Christmas at Holkham Hall 2025 – Holkham Hall by Candlelight Review
Holkham Hall is one of our favourite country houses in the UK, and one we return to often. We have a long and deep affection for the hall itself, the wider estate, and the stretch of coast beyond. Holkham Hall by Candlelight is one of our favourite Christmas experiences, and this year’s Christmas at Holkham Hall was no exception.
Built in the 18th century for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, Holkham Hall sits deep in the north Norfolk countryside, close to the coast. Inspired by the Grand Tour and classical ideals, the house has a clarity and restraint that still defines it today. The surrounding landscape of parkland, farmland, and woodland is deliberately open and uncluttered, with long views across grazing deer and big Norfolk skies. That sense of scale and calm is central to the experience of visiting Holkham, and it plays an important role in how Christmas at Holkham Hall is presented.
The Holkham Obelisk at dusk
Unlike some of the larger Christmas installations at major houses, Holkham Hall by Candlelight feels deliberately home spun, and that is meant entirely as praise. Unlike Blenheim Palace, and other major houses, there is no imported spectacle, or outside team imposing a theatrical narrative. Instead, the house itself becomes the canvas. What you experience is still Holkham Hall as you know it, simply dressed for Christmas and lit gently by candlelight.
The grand house, has been dressed with a simple bow for Christmas enticing you inwards.
Inside the Christmas experience begins with the Marble Hall. Christmas trees run up the iconic staircase, drawing the eye upwards without competing with the architecture. The great columns are wrapped with lights and greenery, drawing you up towards the decorated rooms.
The Grand Hall
In the red walled state rooms, the main Christmas tree stands proud, dressed to complement the richness of the walls and the paintings that surround it. Elsewhere, rooms shift in tone and palette. One leans into deep blues and silvers, another into warmer reds and golds. Each room feels distinct, but none feel disconnected from the character of the house.
Red and White Decorations
One of the most charming moments of Christmas at Holkham Hall comes with the gingerbread house. It is detailed, playful, and quietly impressive without tipping into spectacle (there’s no witch beneath!).
The Gingerbread House
Nearby, the children’s room feels exactly as it should. Paper chains, handmade touches, and a sense of honesty that recalls a real family Christmas rather than a styled installation. The red and white striped tablecloth in the dining room continues this feeling, bold and nostalgic, immediately recognisable as Christmas without any need for explanation.
Every room is different, but all of them feel lived in. Rather than moving through a series of themed displays, you move through a house prepared for Christmas.With Holkham Hall by Candlelight we can easily imagine enjoying a long lunch at the table, drifting into a drawing room afterwards, and dozing quietly by one of the roaring log fires as night falls.
A Festive table framing old masters paintings
Indeed as our night grew dark we headed outside to watch the house light up before enjoying a mince pie and a glass of fizz in one of Holkham’s newer function spaces. A gentle poke around the shop followed, before heading out into the Norfolk night and towards home.
Holkham Hall by Candlelight works because it remains unmistakably Holkham. At Christmas Holkham Hall is not about transformation or spectacle. It is about allowing the house to be itself for the season, and that is exactly why we love it so much.
Wells-next-the-Sea,
Norfolk,
NR23 1AB
(map)