Gemma 
🎄☃️✨ Welcome to Day 2 of Blogmas At Home! It’s 23 days until Christmas and I’m (quite literally) walking in a winter wonderland. ✨☃️🎄
Today’s post is full of festive vibes and winter magic- it’s another Christmas light trail! If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you might remember that last year I went to Christmas at Stourhead, a Christmas light trail in Wiltshire. I had such a nice time there that I decided to go to another light trail- but I wanted to try out a different one this year.
Enter: Christmas at Blenheim Palace. Blenheim Palace is a country house in Oxfordshire with huge grounds, so it’s perfect for a light trail. One little note here: when I say huge, I do mean huge– it was definitely longer than the Stourhead trail. I (with my limited energy) did get a bit tired on the walk around. There was a large seating area halfway around and a couple of benches scattered throughout the latter half of the trail, for me to take a couple of much-needed breaks, but it was still on the tougher side- just something to be aware of!
We went towards the end of November, pretty early in the day (just after 5pm)- so it was nice and dark, but not as busy as it would be this month. It was definitely busier than the Stourhead trail, though- particularly on some of the narrower sections of the trail, but it wasn’t too bad.
There are several different ‘experiences’ that make up Christmas at Blenheim Palace- we only went to the light trail, but you can also book tickets for the fair rides, entry to the house itself (which is decorated with a Sleeping Beauty theme), or even a Sleeping Beauty-inspired afternoon tea. Booking any ticket gets you access to the Christmas Market in the courtyard- which we walked around after the trail (and really enjoyed!). You can read more about Christmas at Blenheim Palace on their website.
Now, let’s get into some pictures!
This doesn’t look like much, but it was one of my favourite parts of the trail- as you walk down the zig-zag pathway at the start, the grass on either side was covered in these coloured fairy lights- like little rainbow glow worms. It was so magical!
These trees were constantly changing colour- sometimes they were lit up like a rainbow (as above), sometimes they were all one colour. They were set up over a water feature, so all of the lights were reflected below.
I loved this starry tunnel- it even changed colours as you walked through it! It very much gave me Super Mario Galaxy kinda vibes (slightly niche, I know).
Ah, the return of the marshmallows! I think I mentioned in my Stourhead post that there were marshmallows available for purchase, which you could then toast on these big fire pits. They had the same thing here! We got the vanilla marshmallows (they also had salted caramel and one another flavour that has unfortunately slipped my mind) and they were SO GOOD. However, the sticks they give you are pretty short and the fire pits get super hot– it can be a bit difficult to toast the marshmallow without burning yourself. ALSO, if you plan to do this, bring some means of cleaning your hands with you, because it gets super sticky and I don’t think there were any bathrooms nearby to wash your hands!
I loved these Christmas tree archways- don’t they look like golden baubles?
I think this clock-themed installation was supposed to be a nod to Santa Claus’s Christmas Eve shenanigans, flying through time zones in his sleigh? Along with this big clock arch, there were lots of little clocks labelled with different cities from around the world, but I didn’t take a photo of them because… all the times were wrong? The Dublin and London clocks were showing different times! I was confused and I felt betrayed, so I boycotted taking a photo. I liked the above clock arch very much though!
This heart arch was the reason I chose Blenheim Palace for this year’s light trail- it’s just SO PRETTY! As you can expect, there were lots of couples taking photos under this one.
For any Harry Potter fans, this floating candle installation gave off MAJOR Hogwarts vibes.
Ah, a trip down memory lane with this fairy light arch. This was my favourite installation in Stourhead, but now I’m wondering if all Christmas light trails have one of these?
This! This was my ABSOLUTE favourite part of the whole trail- you catch a glimpse of it at the start and then, towards the end, you walk right by it and see it up close. This huge, rainbow gradient tree has made me question everything I ever thought I felt about Christmas decorations and now I have my heart set on creating my own version of this one day. Is this a realistic dream? Probably not (that’s a heck of a lot of baubles), but Christmas is a time for miracles, right?
This is the only photo I took from the Christmas Market in the Palace’s courtyard- you can look around it before or after the light trail, but we opted to look after because we were so excited to see the lights (read: we were already 5 minutes late for our time slot). There were lots of stalls selling all sorts of things from handmade gifts, to tasty snacks and beverages. I had a pizza from the stall above and it was really tasty! Also, the sign made me laugh (hence why I remembered to take the picture).
Overall, I really enjoyed my time at Christmas at Blenheim Palace (even though my legs needed a good day or two to recover afterwards!). There were loads of different installations and things to see, and the Christmas Market made the whole thing feel extra special.
I hope you’ve enjoyed Day 2 of Blogmas at Home- I’ll be back tomorrow with another festive post. In the meantime, stay holly and jolly! 🎄☃️
Gemma
xxx
