Exploring the 12 Days of Christmas trail at Dyffryn Gardens

Cardiff Christmas

With the sun shining and no plans this morning, Littlest and I headed to Dyffryn Gardens, the beautiful National Trust property in St Nicholas in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Their 12 Days of Christmas trail has just launched – and as we loved it so much last year, we couldn’t wait to see how this year’s would compare.

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

We have a National Trust family membership and while South Wales may not have the same numbers of properties as other areas of the UK, both Dyffryn Gardens and Tredegar House in Newport have so many different events throughout the year that it keeps us visiting regularly.

Taking its inspiration from the famous Christmas song, there are 12 installations throughout the property grounds, each reflecting one of the gifts given by the true love in the song and all of them impressive and very photogenic too. You can scroll down for the full set of photos but be warned, it contains spoilers.

It’s definitely worth picking up a map at the entrance desk. Some of the gifts are tucked away in the ornamental gardens, and they span the full length of the grounds. The grounds are pretty buggy friendly although there were one or two areas which needed careful navigation.

Littlest’s favourite was the 12 drummers drumming – a full drum kit made from chopped up tree trunks. It looked fantastic. I just hope he doesn’t get any ideas about asking for the real thing for Christmas.

I loved the nine ladies dancing set in front of the main house reflecting in the sunlight.

Also at Dyffryn over Christmas is the wish tree where you can write a wish and pin it onto the Christmas tree. We ran out of time to visit this inside the property as we had to dash back to get Littlest back to pre-school for the afternoon. We’ll definitely be back with the rest of the family as soon as we can though, for them to enjoy the trail and for us all to make our wishes.

The 12 Days of Christmas trail runs at Dyffryn Gardens until Sunday 7th January. Usual entrance charges apply of adults £9.60 adult; children £4.80; family £24 (Gift Aid prices).

Have you visited or are you planning on going? Let me know in the comments below; on the Cardiff Mummy Says Facebook page or tweet me on @cardiffmummy 

We pay for our National Trust membership ourselves and Dyffryn Gardens did not know we would be writing this review.

 

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me….

12 drummers drumming

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

11 pipers piping

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

10 lords-a-leaping

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

9 ladies dancing

 

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

8 maids-a-milking

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

7 swans-a-swimming

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

6 geese-a-laying

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

5 gold rings

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

4 calling birds

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

3 French hens

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

2 turtle doves

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

and a partridge in a pear

Dyffryn Gardens 12 days of christmas

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