Size really does matter!

When it comes to Christmas Trees size and shape is everything! And luckily for us our Ranger Team have delivered on both counts!

Earlier this year I had a 'wild' idea to have a 20 foot Christmas Tree at Wray Castle. In fact I didn't think it was such a crazy idea really. When you have a building on the scale of Wray Castle it would be wrong not to get the biggest Christmas Tree possible. The Castle itself is a masterpiece in showing off; everything is over the top, so why not get an over the top Christmas Tree to celebrate our first Christmas open to visitors?


The Tree has arrived- its so big only half of it fits on the trailer. Look at me- I am helping, really!

 Getting the tree into the Castle didn't seem that hard really- especially when you take a 'supervisory' role like I did! Looking at the photo below the tree does appear to be a lot wider than the doors, but fortunately the branches are very flexible with soft pine needles so it was possible to squeeze it through the doorway.




Now, how do we get it upright?

Getting the tree upright required a long rope, pure brute strength, and some ingenuity to stop the trunk of the tree sliding about on our beautiful Minton tiled floor. Once upright and secured, we then had to start the mammoth task of decorating it. The Rangers got the hardest job and were sent up the big extendable ladder to arrange the fairy lights, whilst being directed from below by two members of the Wray Castle House Team.

Looking down at the central hall from the first floor landing- isn't is pretty?

Being a bit of a scrooge, I had only bought one set of lights, but it soon became apparent that one set was not enough. (In fairness to me though, I wasn't too sure that I would be getting the 20 ft tree I asked for, but it turns out this tree is even bigger than that!) Even our building contractors were giving advice on the quantity of tree lights though, or lack of them - and so I had to bow to all these expert interior decorators and get some more lights.



The decorated tree- complete with two sets of lights!

Lottie, Harriet and all the Rangers did a great job getting all the decorations on the tree, whilst I did a job much more suited to my skill set - hoovering! The finished tree really does look fantastic. Even a bah humbug like me cannot fail to feel Christmassy seeing this tree every week.

These photos don't do it justice so why not come and see it for yourself. Wray Castle is open every weekend until the 23rd of December 10.30 - 4pm. You can even do some decorating yourself as we have two other 'normal' sized trees to decorate and Christmas wreaths to make.