Festivals & Events

Biltmore House is still the largest private home in the nation
More than a quarter of a million people visit during the holiday season
Make reservations for Christmas at Biltmore

’Tis the Season

Celebrate the holidays in style at the Biltmore Estate

The halls of Biltmore Estate are decked with hundreds of trees and garlands during Christmas at Biltmore, which runs from early November through New Year's Day.
Photos Courtesy of the Biltmore Company

On Christmas Eve 1895, George Washington Vanderbilt II hosted a housewarming party at his new chateau in Asheville, N.C., overwhelming family and friends with the 250-room house’s extravagant holiday décor.

More than a century has passed, but Biltmore House – spanning 4 acres – is still the largest private home in the nation, and the estate still hosts a one-of-a-kind Christmas celebration inspired by that first party at the mansion.

Today’s visitors will be just as awed by the sights and sounds as Biltmore guests have been for generations.

“Christmas is a wonderful time to visit Biltmore House,” says Andy Pearce, public relations coordinator for the Biltmore. “It’s very magical and a great way to get into the holiday spirit. People have been coming for over 100 years, and we still celebrate the tradition today. It’s a unique and special celebration.”

The numbers say it all: close to 100 decorated trees, 1,450 poinsettias, thousands of ornaments and miles – yes, miles – of garland.

The centerpiece is a Fraser fir stretching more than three stories, grown specifically for the Biltmore to illuminate its 72-foot-high Banquet Hall (the largest of the 250 rooms).

Throughout the season, carols and other holiday music from choirs and ensembles permeate the hall, which houses a 1916 Skinner pipe organ.

The Biltmore attracted more than a quarter of a million visitors during 2006’s holiday season, many coming for a chance to step back in time with the estate’s Candlelight Christmas Evenings.

Available by reservation only, the Biltmore appears just as it would have that first Christmas Eve, dimly lit with the warm glow of candles and fireplaces.

Though the Biltmore House is breathtaking in its own right, the estate includes so much more, from wining and dining to shopping and biking.

Bistro, Deerpark Restaurant, Stable Café and The Dining Room offer an array of festive feasts throughout the holiday season, and the Biltmore Estate Winery – overseen for more than a decade by a vintner from France – hosts self-guided tours and cooking demonstrations.

Complimentary wine samples (even grape juice for the kids) are offered in the winery’s spacious tasting room, formerly the estate’s dairy-milking parlor.

But the best – and biggest – holiday treat is found in the main kitchen of the Biltmore House: a 6-foot-long gingerbread replica of the house itself.

Tickets for Christmas at Biltmore range from $22.50 to $60, and children under 9 are free with a paying parent or guardian.

Story By Jessy Yancey

What To Know Before You Go

Christmas at Biltmore

Nov. 3, 2007-Jan. 1, 2008 (including Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days)
Asheville, N.C.
www.biltmore.com

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