The journey begins at Pickering, where we were rather early after leaving leeway for the unpredictability of traffic on A64. This afforded us the chance to stop by the tea room just off the platform and start with a few snacks while grabbing hot drinks to take on the train. The Coronation Chicken sandwiches were executed extremely well and fill generously! Boarding goes smoothly after your kids are issued with tokens to redeem for a gift from Santa himself and the train is judiciously loaded with blankets, a sensible precaution given the time of year and heritage nature of the fleet – it’s worth dressing up warm too.

Pulling out of Pickering station on the NYMR Santa Special is an experience in itself as invariably rail enthusiasts line the route at all the best vantage points while you get snug and take in the views. This was actually a novelty for me as it’s been years since I’ve been aboard in daylight, my last few journeys having been on the Disco Steam Train experience. We’d got Little Fork’s best mate with us for the ride too so they kept themselves occupied before the elves came round to introduce themselves and inject some jollity into our travels. We listened to Santa land his sleigh on the roof of the train ready to make his rounds. The big man made his appearance in due course distributing toys to all the kids and patiently listening to their requests for Christmas itself, with us then becoming occupied putting together said gift before the train reversed course to get back to Pickering from our stop at Levisham.

The return leg was filled with more games from the elves while the children snuggled with their new toys and we patted ourselves on the back for another 12 months of having kept the magic intact, phew! Tickets for the NYMR Santa Special are still available to book for £30 a head here.

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With its starring role in so many films, Castle Howard should need little introduction to anyone in York, but the long straight drive through several narrow archways serves as just that as one approaches the estate before making your way through a courtyard into the grounds. It’s a spectacular place to visit at any time of year but when dressed for the festive season it’s all the more memorable. Each year the main house shuts for a period to facilitate the vast undertaking of readying it for the Christmas crowds and I was lucky enough to be one of the first to get to see the fruits of this year’s labour. JM Barrie and Peter Pan are the inspiration this year for Neverland at Castle Howard which raises the bar again for spectacle in this destination.

As one makes their way around the house, you can see JM Barrie’s office recreated in one of the bedrooms, Captain Hook’s den and a mermaid pool amongst other things. These are all brought to life by the addition of audio-visual elements for the first time, putting Tinkerbell right in the middle of the action particularly memorably in a food fight!

It wouldn’t do to spoil too much of the experience but the team at Castle Howard have certainly created something special this year with the help of designer Charlotte Lloyd-Webber. There’s a huge amount of detail to take in as you make your way round, with many nods to both Barrie and the characters he created, definitely an experience worth making time for this Christmas!

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The Case Howard Christmas theme this year is “A Christmas Masquerade” and, as always, the whole house has been transformed. Designers Charlotte Lloyd Webber and Bretta Gerecke have showered the house in colour and light to create another year of striking imagery and spectacular installations to enjoy as you make your way through the iconic building. The Christmas Masquerade theme has empowered the team to be bold with colours and create a very different experience to that of previous years; don’t assume that you’ll see the same thing as last year if you’ve been before. If you think there’re more pictures of me than usual on this page. that’s to avoid spoiling the experience when you arrive.

The aim is to provide a tangible sense of walking through a Venetian Masquerade Ball, something that is produced without the sense of losing the huge personality of Castle Howard itself. As you circulate, you see the theme reflected in the palate used and masks adorning a number of the statues throughout the experience.

As unmissable as ever is the 26ft tall Christmas tree that is dressed with three and a half THOUSAND baubles. I suspect this will be in the background of a similar number of selfies by the time all this is taken down. Despite that headline grabbing bauble count, I felt that the most memorable part of the experience was found in The Long Gallery. This room is bisected by a canal complete with bridges that Baby Fork demanded we cross many, many times. Thankfully there was enough to see in the background to temper the repetition of movement.

The team at Castle Howard have again done a fantastic job. The amount of thought and effort that’s gone into this transformation is easy to see. The opportunity to append it with an Afternoon Tea or a trip to Santa depending on the visitor’s age and leanings only broadens the appeal. We’ll be back soon to take Baby Fork’s grannies around, something that we’ll be bound to repeat in the coming years.

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Two linked canvas tipis will form the bar, festooned with lighting and decked out with wooden tables and benches, cosy furs and an open fire pit, around which customers can soak up the Viking hygge.  The tipi has been given a makeover – bespoke timber walls adorned with Thor’s very own Viking shields bring an additional Norse touch as well as an increased capacity, allowing more people to enjoy a drink. 

A brand new drinks menu offers exciting new lagers, pale ales and Guinness whilst festive favourites such as mulled wine and hot cider will ensure there is something to warm everyone’s cockles. A new range of flavoured hot chocolates allows kids, big and small, to tailor-make their own drink, or adults to enjoy a sweet hit with a kick by adding a delicious shot such as Salted Karamel Vodka or Rhum Orange! Teas and coffees as well as soft drinks are also available to revive busy shoppers.

Shambles Kitchen will be returning with a new cabin accessible to customers already inside the tipi, allowing them to order easily from the exciting Christmas savoury menu, while a private outdoor heated terrace hidden round the back enables customers to soak up the festive atmosphere whilst watching the hustle and bustle in the Christmas market.

THOR’S tipi bar will be open from 10am to 11pm daily from 14 November 2018 through to 1^st January 2019 (closed Christmas Day). For details visit www.thorstipi.com or call 01653 610029.   

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When visiting Brideshead the drive from York takes you past some striking structures (I’ve come close to taking out tourists before, lured into the middle of blind bends for the best camera angles), the most rewarding views of the building come from approaching from the direction of Kirbymoorside. This lets you take in the frontage across the lake over which the building looks, which is visible from some distance in its asymmetric glory. When we arrived on this visit we didn’t linger on the garderns, rather making a beeline for the house to check out its Christmas finery, though both the gardens of the house and the Arboretum nearby merit their own inspection.

I’ll get to the afternoon tea that was the focus of our visit in due course, but the house itself entirely rewarded the years of build up that had accumulated thanks to my extended failure to visit. A normal, year-round visit would offer many sculptures and paintings in addition to the typically lavishly appointed stately home sights, but Christmas has seen them really get stuck into showing off so you can really enjoy visiting Brideshead. As we made our way round, we lost count of the number of Christmas trees that had made a friendly invasion, some constructed of artfully lit stacks of books, one comfortably topping 30 feet in height and another prompting confusion about how its stature had allowed access to the room, but all succeeding in complementing the space it inhabited. The circuit of the house gave a succession of delightful moments that served to provoke enthusiasm for dining amongst such well judged splendour.

With the house ticked off, we made our way to the Grecian Hall for afternoon tea. With a roaring fire keeping us company and all the tea we could reasonably drink on hand, this was a delightful environment in which to dine that reflected the wider grandeur without descending into cheap reminders that you were somewhere special. Staff were friendly and attentive without tipping into overbearing attention and the tiered cake stand with our food arrived in due course. We hadn’t taken up the offer of optional fizz, but £6.50 for a glass of Nyetimber sparkly is eminently reasonable.

I followed the menu through from the top, starting off with the “Castle Howard Christmas sausage roll” that offered a hint of liver in the meat and thankfully didn’t leave a hint of grease on the plate. The sandwiches were millimetrically uniform in size and gave up afternoon tea staples of salmon and cream cheese and egg mayonnaise along with Fountains Gold cheddar and caramelised onion chutney and a nod to seasonality with a turkey and cranberry sauce filling. While they were all well balanced I particularly enjoyed the free range turkey that was strongly flavoured and didn’t give into the stereotypes of bland, overcooked, once-a-year meat.

Scones were up next and benefited from hints of cranberry and orange to tease local clotted cream and strawberry jam. We weren’t willing to sacrifice our appetites to too many scones, so quickly moved onto sweet options. My overwhelming favourite was the eggnog filled almond choux bun, to such a degree as to deprive Mrs YoaF of the vast majority of her helping. Castle Howard apple mince pies were presented with delicacy to match the construction while chocolate and caramelised orange cake let neither flavour tip the balance too heavily and Christmas cake soaked in locally sourced sloe gin was as indulgent as it sounds. As one would hope of an afternoon tea, we were overfaced by a small but notable amount, so left with a few treats to remind us of the visit in the coming hours.

Reflecting upon it now, it’s rather ludicrous that I’ve never been inside Castle Howard before (Aloysius would be livid), so the afternoon spent taking in the building and food was a real treat. The afternoon tea will set you back £43.95 including access to the house and gardens (otherwise £18.95) and Christmas displays in the house. I’m already debating which relative I can use to justify repeat visiting Brideshead this year and cherishing the thought of bringing baby YoaF in years to come.

Disclaimer: I was invited to sample afternoon tea. Opinions remain as impartial as ever.

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We spent a couple of very happy hours taking full advantage of the Booths Christmas hospitality and enjoying the Booths prosecco along with samples of various treats that’ll be appearing on their shelves in the run up to Christmas. On the drinks front, Hepple Gin was represented with huge enthusiasm, and a very detailed description of the production process that I won’t get into here, alongside St Peters Ales and Penderyn Welsh Whisky.

The cheese selection was, predictably, beyond reproach while the selection of smoked salmon was fantastic with the ‘Salmon and Prawn centrepiece’ really stealing the show. A brand I’d not consciously come across before, True Foods, provided another highlight with their chicken liver parfait with sloe gin jelly that demands repeat tasting.

We left the event full of Booths Christmas samples and sparkling wine clutching my only complaint, a pink carrier bag that I shall have to foist onto someone who’ll look less silly than me carrying it. With home delivery now an option, the Booths experience isn’t limited to small parts of the country. I’ll still wheel it out as an excuse to visit the Lakes though.

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The Star Inn the City are taking Christmas bookings now and have two Christmas menus offering everything from a traditional Christmas roast to something with a little more sparkle. We particularly like the ‘Ceps in the city’ and the celebration of Yorkshire beef sounds delicious while a horseradish and corned beef croquette would be tempting with short rib. The menus run from the 1^st to the 24^thDecember, call 01904 619208 or email bookings@starinnthecity.co.uk to book.

Over at the Pavement Vaults the theme is, as always, smoked and/or slow cooked meats. Twenty five pounds a head gets you three courses with truffled macaroni cheese and half smoked duck sounding like the highlights to me, I’ll take a white chocolate creme brûlée too if you’re offering. To book drop them a line at info@pavementvaults.co.uk or buzz on 0190467077

On High Petergate the Eagle and Child have their Christmas menu available to view here http://www.eagleandchildyork.co.uk/christmas.pdf. They have a variety of snugs and spaces to occupy and let’s not forget the original Rolling Stones signatures!

If you fancy something a little less traditional you can always hit Ambiente on either Fossgate or Goodramgate. For groups of 8 or above you can enjoy a wide range of tapas and sharing platters including a rather special sounding whole roast sea bream rubbed with seaweed butter.

Since it’s expansion Barbakan has an awful lot more space. Their Christmas menu looks like a bargain to me at under twenty pounds for two courses with polish specialty pierogi and a hearty lamb shank just a couple of the options. Check the menu out here.

Let us know how you get on and, most of all, have a wonderful Christmas!

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