Festive Family Weekends at Tredegar House National Trust in Newport

Paid collaboration with Tredegar House National Trust

Tredegar House is hands-down one of the most beautiful local places to visit in the run up to Christmas. The house and gardens look so magical. There are lights everywhere, beautifully decorated trees everywhere you look both inside and out (some of them are huge!), the rooms are decorated to show how Christmas was celebrated at various periods during the house’s 500 year history, from Tudor feasts to Victorian traditions, the 1950s and beyond.

Watch the reel of our visit to Tredegar House here

We visited today for the first of four Festive Family Weekends events – these continue tomorrow Sunday 15 December and next weekend Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 December.

With choirs singing carols and Christmas songs in the grounds outside the house, and singalongs under the ornate ceiling of the Gilt Room, everything felt so wonderfully festive. Each room is decorated as it would have been at some point during the house’s 500 year history – with a banquet table set up for a Christmas feast, wooden toys under the trees and even a champagne bubble bath in the private bathroom of the lady of the house.

Ebenezer Scrooge was being all ‘bah humbug’ with visitors (he told my 13 year old he had the ‘colour of a pickpocket’). Father Christmas was wandering around the entrance lobby of the house, chatting to families and posing for photographs – a perfect opportunity if you’ve not yet met the man in red, with no need to book. The barn is home to a light-up sleigh and reindeer, perfect for a seasonal photo, and lots of other Christmas décor.

We are National Trust members and have been for many years and Tredegar House is always one of our favourite places to visit at this time of year. The staff and volunteers really go to such lengths to make every inch of the house look incredible. The choirs performing add such a lovely atmosphere, and Father Christmas and Scrooge are such a lovely touch – my children used to be scared of Scrooge but thankfully they are not old enough to find him hilarious.

We had lunch in the cafe – the new range of pies and mash are amazing and there are seasonal specials including a pigs-in-blanket hot dog and a parsnip soup – although we arrived in the middle of the lunch time rush when it was super busy (NT cafes are always really popular). We browsed the second hand book shop, looked in the refill shop, and left feeling all warm and festive.

Sadly we couldn’t stay any later – the property is open until 8pm and all the lights must look so pretty, not just in the house but lining the paths and trees around the grounds too. A good excuse to make the most of our membership card and plan in an after dark visit.

Tredegar House, Pencarn Way, Newport, NP10 8YW. Festive Family Weekend runs on Saturdays and Sundays 14 and 15, 21 and 22 December, 12pm-8pm (Father Christmas and Scrooge 12pm-6pm). Late Night Openings are happening from Saturday 14-Monday 23 December, until 8pm
Adults £13.20, children £6.60, family £33, family (one adult) £19.80 – or free for National Trust members.

More information about Christmas at Tredegar House on the website here.