See Fairfax House in a different light this Christmas…
Christmas Evening Extravaganza
As darkness falls, Fairfax House will come alight and alive for a very special Christmas evening of entertainment, shopping and wine on Thursday 3rd December.
Every year Fairfax House dons its festive garb and is dressed from top to toe with its renowned Georgian decorations for The Keeping of Christmas. This year is no exception with a magnificent display.
However 2015 holds another surprise with a NEW Christmas Evening Extravaganza. As part of York’s Late Night Thursdays, Fairfax House will be staying open late on Thursday 3rd December from 5.00pm until 8.00pm for a Christmas Evening filled with discounted shopping in the museum shop, twilight visits through The Keeping of Christmas and mulled wines and mince pies in the Georgian Kitchen.
Visitors can pop in after the House normally closes and enjoy an ‘After Dark’ experience of Fairfax House in all its festive glory. They can wander through the period rooms decked with evergreens and 18th-century decorations. A Christmas day breakfast, including a massive Yorkshire Pie, cheddar cheese carved with a cross in true northern tradition, and other eighteenth century baked goods, will be laid out in the library whilst the grand central staircase and Venetian window is a focal point for entwined evergreens.
The spectacular dining room display is set with dessert and magnificent sugar work table decorations and of course its latest special creation a Twelfth Cake by world-renowned food historian Ivan Day. This is the perfect opportunity over a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie to hear about the Georgian festive traditions, what they ate and drank and how they celebrated Christmas.
Upstairs the drawing room and saloon host a nativity display and a ‘Georgian’ holly Christmas-tree (completely unrecognisable compared to our present day variety), and in the kitchen hangs a Kissing Bough, a beautiful sphere of evergreens with candles and ring of apples.
Most magnificent of all though will be the sound of music filling the house throughout with carols and festive pieces from The Mount’s School Chamber Choir. Fairfax House, as a 1760s townhouse, was designed with entertaining in mind, and it is hugely fitting that at this time of the year, The Mount’s choir will be bringing the house alive and giving a special performance from the Grand Staircase to fill the House with music.
Christmas celebrations will also carry through into the shop and late night shoppers in York can call in throughout the evening for discounted shopping. The museum shop will be offering for one night only 15% off across all ranges including gifts, cards and antiques.
For more information visit the website at www.fairfaxhouse.co.uk
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Press Contacts: Hannah Phillip, Director Tel: 01904 655543
Email: hannahphillip@yorkcivictrust.co.uk