peak times. To book, or for more details, please visit
www.castlehoward.co.uk. Tickets include timed access to the house, full access to the gardens and adventure playground.
