Basildon House, located near Reading in Berkshire, sits in 400 acres of pasture and woodland. It is a popular National Trust property to visit in the winter months. My first ever visit to the house was this autumn. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the house is not fully open, but you can read about my visit and see photographs here: Visiting Basildon Park (National Trust, Berkshire): Lockdown Edition. I recently visited Basildon House again in order to see the Christmas displays. Normally, National Trust properties open up with festive flair during December, but it is muted this year. Many properties are simply not open. Other properties have done a little bit of decoration for the holidays, and Basildon Park is one of those.
The house at Basildon dates from the 18th century from fortunes made in East India. The house passed through several owners in a short space of time, but the house was luckily saved for today's generation by a family who sought to fix it up during a time when such houses were being demolished. The house has been in the care of National Trust since 1978. It has been used as a filming location for the 2005 "Pride and Prejudice", "Dorian Gray" and "Downton Abbey".
The walk up from the stables, which today is the location for the shop and tearoom, is through a little bit of forest up the hill. It was covered with strings of white lights.
The last time I visited Basildon Park was sunny too. It is an attractive-looking property, and I do hope to visit it again when it is fully open.
I had some time before the house opened to look around, and I mainly went to the garden of the house, which I find peaceful and with nice views.
Christmas is always a nice time to visit National Trust properties as they do decorate. This year, however, it was a muted event. But an effort was made, and I enjoyed seeing the house decorated. The entrace room contained a large tree with pink, white, and silver decorations that match the flowers in the room and the wall.
The library off this room was shut up, so the next room to visit was the landing. This area was decorated with red and gold decorations. The stairs were blocked off as only a few rooms could be visited on the ground floor.
The dining room did not have a Christmas tree, but it was lit with moody purple and white lighting with the table laid for a feast.
The octagon room is one of the most unique rooms in the house, and this was the most beautiful room for Christmas with a large tree covered in white lights. It did not have any decorations, though.
The small living room off of the octagon room also did not contain a Christmas tree, but some ornaments were made to look festive with some decorations or lights added to them. A group of stuffed toy bears on the floor appeared to be having drinks with one of them appearing to have had a little too much.
This leads through to the kitchen, which was also decorated.
The final room contained some decorations lit up in the fireplace and also a "tree of books" for this little office room, located off of the main entrance hallway.
I would love to visit Basildon Park again next year and to see it at Christmas. I hope that we are able to do so and hope that the whole house is open.
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