Windsor Castle Unveils Beautiful Christmas Decorations
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The festive season has arrived in Windsor!
Windsor Castle's State Apartments have officially been decked out with Christmas decorations. The centerpiece of the seasonal decor is a 20-foot-high Nordmann Fir tree, located in St George’s Hall. It was sourced from Windsor Great Park, and after the Christmas season ends, it will be replanted. According to the Royal Collection Trust, the tree “in St George’s Hall is topped with a Garter Star decoration. The ceiling of the Hall is decorated with the shields of the Knights of the Garter.”
A second Christmas tree is located in the Crimson Drawing Room; that one is a 15-foot-high Norman Fir. The Crimson Drawing Room, per the RCT, is “part of the elaborate Semi-State Rooms which are used for official entertaining by the Royal Family and are open to the public in the winter months.”
Christmas trees have a lengthy royal history; the concept was introduced to Britain by Queen Charlotte, who used yew trees, and were popularized thanks to Queen Victoria. "Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the tree into Windsor Castle on Christmas Eve and they would decorate it themselves," Royal Collection curator Kathryn Jones explained to the BBC. "They would light the candles and put gingerbread on the tree and the children would be brought in."
Decorations also adorn the Grand Staircase, where visitors enter Windsor Castle's State Apartments, and Waterloo Chamber, another room open to the public:
In addition, for the first time this year, miniature decorations have been added to the tiny rooms of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House at Windsor Castle, “in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the largest and most famous dolls’ house in the world,” the Royal Collection Trust noted.
The royal family keeps to the same Christmas traditions every year, spending Christmas Day at Sandringham and exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve.
As Prince Harry wrote in his memoir Spare of Christmas Eve traditions: "We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long table covered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of us located our place, stood before our mound of presents. Then suddenly, everyone began opening at the same time. A free-for-all, with scores of family members talking at once and pulling at bows and tearing at wrapping paper."
The Christmas displays at Windsor Castle will be on view November 21, 2024 until January 6, 2024. Tickets are available at www.rct.uk.
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