Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019 - 33

Christmas at Biltmore 2019
Christmas today is inspired by documented stories,
traditions, grace, elegance and hospitality the
Vanderbilts always showed their guests. The timeless
beauty of Biltmore House is especially enchanting when
the rooms are exquisitely decorated for the holiday.
Daytime Christmas tours run from November 1, 2019
through January 5, 2020. Candlelight Evening tours
begin November 1, 2019 and conclude January 4, 2020.
Additional information: biltmore.com/visit/buy-tickets/
christmas-at-biltmore

ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

touches to the great mansion . . . ."
Biltmore was designed to entertain.
Vanderbilt wanted a place where family
and friends could come to rest, relax and
enjoy his beautiful mountain retreat. He
included the latest modern conveniences:
plumbing, hot water, electricity and even
had a telegraph line installed in the house
a few days before Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, the ladies, dressed
in their finest jewels and gowns, and
gentlemen, in formal white tie, gathered
in the Banquet Hall. The majestic 40-foot
spruce, glowing with the latest innovation-electric lights-and decorated with
hundreds of gifts for estate workers and
their families, must have been an impressive sight. The smell of fresh-cut evergreen
and the sound of English Christmas carols, played by the Imperial Trio, filled the
air, while roaring fires, from three massive
hearths at the end of the room, added a
cozy warmth to the festive occasion.
The Asheville News and Hotel Reporter
described the setting, ". . . the soft lights
and the tastefully draped garlands of evergreen and mistletoe, interspersed with the
shining leaves and red berries of the holly,
create a scene beautiful to look at." Following dinner the family exchanged gifts.
At 11:00 on Christmas morning,
Vanderbilt welcomed the estate employees and their families, over 200 people,
to Biltmore House. Gathering everyone
in the Banquet Hall, he wished them a
merry Christmas and, with his family's
assistance, presented gifts to one and all.
The Asheville Citizen and Hotel Reporter
wrote, "A beautiful Christmas tree that
stood in the Banquet Hall causing the
liveliest anticipation of the little folks,

was then stripped of its
heavy trimming of gifts."
The festivities continued in
the Carriage House where a
bountiful feast was enjoyed.
Over a dozen of Vanderbilt's closest friends from
New York arrived on December 28. William B. Osgood Field arrived after dark
and wrote to his mother, ".
. . to describe the scene of
the house in the moonlight
with lights would be out of
the power of anyone, no
stage effect ever was more
beautiful or perfect." For
the next few days, Vanderbilt and his guests enjoyed coach and
horseback rides, hunting, fox chasing,
quail shooting, fishing, and bottle pool.
On New Year's Eve, Vanderbilt and
his guests enjoyed an elaborate dinner,
then adjourned to the Tapestry Gallery
for a delightful evening of cards, chess,
and musical interludes. At 11:00 p.m.
the festivities continued with dancing in
the Banquet Hall. At the stroke of midnight, The Imperial Trio transitioned
from a Strauss waltz to "Auld Lang Syne"
as the company raised their glasses toasting the New Year and their gracious host.
Vanderbilt gave a short response and
the party resumed. Mr. Field later wrote,
"We danced the old year out." As one
year passed into memory and a new one
began, a light snow began falling, transforming the mountains, fields, and forests into a scene of winter enchantment,
a fitting and beautiful end to the first
Christmas at Biltmore.

ABOVE RIGHT: George Washington
Vanderbilt III was the youngest child of
industrialist William Henry Vanderbilt and
his wife, Maria Louisa Kissam. During a visit
with his mother to Asheville, North Carolina, in
the late 1880s, he fell in love with the layered
mountains and clean air of the Blue Ridge
and decided it was the perfect location for his
country estate. He started construction in 1889,
and six years later his dream became a reality
when he opened Biltmore to family and friends.
ABOVE LEFT: Gertrude Vanderbilt: George's
niece, Gertrude, attended the family Christmas
gathering in 1895. She wrote to a friend: "It
has been so delightful down here-so, so much
nicer than I thought it would be that I hate the
thought of going home."
OPPOSITE PAGE: Biltmore 1895. George
Vanderbilt hired architect Richard Morris Hunt
and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted
for this massive project. This image shows some
of the construction shops located on what is
today the Esplanade.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2019

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