Something of a Fairy Tale

Waddesdon Manor has always been something of a fairy tale. It was here, in the middle of Aylesbury Vale, that the Rothschilds built a Loire-style château of staggering splendour in the 1880s. This Christmas there is an added dose of magic, sitting alongside the usual palatial rooms and fittings, with their Gaurdi paintings and Sèvres dinner services. The rooms in the northern side of the main house, including the Bachelor's Wing, have been kitted out to the nines with Austrian-inspired decorations.

Each room has a separate theme, with Klimtian splashes of gold followed by embroidered cow bell ribbons, there's Swarowski and Strauss and all the glittering kaiserlich und königlich Kunst und Kitsch of Vienna. In a house that is, by design, something of a capriccio, this gloriously overblown approach to Christmas entirely works. I could have done without the somewhat incongruous corridor celebrating The Sound of Music, though it was doubtless a crowd pleaser with others. And then there are Bruce Munro's 'winter light' installations around the grounds, with their rivers of light bulbs and neon teepees.

Unlike some of the National Trust's properties, Waddesdon, takes a particularly imaginative approach to its curatorship, thanks to the with the ongoing input of Jacob Rothschild. His and the Trust's vision for the place constantly melds past and present, providing a more textured visiting experience – the 2012 Edmund de Waal exhibition or Ingo Maurer's 'Porca Miseria!' chandelier (pictured here) are two cases in point. Rather than viewing the house and grounds as a museum, they (and we) are encouraged to use it as an access point to the house and family's history. And this Christmas is a particularly glittering example. Click here for more information.

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