Please enjoy this archived content from a Christmas past.

For our grand annual events such as Biltmore Blooms and Christmas at Biltmore, America’s largest home is decorated according to a broad theme. This year’s theme of “Hearth and Home” is beautifully illustrated by the special attention paid to the many fireplaces and mantels throughout Biltmore House during the Christmas season.

From lavish Bohemian-style beading on the fireplace surround in the Breakfast Room to magnificent garlands with elegant gold tassels in the Library, our Floral team has created a breathtaking holiday display to amaze all the guests who visit from early November to early January.

In the Banquet Hall—always a showcase of seasonal spirit during Christmas at Biltmore—the triple fireplaces are decked in grand style. United by a massive limestone mantel, the fireplaces feature a double swag of greenery bursting with bright bows, twinkling lights, and decorative winter boughs. The swags frame Karl Bitter’s detailed carving entitled “The Return from the Hunt” that illustrates a scene from Wagner’s epic Tannhäuser opera. (In the photo above, you’ll note that the heavy garland is decorated in layers to add depth and richness. At the stage seen here, the lights are not in place and the bows will be further refined into rosettes. Floral will also load the greenery with frosty branches and other elements of botanical interest.)

According to Eugenia Halyburton Chandler, daughter of estate employee James A. Halyburton, the Banquet Hall triple fireplaces were an especially important part of the estate’s Christmas festivities during the 1920s and ‘30s. As a child, Eugenia recalled how Cornelia’s husband John Cecil—dressed as Santa Claus—would hide inside one of the triple fireplaces on a ledge above the opening. During the Christmas party for estate employees, Mr. Cecil would pop out and delight all the children in attendance.

In the image below, you see the completed garland aglow for Christmas at Biltmore and Candlelight Christmas Evenings. Enjoy this merriest time of the year now through January 8, 2017.

From miles of garlands and hundreds of wreaths to thousands of lights and decorations on more than 50 trees inside America’s Largest Home^®, our annual Christmas at Biltmore celebration is guaranteed to put you in a festive holiday mood!

But where does it all come from each year? How and when does it start? We asked members of Biltmore’s Floral team to give us a behind-the-scenes look at creating such a spectacular holiday happening.

A design storyboard featuring sample ornaments, ribbon, and photos for inspiration

A year of planning

“All the Christmas decorations you see this year began to take shape more than 12 months ago,” said Lizzie Borchers, Floral Displays Manager. “Our team spends several early December mornings walking through Biltmore House before guests arrived. We evaluate what’s great and what we might do again in another room,” Lizzie said. “We already know the following year’s theme, and our designers are eager to choose the rooms they want. Sometimes it’s like a bidding war—they have to sell me on their ideas.”

The selection process

Rooms are decorated according to an annual theme that changes each year, and the Floral team also takes cues from style elements of the room such as the predominant colors, art and furnishings, or the way in which the room was used.

The Library, for example, might feature books among its decorations while the Main Kitchen could include wreaths of dried bay leaves or other culinary ingredients.

Creating the designs, selecting the decorations, and deciding whether fresh plants or other ancillary materials should be included takes months of careful planning and review by the lead designer for each room, with input and assistance from the entire team.
Design sheets and ornaments for inspiration

As they decide on specific rooms for which they’d like to take responsibility during the December walk-through, team members choose some ornaments as they go; others are chosen from Biltmore’s warehouse a few months later.

Some ornaments are new, purchased at the Atlanta Gift Mart each March. Each designer then develops a kind of storyboard featuring a sample basket of ornaments and detailed design sheets to show Lizzie the look and feel of their plans. The designs are tweaked and approved as early as possible so the team can begin locating or creating any additional pieces needed to complete the scene.

Meanwhile, the Christmas trees are stored upright in Floral’s warehouse (sometimes called the tree farm) in spots reserved specifically for them. By early summer, team members have gone over all the tree lights to make sure they are in good condition and they’ve placed orders for plants such as fresh poinsettias to arrive at the proper time. For the next few months, the remaining decorations needed for each area are created.

Grand Staircase Christmas tree in Biltmore House

Putting it all together

During the entire month of October, our Floral Displays team is busy decking the halls and rooms of Biltmore House. Guests enjoy watching Christmas at Biltmore come to life and tell us it often inspires ideas for their own homes.

Featured image: a vintage children’s book inspires Christmas decorations at Biltmore

Decorating America’s largest home for the holiday season is certainly no small task. Christmas at Biltmore is one of the Southeast’s most storied Yuletide destinations and we know that expectations are set pretty high.

Yet the beauty of Biltmore adorned for the season never disappoints, a remarkable testament to the expertise of our Floral staff. Each January, before the holiday decorations are taken down, our designers and reserve team start planning for next Christmas.

Designs and arrangements vary from year to year, meaning every wreath, ornament, and bow is selected or created precisely for its intended location that holiday season.

The amount of imagination and preparation required is staggering, not to mention the sheer volume of décor. So besides a talented crew and a full year, what exactly does it take to create Christmas at Biltmore?

Christmas Trees

• The 2016 celebration boasts 62 decorated Christmas trees inside Biltmore House. 
• The largest tree in Biltmore House is the Vanderbilt traditional 35-foot-tall Fraser fir in the Banquet Hall. It takes about 50 Biltmore staff members to carry the tree through the house and raise it safely and securely into place.
• An illuminated 55-foot-tall Norway spruce stands on the Front Lawn of Biltmore House, along with 20 other lit evergreens.
• A total of 44 additional decorated Christmas trees can be found at other locations across the estate, including Antler Hill Village & Winery, The Inn on Biltmore Estate, Village Hotel on Biltmore Estate, and our restaurants.
• The Conservatory is decorated with “trees” made of potted plants and other natural materials. Over 30 live trees and shrubs are used to decorate other estate buildings.

Lights and Candles

• About 30,000 lights and 150 candles are used in Biltmore House. More than 135,000 LED and mini lights twinkle across the estate. 
• The Front Lawn tree is illuminated by 55,000 lights. An additional 20,000 are used on the surrounding trees and shrubs. 
• ​Lit at dusk, 300 luminaries line the driveway and Esplanade in front of Biltmore House.

Ornaments

The Banquet Hall tree is trimmed with 500 ornaments, 500 LED Edison style light bulbs, and 500 wrapped gift boxes. There are 13,000 ornaments decorating the other trees inside Biltmore House and another 13,000 used in other areas of the estate.

Poinsettias and Other Blooming Plants

There are over 1,000 traditional poinsettias on display as well as over 1,000 other bloom plants including amaryllis, Christmas cactus, orchids, peace lilies, cyclamen, begonias, and kalanchoe.

Wreaths

Our wreaths are made of fresh white pine and Fraser fir, ornamented with golden arborvitae, holly, or other natural materials like twigs and cones. Artificial bases are decorated with ornaments, berries, faux flowers, and ribbon. There are 360 fresh wreaths and sprays along with 130 faux pieces throughout the estate during the season.

Kissing Balls

There are 100 orbs made of fresh white pine and Fraser fir or dried and faux materials decorating the estate.

Garlands

A total of 7,527 feet of fresh white pine and Fraser fir garlanding adorns the estate, all of which is replaced weekly for freshness and fragrance. An additional 1,200 feet for faux garlanding is used in Biltmore House with another 1,500 feet used across the estate.

Ribbons and Bows

There are 500 bows used in Biltmore House and about 1,000 used in other areas of the estate. Base materials vary from narrow cording to 8-inch-wide ribbon, decorated with velvets, metallics, satins, burlap, printed cottons, and more.

Our magical Candlelight Christmas Evenings bring the season to life with flickering candlelight and cozy flames, plus the sounds of choirs and musicians to create an intimate atmosphere in Biltmore House. On the Front Lawn, a 55-foot Norway spruce tree, lit by 45,000 tiny bright lights and surrounded by hundreds of hand-lit luminaries, welcomes guests and sets a charming holiday mood. 

“For Christmas decorations outside Biltmore House,” said Cathy Barnhardt, Floral Displays Manager, “we need a tree that's tall enough to show up in front of America's largest home!”

Each year, our Floral team works with Andrews Nursery–the same nursery that provides our magnificent Banquet Hall Christmas trees–to find a towering evergreen that will work for the Front Lawn. Their preference is for a tree that already needs to be removed because of its proximity to homes or power lines. In 2012, for example, the Front Lawn tree came from Roan Mountain on the North Carolina/Tennessee state line.

“It started out as a live inside Christmas tree that was planted outside after the holiday,” Cathy said. “It grew for nearly 50 years until it just got too big for the yard and had to come down. We were very excited to bring it to Biltmore.”

As for lighting the massive Front Lawn tree each year, our engineering team spends several nights creating the glowing display.

“This year's Norway spruce weighs in at 11,000 pounds, is 55-feet tall and 34 years old,” said Brent Merrell, Director of Engineering Services. “We use three boom lifts to decorate it and most of the lights are placed after dark so we know they are evenly distributed.” 

Late in the afternoon just before sunset, a small crew of Biltmore staff members hops out of a pick-up truck in front of Biltmore House to begin a long-standing holiday tradition: the lighting of the luminaries.

The glow of 300 luminaries lining the front lawn and Rampe Douce help set a yuletide tone for our guests as they prepare to enter Biltmore House for Candlelight Christmas Evenings, taking place nightly, now through January 8, 2016.

Each luminary contains a white votive candle, held in place with a generous scoop of sand. It takes about two hours for a 4-person team from our Housekeeping staff to hand-light each one.

The number 7 is an important one for Nell Swan, Facility Services Supervisor and a member of the luminary team for the last 15 years. Seven is the number of steps she takes to place each bag on the lawn to ensure that perfect symmetry for which this light display is known. Some areas require eight steps, she says, but the edge she was working, near the Stable Courtyard, calls for seven.

When it comes to “behind-the-scenes” activities, guests seem to be endlessly fascinated with how we do what we do at Biltmore. According to Vince Helton, Director of Facility Services, while the larger team lights the luminaries, one staff member enters Biltmore House to set up chairs, music stands, and lights for musicians, turn on all fireplaces on first and second floors, polish the brass threshold at the Front Door, and turn on the lights for the large outdoor Christmas tree. “Once the evening activities end around 11 p.m.,” said Vince, “the team starts picking up the luminaries so that everything is ready for our daytime guests.”

The luminaries, combined with the forest of lit trees in the middle of the lawn – including a 60-foot-tall Norway Spruce – create a magical welcome for our guests arriving to tour through Biltmore House. Kudos to Nell and team for making it happen every night!