Stunning West Sussex property decorated for Christmas – ready for its 35,000 festive visitors!

So add a Christmas overlay to this gorgeous National Trust property and I think you have the perfect festive day out.

I visited Petworth House this week, as the team were putting the final touches to its Christmas decorations. The Christmas season at Petworth starts on Saturday (November 29) with later-night opening and runs until January 4.

This year’s theme is A Christmas Enchantment, and it was wonderful to see the team – lead by senior programming and partnerships officer Molly Norman Lynch – creating a festive wonderland inside the magnificent 17th-century house.

Molly said: “Each room has its own theme, but there’s a narrative thread that spreads throughout, so you should feel like you’re going on a journey.

"This year every is nature-inspired and it’s all based on the winter solstice and the shifting rhythms of nature. It’s taking inspiration from the park and the gardens, so we’re trying to draw the natural world in.”

You enter into the Oak Hall to be greeted by a snow-lined pathway of birch trees symbolising new beginnings, renewal and strength. Letters from children from the local primary school are displayed up high, whizzing off into the sky.

As you walk through the house, the curtains are drawn, and that cosy feeling of Christmas is in abundance – as is the smell of pine trees from the 24 of all different sizes spread throughout the property.

The attention to detail is incredible, with many of the features lovingly handmade. A team of three, including Molly, are the core members of staff responsible for the festive frivolity, but around 20 staff and volunteers have helped to make the transformation. It takes around four weeks to install everything, with some rooms in the house temporarily closed to allow for the magic to happen.

There have been weekly workshops since June, to make all kinds of whimsical creations like giant mushrooms and papier mache owls, making this the most hand-crafted Christmas Petworth has ever put on.

Molly estimates tens of thousands of baubles are needed to decorate the trees, many of which are reused from previous years as well as five thousand additional ones bought this year. The trees come from a firm in Billingshurst and are delivered mid-November in several large truck journeys.

The Adoration of the Magi by Hieronymus Bosch, a painting of a Nativity scene normally displayed in the Somerset Room, will be moved to the chapel to make a special display for quiet reflection, and tie-in the significant art collection of the house.

While in the Square Dining Room, there will be projections of ‘patronus-like’ deer walking up the curtains and onto the ceiling, with beanbags on the floor so people can view them.

The Marble Hall has the biggest collection of trees, with must-do photo opportunities for guests, including on a bridge above a pool of reflection.

The Little Dining Room will introduce this year’s nod to the books of Brambly Hedge, with the focal piece being large oak tree home for the mice featured in the book.

Next door, in the large Carved Room, the dining table has a large overgrown tree covered in moss and a scene set up for midwinter feasting.

And guests will be pleased to know that in a change from the norm, the North Gallery will be open this Christmas featuring a cosy Christmas scene and allowing people to enjoy one of the National Trust’s most significant art collections.

The National Trust expects 35,000 visitors to come and enjoy the magnificent house and gardens during the Christmas period, making it the property’s busiest time of year.

Having seen the almost completed Christmas décor, I can safely say they are in for a real treat.

Throughout the Christmas season, Petworth will be offering wreath-making workshops and festive block printing sessions, and as well as Saturday’s late-night opening with carol singing, there will be a repeat event on Saturday, December 20.

For more information, see https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/sussex/petworth