Happy Holly Days: 10 of the best Christmas outings across the UK
We all need a little cheer at this time of year, when the nights are long and the days often dark - perhaps now more than ever. Fortunately, the UK's stately homes, galleries, gardens, theatres, churches and steam trains have planned ahead and are ready with art and music, fire and flames. ice cream and mince pies with Santa Claus. Even the most determined Scrooge should find something to enjoy.
Sound and LightEvery year more and more places join in the lighted fun, and now there are hundreds of light shows across the country, often set to moving seasonal music. New this year are Hatfield Park, Hertfordshire, where Elizabeth I grew up, and Leeds Castle in Kent. One of Europe's largest city parks, Roundhay Park in Leeds, is also launching a light trail, with a fairy-lit tunnel and fire garden, that winds through the trees and past the lake (various dates in December).
For the 10th anniversary of the epic light trail at Kew Gardens, South West London, there are new features, including the illusion of an aquatic abyss in the lake, as well as Instagrammable projections and lasers playing on the Palm House (until January 8). There's a lantern walk in Wakehurst, Kew's wildest sister garden in West Sussex, as well as immersive soundscapes and the UK's largest living Christmas tree, decorated with 1,800 fairy lights (up to 'on January 1).
There is a new trail d 'mile-long circle around the Shugborough Estate in Staffordshire this winter, where a festoon-suspended walkway leads through the Night Gardens, illuminating natural and architectural features (until January 1). In nearby Lichfield, England's only three-spired medieval cathedral puts on a sound and light show called Sing, Choirs of Angels. Frederick Oakeley, who lived in Lichfield, translated the Latin chant Adeste Fideles into English O Come All Ye Faithful. The artists of the Illuminos projection based their installations on this popular song and the story of the nativity (16-20 Dec...
We all need a little cheer at this time of year, when the nights are long and the days often dark - perhaps now more than ever. Fortunately, the UK's stately homes, galleries, gardens, theatres, churches and steam trains have planned ahead and are ready with art and music, fire and flames. ice cream and mince pies with Santa Claus. Even the most determined Scrooge should find something to enjoy.
Sound and LightEvery year more and more places join in the lighted fun, and now there are hundreds of light shows across the country, often set to moving seasonal music. New this year are Hatfield Park, Hertfordshire, where Elizabeth I grew up, and Leeds Castle in Kent. One of Europe's largest city parks, Roundhay Park in Leeds, is also launching a light trail, with a fairy-lit tunnel and fire garden, that winds through the trees and past the lake (various dates in December).
For the 10th anniversary of the epic light trail at Kew Gardens, South West London, there are new features, including the illusion of an aquatic abyss in the lake, as well as Instagrammable projections and lasers playing on the Palm House (until January 8). There's a lantern walk in Wakehurst, Kew's wildest sister garden in West Sussex, as well as immersive soundscapes and the UK's largest living Christmas tree, decorated with 1,800 fairy lights (up to 'on January 1).
There is a new trail d 'mile-long circle around the Shugborough Estate in Staffordshire this winter, where a festoon-suspended walkway leads through the Night Gardens, illuminating natural and architectural features (until January 1). In nearby Lichfield, England's only three-spired medieval cathedral puts on a sound and light show called Sing, Choirs of Angels. Frederick Oakeley, who lived in Lichfield, translated the Latin chant Adeste Fideles into English O Come All Ye Faithful. The artists of the Illuminos projection based their installations on this popular song and the story of the nativity (16-20 Dec...
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