Christmas In Narnia – revealing storybook scenes at Castle Howard

The most magical furniture in the world has been installed in North Yorkshire this winter, as Castle Howard invites visitors to step through their wardrobe to explore a world of festive adventure when the house re-opens for Christmas In Narnia on Saturday 13 November 2021.

Inspired by the classic CS Lewis book, the Narnia Chronicles, visitors can leave our world behind to explore a remarkable interpretation of the places familiar to Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

Exploring the icy kingdom of Narnia

“For our displays, visitors don’t just step into the world of Narnia, they retrace the steps of the Pevensie children from their familiar surroundings at the home of Professor Digory Kirke into the world of perpetual winter ruled over by the White Witch,” explains Charlotte Lloyd Webber, who returns to Castle Howard for a fourth year of stunning displays running through the house. “Taking our explorers through the bedrooms of the children gives a hint of the character traits that become amplified in the magical world, before we step out of the wardrobe into the frozen lands.”

Ice has taken over the Antiques Passage at Castle Howard

A fantastic soundscape, created by Karen Monid, accompanies the trip around the house, with sounds that evoke both the 1940s and the magical world, adding an extra dimension and atmosphere to the visit.

Once back on the China Landing, the imposing door of the mirrored wardrobe awaits – the traditional entry point to Narnia. Stepping through a tunnel of fur coats, once through the wardrobe, icy fingers of frost have touched every part of the path with a blizzard of white! In the distance, the lamp post marker surrounded by Mr Tumnus’s abandoned presents beckons you forward into a frozen world, where the enemies of the White Witch have been turned to stone. The Antique Passage is filled with frozen animals, twigs and icicles.

The 28ft snow covered tree in the Great Hall

Normally known for being one of the warmest and most welcoming places in Castle Howard’s Christmas displays, even the Great Hall has not escaped untouched by the White Witch’s icy gaze. The normally magnificent and colourful evergreen tree – standing at 28ft, and probably the largest real indoor decorated tree in the country – has been caught in a snowstorm, every branch covered with snow and thousands of icicles, and a constellation of tiny white lights, glistening and sparkling. The tree stands proud in the centre of the Great Hall – as if growing out of the floor – beneath Castle Howard’s famous dome, where visitors can walk right around it.

Stepping from the Great Hall into the Garden Hall, visitors enter the heart of the self-proclaimed Queen of Narnia’s domain – and find the White Witch, larger than life, frozen in time and covered in hundreds of icicles, on board her sleigh. Projections and sounds bring the scene to life and continue into the White Witch’s palace. An icy passageway through the Cabinet rooms leads out of the land of snow.

Having felt the chill of the White Witch’s magic, visitors return to perhaps the warmest and most comfortable place in the whole of Narnia – Mr Tumnus’s house, where the snow has started to melt, and elements of the forest have taken refuge – winter evergreens growing over the fireplace with its roaring blaze, and real trees creating a wonderful woodland atmosphere.