2007 Family Christmas Trip of the Year from Family Christmas OnlineTMWhat has over thirty-eight Christmas trees (including one that is 35' tall indoors), 1300 poinsetta plants, and five miles of pine garland? Answer: The Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, when it is decorated for Christmas. This amazing nineteenth-century mansion and its grounds have been open for public tours for decades. However, the Christmas season offers some unique viewing opportunities.
What is the Biltmore?Answer: The Biltmore is the largest privately-owned home in the world, generously opened to allow the public to see how the Vanderbilt family and the many people they employed lived a century ago.In the late 1800s, George Washington Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbuilt, fell in love with North Carolina and decided to live there. In 1889, he began building a magnificent house, which was still not entirely finished when he brought his family and friends there on Christmas eve, 1895. In 1898, he brought home his bride, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser. George was an avid admirer of French culture, so it's no surprise that his architect, Richard Morris Hunt, incorporated many architectural elements from the more spectacular chateaus of the French Renaissance. The gardens and grounds were also spectacular, and inspired, in part, by European examples. They were designed by the world-reknowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, who also designed New York City's Central Park. The house itself is four acres in size, the largest privately-owned home in the world. Biltmore was first opened to the public in 1930, when community leaders in Asheville asked the family to help the local economy by opening part of the home to tourists. During World War II, the home was closed, and many important paintings from the National Gallery of Art were stored here, watched over by military guards. Since the home reopened, many millions of visitors have marveled at George Vanderbilt's vision, as well as his eclectic collection of furniture and art from all over the world, including medieval tapestries, a chess set once owned by Napoleon, two Renoir paintings, and hundreds of other unique pieces. Many aspects of the home, both inside and out, are simply breathtaking. Today's caretakers are careful to protect what has been restored, and are also cautiously restoring parts of the house that had been neglected until recently. Not long ago, the fourth floor was opened to the public for the first time after extensive restoration. For each Christmas season, the staff researches tirelessly to determine what kinds of decorations would have been appropriate for each of the 38 Christmas trees and for the hundreds of other decorating elements. They also do something that seldom happpens the rest of the year - they open the home after dark for "Candlelight" tours. Between Christmas and New Years of 2006, Shelia and I, with our two youngest daughters, visited Asheville, staying at a rented house, although there were special offers that would have allowed us to stay on the Biltmore grounds. We had never seen Biltmore at Christmas, so we were especially glad to take the "Candlelight" tour. This option cost about half-again as much as regular "daytime" admission. It allowed us to visit the house once in the evening and once the following day (you can do both visits on the same day if you prefer, but I like the way we did it.) What is a "Candlelight Tour"?Technically speaking, there are very few candles - they don't want the fire hazard. But, illuminated by turn-of-the-last century electric lighting, the Biltmore is a very different place by night than it is by day. You see each room the same way George Vanderbuilt's guest would have seen it in 1895 and the years following. The tone of the wood seems richer, the shadowed alcoves seem more mysterious, and the lighting draws your eyes to many focus points you may overlook during daylight hours. Additional features include:
As we left our evening tour, we naturally looked up the hillside toward the little "temple of Diana" at the top of the hill beyond the driveways. Thundreds of lumieres that have been placed along the driveways, giving you some sense of the sheer size of the grounds. Touring the mansion by night actually made our visit the next day more enjoyable, because we didn't have to spend the same amount of time in every room, and we had the chance to focus on the parts of the house and the grounds we found most enjoyable. Touring the House and Grounds By Day in the MidwinterTo "decorate" the home's exterior for Christmas, conifers have been planted in many huge urns that usually contain flowers in the spring and summer. The majestic lion sculptures are each sporting a pine wreath. Once we got inside, we noticed many aspects of the house that were not so obvious the night before, so we discovered something new in every room. From many of the upper floor windows, we also had a a spectacular view of the North Carolina countryside. We decided we didn't need to see the bowling alley or swimming pool in the basement again, though.Fortunately, the weather was fine the day we went, sunny skies and temperatures in the sixties, warmer and drier than average for that time of year in Asheville. I'm not sure we would have spent as much time touring the grounds had the weather been cold and wet. But even in the "dead of winter," there are many things worth seeing outside. On the outside, we started at the Library Terrace, a huge stone porch at the house's left. There we had a fine view of much of the gardens, and much of the surrounding valley. Wisteria vines have curled around the porch's stone pillars, and I can imagine that when the wisteria is in bloom, the sight and scent must be stunning. But even in the dead of winter, the vines were impressive. Some of the pillars are so "wrapped up" in the vines that you can barely see the pillars at all. Downhill from the Library Terrace are two gardens, the South Terrace and the Italian Garden. The South Terrace is mostly a large, flat lawn where guests may have played croquet a century ago. The Italian Garden has a series of fishponds which sport various species of koi and goldfish. All of the vegetation in the ponds had been cut back for winter, and one pond had been drained entirely. But I wasn't disuaded from studying their pond construction in case I ever try to build something along that line. In addition, the ponds made great reflecting pools if you stood in the right place. Intriguing sculptures abound. Although it was one of the least spectacular, our family's favorite was probably the cherub sculpture at the end of one garden. For some reason,his thoughtful expression captured our family's attention. Of course if you've never been to the Biltmore during the summer, you can only try to imagine what these gardens look like in season. In this case, we figured that seeing the gardens in winter was a fair trade-off for getting to do the Candlelight tour and seeing the house decorated for Christmas. As an interesting aside, while we were walking around looking at the sculptures outside, our middle daughter Emily made the comment that she kept forgetting that she was in North America. She's been to England, France, Rome, and Greece and is used to tromping around with a camera on the Acropolis or the grounds of Versailles. There was so much to see on the Biltmore estate, and the collection was so eclectic, that Emily had to keep reminding herself that she was in North Carolina and not Europe. After a walk through the Walled Garden, which looked rather barren, having been trimmed back for winter, we reached the conservatory, a plant haven worth visiting any time of the year. Many poinsettas had been imported to give the conservatory a holiday look, but the plants that the conservatory houses all year long were much more interesting. Tropicals familiar and rare abound, as do succulents and many other plants. I was especially fascinated by the orchids. We had already seen many orchids inside the Biltmore house, and it was interesting to see where they must have been grown. Underneath the conservatory is an extensive gardening shop, and we did a little shopping while we were there. While we were shopping, our youngest daughter ran down the hill to the bass pond and back. She was so fast that she got back before we expected and had to come into the store looking for us. When we came back out, we cut through the Shrub Garden, which had many plants worth viewing, even though it was late December. While we were there, we noticed that, several plants in the Shrub Garden and elsewhere were already starting to bud, and a few had actually bloomed. I credit the unusually warm winter with "fooling" them into thinking it was time to get started. I also hope that they don't bloom so far that the next freeze keeps them from reaching their potential in the spring. When we finally left the house's environs, we caught a shuttle back to our van and drove past the Winery to the Farm Village, which includes an "Historic Horse Barn" and a working farm. There was live music here, too, provided by an area folk singer as far as I could tell. While the girls went to see the animals, I took a walk through the herb garden and tried to identify as many as I could. One herb that made me especially jealous was the rosemary. They had a patch as big as a bramble bush in the dead of winter. In our Ohio home, another zone north, rosemary usually dies at the first good freeze. Finally, we ready to say goodbye to the Biltmore Estate for another season. What You Should KnowWatch the weather - Weather in Asheville can change quickly. We were fortunate to come on a very nice day. But you need to take the weather reports seriously if you are hoping to do any sightseeing outside.Be Prepared to Wait to Get In - The Biltmore reservation system assigns you a time at which you may enter the house. In December, this is true both for the Candlelight tour and for the "daytime" tour. When I made my reservation for the Candlelight tour, they gave me a 7:30PM entry time over the phone. When I got onto the grounds the evening of our visit, I still had to stop at the ticket/visitor's center to pick up our family's tickets, though. The entry time for the Candlelight tour was still 7:30. (Since we got onto the grounds about 6:30, this gave us enough time to visit the gift shops in the former stables, so that was fine.) However no entry time for the following day was printed on the tickets. So the next day, we went over fairly early, and I took my tickets back in. They gave me four stubs with the entry time of 10:30, so we had plenty of time to wander around before we went in. However they warned me that people who arrive very late on very busy days have been disappointed, even though they had tickets. So don't assume that your tickets will get you in whenever you want to show up. The entrance road is especially tricky at night - There are no streetlights on the roads leading to or from the Biltmore house, since the house didn't used to be open after dark. Now that it is, know that the road in is unlit, windy and narrow. It also goes without warning from being one-way to being two-way and back again, so you never really know when someone might be coming toward you at the next hairpin turn. Put someone who has good night vision and nerves into the driver's seat, and put whoever is most prone to car sickness in the seat next to them. Also, it probably didn't take twenty minutes to get from the gate to the parking lot the first night we did it, but it certainly felt that way. Add in the time it will take you to get your "entry time" stub, and time it will take you to get a shuttle once you're parked (which is usually pretty short), and you could spend as much as 30 minutes getting onto the grounds at night (or up to 20 getting onto the grounds in the morning). If you're coming directly off of the superhighway during a busy time, allow an extra ten or fifteen minutes - I've seen the exit ramps backed up for miles. You can stay on the grounds - The Biltmore has a four-star inn that might be perfect for your family. The estate offers combined pricing packages in which each family member has one admission to a Candlelight tour, but you all have unlimited daylight access as long as you're staying in the inn. But get your reservation in early - they do get filled up on certain days. Other Things To Do in the Asheville AreaAsheville is a suprisingly cosmopolitain city, with many different kinds of stores, restaurants, and live music. We enjoyed shopping in the Biltmore Village, a small community just off the grounds of the estate. We enjoyed Doc Chey's Noodle House at 37 Biltmore Avenue. Breakfast at the Moose Cafe, 570 Brevard Road, is an experience of another kind. The Moose Cafe is just up the hill from the Farmer's Market, which had obviously scaled back for winter but was still fun to visit.We also "shopped" the "downtown" district of Black Mountain, a few miles east. Black Mountain's craft and gift shops tend more toward traditional and folk art than the shops in Asheville; they also have two fine musical instrument stores, the Acoustic Corner, and Song of the Wood. If you've ever imagined yourself getting a dulcimer or bowed psaltry, Song of the Wood is a very good place to look. Of course, if you encounter inclement weather, Asheville has several great shopping centers and theatre complexes to keep you warm, dry, and entertained. How to Get StartedGo to www.Biltmore.com to learn more about the Biltmore Estate and to learn what offers are available now. Then check back every so often - the special Christmas season offers will be posted again eventually.Please contact us if you have any additional questions or suggestions.
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