Christmas at Blithewold is a treat for the senses

In Bristol, the historic home of the Van Wickle family transforms for the festive season

Photos courtesy of Blithewold

Christmas is about family; it’s also about community. Which is why this year’s Christmas at Blithewold celebration not only celebrates the holiday season, but also the garlanded strands that have long been interwoven between the mansion and the town of Bristol.

The Van Wickle family built the 45-room mansion on Narragansett Bay in1896 and welcomed visitors from the very beginning; matriarch Bessie Van Wickle kept a detailed visitors’ log that included holiday callers from Bristol, Warren, Newport, and beyond. The family traditionally arrived at the mansion from their home in Hazelton, Pa. — close to the family’s coal and iron business — in late December, to find the staff had fully decorated Blithewold, including a Christmas tree cut from the grounds of the 33-acre estate.

Visiting Blithewold at Christmas is a tradition that outlived the Van Wickles, with the mansion and arboretum aglow with holiday lights outside and decked out with festive trees and decorations in
practically every room inside.

For 2024’s “The Early Years: The Bristol Community and Blithewold, 1896–1914” celebration, the interior decor focuses on the Bristol residents who visited, worked with, and participated in activities with the Van Wickle family.

The 18-foot “Big Tree” in the front hall, for example, is adorned with commemorative ribbons and other memorabilia celebrating Bristol’s annual Fourth of July Parade, which already was a time-honored tradition when Blithewold was built.

“The aim was to make it have more of a community feel and show how important the town of Bristol was to the family, and how much they loved living here,” says Trish Sylvester, co-chair of decorating Christmas at Blithewold with Laurie Dubel.

The living room pays homage to the Bristolians and others who called at the mansion, with decor that includes Bessie’s original guest book, invitations, and photos of the homes — many still standing around Bristol — of those who visited the Van Wickles.

“We have pictures of most of the families who came to the home,” says Pam Degan, who led the living room design team and has volunteered at the mansion for 22 years. “You’ll see the addresses of the people who visited and pictures of people in town. You can drive around Bristol and see their houses and know that they were part of the history of Blithewold.”

The Herreshoff steam yacht Marjorie, one of Augustus Van Wickle’s most prized possessions, is the focal point of the decorations in the billiards room and dining room, where an intricate model of the yacht is displayed. Other adornments highlight the family’s passion for sailing and the America’s Cup race competition, sailed off nearby Newport. Guests will find the Van Wickle family’s nativity creche on display in the loggia.

The Bristol Garden Club — which counted Marjorie Van Wickle and many of her guests as members — cultivated the decor in Marjorie’s bedroom. Flowers, seed packets, gardening gloves, and other
decorative items honor the work of the family’s gardener, John DeWolf, a local resident whose roots stretched back generations.

“The room is hard to decorate because it’s very dark” — ironically because of the flourishing linden trees outside the windows — says Pam Delaney, a garden club member who has been a volunteer at Blithewold for more than 20 years and led a team of eight to decorate the mansion this year.

Marjorie’s strong affiliation with the club made the challenge worthwhile, Delaney says. “She loved gardening.”

Like the servants who once dressed Blithewold for its wealthy owners’ holiday visits, the designers who donate their time to ready the mansion for its annual Christmas display get their work started early. Decorators draw from a vast basement storeroom full of garland, ornaments, lights, statuary, and other holiday decor to complement the original decorations they craft by hand. The theme changes each year; nods to the Van Wickle family’s world travels and the mansion’s natural environment set the tone in years
past.

“It really starts in the spring, when proposals are submitted and chosen,” says Sylvester. Decorators typically visit during the summer to assess their assigned space, and the holiday trimmings start going up
in October, once the mansion closes to the public. (The grounds remain open.)

The decorators, many of whom have been volunteering at Blithewold for decades, “typically want to do the same room each year,” says Sylvester. “The biggest job is the Big Tree — that’s a monumental thing to design.”

Traditional white lights and ornaments made from bamboo grown on the property adorn the exterior of the mansion and the grounds, where a flock of oversized bamboo bird sculptures also is roosting
(those are created by “Myth Makers” design team Donna Dodson and Andy Moerlein and will be inhabiting the grounds through next summer).

The bamboo ornaments were hand made by the late Fred Perry, the former director of horticulture at Blithewold, along with current horticulture director Dan Christina and his team.

The Sparkle! Exhibition, which debuted during the Covid-19 pandemic, features soft lighting and welcoming fire pits, and provides a laid-back alternative to the colorful holiday light shows featured outside some of the mansions in Newport, says Sylvester. “We think it’s a little less flashy,” she says.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Christmas at Blithewold runs from Nov. 27 to Jan. 5 (closed Nov. 23, Dec. 24, and Dec. 25). The manor is open for tours Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and during “Sparkle!” displays, which are held Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings from Dec. 5 to Jan. 4, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Daytime admission to the mansion and arboretum is $22 for adults, $11 for youth ages 11-16, $6 for children ages 6-10, and free for children ages 5 and under. Family admission, which includes two adults and two children, is $50.

“Sparkle!” admission is $27 for adults and $8 for children ages 6-17, which includes entry to the mansion as well as the outdoor light display. Children ages 5 and under are free. For more details, visit www.blithewold.org.