A Night at the Mansion: Christmas at Harewood. What a truly magical treat! The magic starts as you head down the driveway with deer in the field and lights guiding your way. There are huge trees outside the house with its big welcoming front doors and even more welcoming team inside who are only too happy to help and make your visit feel special.
The Night at the Mansion feels like such an intimate peep into the magic of the mansion when it comes to life after dark. Singing statues, gossiping paintings and little people living throughout the house.
It is captivating and such a different Christmas experience, created by artists, the artistic element is beautiful. This is not just for little ones, but us grown ups were spellbound too.
The house is beautifully decorated with stunning trees and wreaths on every door with the added magic as you work your way through the house and down the stairs. Don’t forget to watch out for the fairy too! The sounds and music throughout the house just add to the magic, as does the delicious smell coming from the cooking demonstrations! I am so going to try making the traditional Chelsea buns!
Outside the house there are lights through the terraced garden and along the pathways, the whole grounds just have a beautiful festive glow about them. Carol singers in the courtyard, wood fired pizzas, decorations in the trees all just come together for a wonderful Christmas feel.
There is also the Bird Garden with the fun penguins, flamingos and a great variety of birds, a few non birds have sneaked in too, namely goats and alpacas. This is all overlooking the stunning lake! We love seeing the birds and particularly liked chatting to the macaws! Just in itself the bird garden is a lovely visit!
There is a walled garden further around the lake which you can hop on the little boat to take you across and back, a lovely thing for little ones to do! There is also an adventure playground which caters for little and bigger kids, if they haven’t walked far enough around the grounds then this is perfect!
The festive menu in the courtyard cafe was really excellent, serving children’s meals (high chairs are available) and also lots of different and indulgent food (you have to have Stilton at Christmas!), reasonably priced, so fresh and very delicious. And importantly, a great selection of delicious homemade cakes. There is also a smaller cafe on the Terrace behind the house serving drinks and light snacks.
A few other practical things, there are toilets everywhere-the car park, the house, near the gardens, the courtyard…. the grounds are also suitable for pushchairs with paths and ramps for access.
We have had a brilliant day, the Night at the Mansion is really magical-totally different and very clever, we loved it! The house is decorated beautifully with so much attention to detail and the finishing touches! The rest of the grounds are nicely lit and we came away with a warm festive glow from a beautiful Christmas experience.
Just A Normal Mum 