Christmas at Chatsworth House 2024

Another year passes by and we are once again into the Christmas season and the first of my annual traditions, which is over to Derbyshire to see Chatsworth House dressed up for the Christmas season.

This year was my fourth year visiting and I have to say it’s been a mixed bag, with my past two out of three years being really enjoyable trips, so what would this year hold in store for me?

I purposely stayed spoiler free and did not look at any photos or information prior to my visit to see what this years theme was and it turned out to be based on a book about a Mouse and a Lion (I don’t recall the name however sadly).

I found the theme to be quite understated really (which I have no complaints about) as after the first room, I totally forgot to be on the look out for mice (as they were often quite well hidden and “real size”) and it was only in one of the last rooms where the room greeters were talking about how some of the mice on the dining room table had overindulged and were in various states of being passed out.

Overall I was happy with the decorations in the house again this year, but was quite let down by the actions of some of the visitors who somewhat ruined the whole event, as some of the people in the rooms seemed to think the house was their own private fashion show as they had come stocked with bags full of outfit changes and seemed to spend a very long time getting in peoples way and taking hundreds of selfies whilst leaving their bags in places where other guests were tripping over them. The house stewards seemed to be milling around tutting to each other, but I would have liked them to get involved to keep people moving.

Don’t get me wrong, people should be given time to enjoy the rooms at their pace, but spending 20-30 minutes generally getting in peoples way in each room feels rather excessive to me.

After escaping the house I had a wander around the light trail through the garden which was again well done, but it did not feel that much different to last years.

At the end of the trail there is now a large animation projected onto the side of the house, when I arrived, it was just ending so I waited around for ten or so minutes for it to start again, only to then be told by one of the staff that the show had ended for the night and to make my way out. I asked them if the garden normally closed at that time, as it felt early to me, they said that it was normal, however when I got home and checked my photos from last year, it was at least a good half hour earlier closing this time – this is probably though my fault for not checking the times correctly and they did offer to let me come back FOC to see the light show again if I wished, so I can’t have too many complaints here!