23 January 2013

Christmas at America's Largest Home

I heard about Biltmore, which boasts to be America's largest home, last year on a TV special about America's must-see Christmas trees.  So this year we decided to check it out.  
 Biltmore is near Asheville, North Carolina, and was built by the Vanderbilts in the late 1890's.  It was about a seven-hour drive from our home in Virginia.
Biltmore has with over 250 rooms, but only a fraction of those are open to the public.  Within the rooms we toured were 68 decorated Christmas trees, a bowling alley, an indoor pool and an indoor exercise room.
Below are a few details of the outside of the house.  It reminded us of the cathedrals and castles in Europe. 
 The picture below is a bit fuzzy, but there were many carvings like this.
 We chose the ticket option to visit the house twice, first during the daytime, and second in the evening for the candlelight tour.  In the evening the fires were lit, there was live music throughout the house, and there were luminaries lining the driveway and entrance to the house.  Of course those 68 lighted Christmas trees looked even more lovely in the dark as they did in the daytime.
 Pictured below was the entrance into the grounds at Biltmore.  We drove for several miles before we came to the house itself.
 This is the same view as pictured at the top of the blog, but was much more dramatic when it was dark!

 Here's a shot of the entrance as we were waiting to go in.  The house was lavishly decorated for Christmas.
We weren't supposed to take pictures, but we snapped a couple to remind us of how amazing it was on the inside.

We had a great time and were glad we went.  It was a fantastic way to put us into the Christmas spirit!

4 comments:

Jason and Lissa said...

Very pretty! I'd like to see that someday.

Adri and Russ Lee said...

Wow! That looks really cool. I don't know what anyone would do with a house that big, though!

Garrett and Krystal said...

Wow! It is a big house. That would be neat to see.

Dana said...

I can well imagine how this put you in the Christmas spirit! I've not heard of the place before. It sounds like a place the Karp's need to visit! Very intersting & beautiful post!