Getting ready for Christmas at Mottisfont

Whilst we want to ‘wow’ our visitors, there are many things to consider when decorating an historic house. The logistics of such a large scale display take a lot of forward planning and teamwork (with staff and volunteers all lending a hand), and throughout, we need to consider the historic nature of our surroundings and protect the fabric the house and the objects within.

Preparation started early with the theme being decided several years in advance. This year’s theme, based on the poem ‘The Night Before Christmas’ by Clement C Moore (also known as ‘A Visit from Saint Nicholas’), gave us a beautiful, ready-made narrative and also allowed us to decorate in a way that is sympathetic to the rooms in the house.

Planning began in earnest in the second half of this year with room sets to design and props to be made. Along with our visitor experience team we looked at how we could decorate the house to its best advantage whilst still taking care to protect our historic surfaces.

False mantelpieces with perspex upstands were built to protect the real thing, allowing garlands and decorations to be attached without damaging the marble mantels, surrounding plasterwork or gilded mirrors.

Surfaces have been protected with plastazote (a dense, inert and acid-free foam) and melinex (an archival quality, clear polyester film). The new gallery hanging rail that was installed in the west corridor this year meant that, for the first time, we could hang garlands in this space.

The house was closed for twelve days in November for decoration. By this time the final designs had been agreed upon and an installation schedule set up. It was a real team effort this year: the house and visitor experience teams worked to build and decorate Christmas trees, wrap a seemingly infinite number of presents and dress the rooms.

Our team at visitor reception made giant books, painted little houses for the dining room table and made paperchains to hang in our corridor. Our floristry volunteers created amazing garlands for the mantelpieces and banisters, and decorated trees in the house and café.

Our volunteer craft group ‘The Mottisfont Makers’ made tree decorations, stockings and the lovely little mice which appear in every room. Volunteer craftspeople made props including the false mantelpieces, the tiny mouse furniture and the magic lantern in the children’s bedroom. 

We worked right up until the last moment before opening – but we think it was worth it. We hope you enjoy seeing it as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

From everyone at Mottisfont, we wish you a very Merry Christmas.