Visitors to Windsor Castle will see the State Apartments transformed with shimmering Christmas trees, twinkling lights and festive garlands.
A magnificent 20-foot high Christmas tree is the highlight of St George’s Hall, the largest room in Windsor Castle. The tree, a Norway spruce, is sourced from Windsor Great Park and dressed with 3,000 lights and hundreds of iridescent ornaments. The first Christmas tree was introduced to Windsor Castle in the late 18th century by Queen Charlotte, consort to George III, and were later popularised in Britain by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
The State Dining Room features a special display of the Grand Service, marking the bicentenary of George IV’s accession to the throne. This spectacular silver-gilt dining service, commissioned by George in 1806 when Prince Regent, consists of over 4,000 pieces, many of which are still used today for state banquets.
In the Waterloo Chamber visitors can view a series of 16 ‘pantomime’ pictures, which were originally commissioned during the Second World War to replace a series of portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence which had been removed from their frames for safekeeping.
The pictures were created by teenage evacuee and part-time art student Claude Whatham, who was asked to recreate fairy-tale characters on rolls of wallpaper. The then-Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret took part in a series of Christmas pantomimes in the Waterloo Chamber to raise money for the Royal Household Wool Fund, which supplied yarn to make comforters for soldiers fighting at the Front.
After the war, the original portraits were returned to the Waterloo Chamber and the pantomime pictures remained hidden underneath. They have been revealed just once since the war, following the fire of 1992, and are on display once again as the portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence were removed earlier this year to facilitate essential maintenance work.
Tickets for Windsor Castle are available to book at www.rct.uk; pre-booking in advance is essential.
Images: Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2020
