Christmas at Chatsworth House is MAGICAL. This is the only way to describe it. I saw advertisements for this years theme “Fairy Tales” was excited beautifully with glittering trees and set ups of some of the best loved fairy tales. When I found out tickets purchased while the Christmas market was on included both, I booked us in for one of the last days of the week long market.
Along with the inside of the house being magical, part of the grounds had been transformed into Christmas market magic, with some of the best stalls I’ve seen selling homewares and other luxury goods as well as handmade items, cheeses and more. Definitely the best market to get some Christmas gifts from!
Tickets to the house are timed, and parking, admission to the house and gardens and the market were all included (tickets cost £25 each and parking alone would have cost a whopping £20 per car, yikes) so if you plan on visiting the market, it’s more than worth it to take a trip around the house as well. It only took us about an hour as we’ve been so many times before, and the normal information is gone in favour of the fairy tale scenes.
If you’ve been to Chatsworth before, parking is a little different. You park quite far away and they transport you using busses, tractors and golf carts to the house. Arriving at almost 1, we didn’t have to wait for very long at all getting there and back to our car, but I imagine it depends what time of day you visit. After a quick scan of the market stalls we had to head into the house for our allotted time.
Get ready for the most Christmassy photos you’re likely to see outside Covent Garden. See if you can figure out the different fairytales as you scroll. 
We stayed as it got dark so we could see the Christmas market stalls all lit up, and with the bands dotted around still playing, it still felt very festive! It was also nice having a look around the stalls without the heaving crowds. We left around 5 having had our fill but were told traders often stay open until around 6.
If you want to visit Chatsworth, you can purchase tickets on the website, or if an event isn’t on, you can turn up on the day. Events are always popular and I believe many of the Christmas dates have already sold out for the year, especially weekends. I’ll be booking to go back every year now, as I had the biggest grin on my face the entire day as it’s just so darn festive and a great way to start the Christmas season!
