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A Very British Christmas 2025 S01E01 CASTLE HOWARD
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00:00Decorating for Christmas is easy, right?
00:05Fancy baubles, tinsel and fairy lights. Job done.
00:12Unless you're decorating this, or this, or this.
00:18There are three things that hold Christmas up at Castle Howard.
00:21Chicken wire, glue gun sticks and cable ties.
00:25One crack team of Christmas crafters are responsible for bringing the festive season
00:32Wow!
00:33into some of Britain's best loved buildings.
00:36The logistics is a little bit more the moving boxes of baubles around.
00:41For Dave. Safety first.
00:44Laura. Ta-da!
00:46Brian and the rest.
00:48Juliana, Eve, Theodora, your end down.
00:51Christmas is a full-time job.
00:54Just get there in the end, through panic or coffee or gin.
00:57This is the bit that no one ever sees backstage.
01:00Top of the tree.
01:01Cute.
01:02Designer and ex-theatre producer, Charlotte.
01:05How do we feel about buying a kilometre of green lights?
01:08And business partner, former costume designer, Adrian.
01:12If they'd been purchased at full price, it was over 7,000 pairs.
01:15Right. Okay.
01:16Eight years of Christmas installations just keep getting bigger.
01:20Well, it totally looks like it's not going to fit.
01:23Bolder.
01:24I'm just worried about that statue.
01:26And riskier.
01:27Let's go! Let's go!
01:32Sidestepping priceless antiques and cautious clients.
01:35How can they make an armoury?
01:37Christmas.
01:38Christmasy, yeah.
01:39The clock is ticking.
01:40Three, two, one.
01:42To doors opening.
01:44God, it's fabulous.
01:46For Christmas.
01:47Next year's ambition is...
01:49Not to break the team.
02:02It's January.
02:03And in Yorkshire's Castle Howard...
02:05Hello, Nina. Happy New Year.
02:07Adrian's already setting Team Christmas to work.
02:10Our first task is...
02:12Get rid of the tree.
02:18They've got just two days to dismantle what took a year to prepare.
02:23The tree, obviously, when we put it up, has a little bit more care and attention given to it.
02:32We're a little bit more forthright, dismantling him.
02:36It's a bit brutal.
02:38It doesn't look it now.
02:40But until yesterday, this place was a wonderland.
02:44Literally.
02:49Castle Howard last year was amazing.
02:51I'm really proud of it.
02:54For the last seven weeks, the magical world of Alice in Wonderland reigned supreme.
02:59Thousands of baubles, kilometres of tinsel and fairy lights, and pure flights of fantasy delighted over a hundred thousand visitors.
03:14That's seven full Christmases we've now done for Castle Howard.
03:17Yep.
03:18How are we going to top it?
03:20It's going, it's going, it's going.
03:24Now they've got to start again.
03:26With ten months to design, build, and install a new Christmas theme to outsparkle Wonderland.
03:38So I'm being slightly obsessive about organisation, because this box next year I know I'm going to want for the Emerald City.
03:53We're off to see the wizard.
03:55We're off to see the wizard.
03:56Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
03:57Tin man, scarecrow, the winged monkeys.
04:00What's not to love?
04:02The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a firm festive favourite.
04:07Written over a century ago, the book is one of no less than 14 set in Oz.
04:13An instant hit, its film debut was nearly 30 years before Julie Garland and her ruby slippers entered the Emerald City.
04:21Countless adaptations still draw the crowds, but from the colour of Dorothy's slippers to the number of witches, everyone is slightly different.
04:30It's spring.
04:31Two miles from Castle Howard, Charlotte and Adrian's Christmas HQ is bursting with baubles, fairy lights and half a million fake flowers.
04:47For Laura in floristry, Chippy Brian, model maker Mark and the rest of the team, the whirlwind of Christmas is already on the horizon.
05:00But before they get carried away...
05:02The illustrations that strike me the most are these ones here.
05:06..the bosses have to decide which parts of Oz will land this Christmas.
05:10It's very hard because people will come in thinking, first and foremost, about the film and Judy Garland.
05:16But we don't actually see Dorothy.
05:19Not at all, I think we might see her at the very end.
05:21At the very end.
05:22But it's almost like she's just moved, walked out of the room ahead of you.
05:25Yeah.
05:26It's the feel.
05:27Much of the story is uncontroversial.
05:29The biggie is, we've got to have a prairie house, right?
05:31A crashed prairie house.
05:33A crashed prairie house.
05:34But some parts have changed considerably since the original.
05:38In the book, the slippers are silver.
05:41Are we going to reference the ruby?
05:43Well, I think we should.
05:44At the end, she's going to arrive with...
05:47Glinda.
05:48Glinda, who is red.
05:50Because that's the other thing as well.
05:51Glinda is the good witch of the south in the book.
05:54She's not the good witch of the north.
05:56North, east, south and west.
05:59The book has four witches.
06:01It's a costume designer's dream.
06:04Because you know I made this investment.
06:06How many of them did you get?
06:07Three boxes.
06:08They are premium ostrich.
06:10If they'd been purchased at full price, it was over £7,000.
06:14Right.
06:15OK.
06:16They're all going on the Wicked Witch of the West's dress.
06:20In the room with the winged monkeys.
06:22And the fire.
06:24We might have to discuss whether the fire can be on in that room this year.
06:28This could go on all year.
06:31Except it can't.
06:33There's a house to decorate.
06:36This year, Castle Howard is the biggest of six properties getting the team Christmas makeover.
06:43A Baroque masterpiece with over 100 rooms lined with ancient statues and priceless paintings.
06:51The visitor comes up and they start to go on the route through.
06:55The next challenge is to work out how Oz fits into the splendour.
07:00This is the very beginning of the yellow brick road.
07:02It will travel right through the house as far as the Great Hall.
07:0717 rooms require full transformation without marking the floor or chipping the china.
07:14It will look like you've got two shop fronts.
07:17And they have depth and internal.
07:19They have depth so that we can dress the windows.
07:22On the route, there's not one, but two bathrooms.
07:25Two miles in the bath.
07:27Yeah.
07:28So, square, square standing.
07:29On the loo?
07:30In front of the loo.
07:31The 100 foot long antique passage to be turned into a field of poppies.
07:37And, of course, a tree, 28 feet tall, uncovered in literally thousands of baubles.
07:44This is the arrival in the Emerald City.
07:46Into the Emerald City.
07:47It will be a green tree.
07:49No other client that we're working for this year has any green decorations in their installations.
07:54It's a fine choice.
07:56It's a fine choice not to have green in your house.
08:02Just one thing, though.
08:05Castle Howard is open to the public all year round.
08:09So, Christmas can't come early.
08:12Nothing can be installed until just before opening.
08:16Everything has to be put together down the road at Christmas HQ.
08:26All right.
08:27Up.
08:28Ooh.
08:29It's summer.
08:30Until, yeah.
08:31And everyone's downed tools to help Brian with the first of his grand designs.
08:36I sort of need to work out how we're going to assemble this.
08:38It didn't come with instructions, remember?
08:40He needs to know if he can carry it out of Christmas HQ and into the house.
08:45Push to me.
08:46That's it.
08:47Now it'll go down.
08:48We are assembling the crashed prairie house that is going to be on the China landing at the top of the stairs as you come in.
09:00Everything is flat packed, but some of it is heavier than we were expecting.
09:07Because the timber that we got in ended up being 15mm rather than the 6mm we'd sort of asked for.
09:15If it's too heavy, we'll have to have a rethink.
09:23Dorothy's house weighs nearly half a tonne, more than enough to flatten a witch.
09:28Her legs can stick out from under the porch.
09:30You can't have the legs hanging out that way, otherwise every time the wheelchair's come through, you'll run over your witch.
09:36But the problem isn't just weight.
09:39The others are convinced it's simply too big to manoeuvre through the house.
09:44Wow.
09:46At the end of the antique passage, we need to negotiate round a corner, past some very expensive, very old statues.
09:55These panels are probably slightly too long to get round that corner.
10:03They're going to catch.
10:06I don't want to cause literally thousands of pounds worth of damage to Roman statues that I can't replace.
10:25Castle Howard has seen more than 300 Christmases come and go.
10:30Not just an impressive building, but a home to nine generations of the Howards.
10:36Most recently, Nick and his family.
10:39This was what the South East Wing looked like. It had no roof on it.
10:44But it hasn't always looked as grand as it does now.
10:46The room we're in at the moment looked like this as well. The whole of this section looked like that.
10:52A great fire in November 1940 destroyed huge sections of the building, making them unsafe and uninhabitable.
11:00So when you were growing up, the dome wasn't even on the house?
11:03There was no dome.
11:05Visitor attraction director Abbey is hearing how the family began funding the renovations.
11:09My father was the person who started the restoration. He opened the house in 1952 for the first time.
11:17And people came in large quantities. Very interesting, I was looking at a page from a house opening diary from 1963 the other day.
11:26And it was rather lovely. It was all in my mother's handwriting.
11:30And my father had added the weather at the time.
11:34Then the number of visitors who'd come. And it was an August bankology.
11:37Can you remember how many? How many did it say?
11:40It tells you. And the numbers aren't that different to today.
11:43So really we're still doing the same thing today.
11:46We're still doing the same thing.
11:47That he started in the 50s and still generating income in order to restore rooms of this amazing place.
11:54He and my mother at that stage were much more hands-on than we are now.
11:57I mean, she quite often was sitting there at the ticket desk, selling the tickets and so on.
12:02I'd say you're still pretty hands-on though. We get you involved in all sorts.
12:05Yes, I would find it very hard not to be a mistake.
12:10Even though many areas remain out of bounds, slowly rooms are being returned to their former glory.
12:19But the cost is astronomical.
12:21Along with staff, maintenance and electricity bills of a grand a day, this place would be boarded up if it weren't for the help of the paying public.
12:31And at Christmas, we're not talking about 1,000 people here or there, are we?
12:35No, we're not.
12:36It's only 100,000 people coming through your home.
12:38It's an incredibly important part of the year for us because a third of our visitors each year come at Christmas.
12:44It's lovely watching them.
12:45I mean, at Christmas, one of the things I do like to do is to go around and just look at the faces of the children and the grown-ups as they're looking at it.
12:54And as they come into each room, each room is kind of a nice new surprise.
12:58And that's because of the work that Charlotte and Adrian do in designing a completely new look each year.
13:06No pressure then.
13:08And the countdown is on.
13:10What's the order deadline this year for Christmas product?
13:13Christmas this year needs to be bigger and better than ever.
13:16So Charlotte and Adrian are planning a wonderful Land of Oz in all its Technicolor glory.
13:22Check this out. What do you think of this potato, right?
13:25They're at one of Britain's biggest Christmas expos at Birmingham's NEC in search of decorations.
13:32Well, we do always try and reuse as much as we can, but every year, obviously, there is always going to be something we need new.
13:40What do you think, ruby slipper versus silver?
13:42So the problem is we do set ourselves some huge challenges.
13:46Yep.
13:48Today's challenge is finding enough of one very important colour.
13:52So it's sort of a take on our traditional Christmas colours, which is red and gold, but for next year, maroon is very trendy on interiors.
14:02Sadly, it's not maroon.
14:05The Emerald City appears twice.
14:07The giant Christmas tree, we might just go emerald.
14:11OK.
14:13But it's going to take a lot of... A lot of baubles.
14:14..and a lot means 3,000.
14:18I mean, hopefully we'll be able to find some in an emerald green.
14:22Britain's first baubles came from Germany, imported by the Victorians.
14:27Made from blown glass, they were worth a small fortune.
14:31Don't we need a Harlequin egg?
14:32Now mass-produced, they're relatively cheap.
14:35But decorating the tree alone will cost upwards of five grand.
14:39I think that's green enough, no?
14:42If there's any in emerald green.
14:45There's some green ones hanging up there, actually.
14:49This is our couture Christmas.
14:51Couture Christmas.
14:53Couture Christmas, very good.
14:54So we've then added in this gorgeous emerald.
14:57Oh, my God.
14:59Which I think would be perfect.
15:01Perfect.
15:04Some great emerald green over there.
15:06And the emerald drops.
15:09And that one.
15:11I've done that one.
15:13Baubles accounted for.
15:15Witches are back on the agenda.
15:17She hasn't got an actual name, has she?
15:19Goodwitch of the North.
15:21Glinda's actually...
15:22Goodwitch of the South.
15:24This one's a good excuse for something other than green.
15:28So if you can imagine this as an actual figure,
15:31and this will be like her skirts.
15:33So am I doing a fairy dress tree with all the bling?
15:36Yeah.
15:37Okay.
15:44August.
15:46Two months until installation.
15:48At Christmas HQ,
15:50the team are tackling the bespoke elements of the build.
15:53Bigger and better is the mantra.
15:56And with Brian making a start on the emerald city marketplace,
15:59he's focusing on bigger.
16:02So it's going to be that height.
16:03And it's going to be 40 foot long.
16:06Which is...
16:12The garages.
16:13The woodwork shop.
16:15Dave's metal workshop.
16:17That entire length.
16:18Yeah.
16:20In floristry, Laura's also going big for the munchkin displays.
16:25We're going for an asymmetrical, slightly bonkers look.
16:29Sometimes less is more in her design, or sometimes more is more.
16:36There we are.
16:38Only Mark seems to have missed the memo.
16:41Building a model of the entire Land of Oz in miniature.
16:45What I'm not confident about is the buildings we're going to put on it.
16:50I think as with a lot of these things, while you're making it,
16:54it's all a bit of a mess.
16:56We'll get the big stuff out first, the new stuff.
17:00Yeah.
17:01Which is amazing.
17:03Is amazing, apparently.
17:06Adrian and Charlotte are preparing to create what they hope will be a smash hit.
17:11Look at this bad boy.
17:12Wow.
17:14So I do get really excited when we start to see new product,
17:16because that's when the vision can happen.
17:19Do you get excited?
17:21Because I get nervous.
17:24A little bit windy today.
17:26A little bit windy today.
17:28Risking a tornado of their own,
17:31these tables are playing stunt double for the Crimson Dining Room.
17:36It has to be transformed from eatery for the elite
17:40into a wicked witch's hideout.
17:43That's got quite a nice sort of odd wine bottle feel to it, doesn't it?
17:46Yeah.
17:47Like she's a really heavy drinker.
17:51The Crimson Dining Room is where she's sort of brewing
17:55all her lotions and potions and...
17:57Her laboratory.
17:58Her laboratory.
18:00I'm trying to visualise how we make it feel like a laboratory,
18:04as opposed to a very lovely, but not that laboratory-style glass display.
18:09In the book, this witch is not green and has no warts, just crazy hair.
18:19Charlotte and Adrian are going a little wicked with their take,
18:24but still have to tell the story.
18:26One of these, Dorothy has...
18:28Chucked on her.
18:29The narrative moment here is this is where the witch melts.
18:36You'll hear her screaming at Dorothy,
18:38and then we'll create some resin water that comes out of here.
18:42It's already quite impressive, isn't it?
18:44Yeah, done.
18:48They still have time to perfect their creation,
18:50but in Castle Howard's marketing and sales office,
18:54August the 12th is crunch time.
18:57Tickets for Christmas are about to go live.
19:01It's making us feel nervous.
19:03Last year, over 5,000 tickets sold on day one alone.
19:08With a third of paying visitors coming at Christmas,
19:11the stakes are high.
19:14Last year, we were outsourcing tickets,
19:16so somebody else was dealing with all of this.
19:18But for the first time, we're now selling them in-house.
19:21So we've done all the testing, everything's looking good.
19:25It's only really when we go live will we know that it's all going to work.
19:30This could be their Glastonbury moment.
19:33We're going live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
19:39Let's go.
19:40Who's going to be our first booker?
19:48It's suspiciously quiet.
19:53Something's not working.
19:58When I click on your link, Georgie, that you've just sent me,
20:01tickets at castlehoward.co.uk.
20:03The booking system has ground to a halt.
20:06But Abi may have spotted the problem.
20:12I think there's an awful lot of people hitting the website all at the same time.
20:18So that might potentially be causing a bit of a glitch based on demand, which I guess is no bad thing that this many people want to book.
20:29I've just seen, yeah, there's 600, more than 600, it's growing all the time, people in a queue.
20:36So the queue is growing to get into the booking system.
20:38I've never seen demand like this in the first kind of five minutes of going on sale.
20:44It's crazy, actually.
20:46Phones are going to start ringing any second, I think, because people won't be able to complete their booking.
20:51Oh, success!
20:52Finally, it's working.
20:55And there's no end of visitors eagerly waiting for a Christmas in Oz.
21:01We'd love to welcome you back this year.
21:09September.
21:10In two months' time, the Christmas Land of Oz opens to the paying public.
21:16And it wouldn't be Christmas without a tree.
21:19Well, 57 for Castle Howard.
21:24This year, Adrian swapped his usual supplier in Norway for one just 15 miles away.
21:29I get excited about the chance to go and physically choose it, because it's got to be perfect.
21:37It's got to be the right height, the right width, the right size, shape, look.
21:41So I am very particular, I know.
21:43Pity the poor grower, is what I say.
21:47My wife has told me this year I have to use what three words.
21:50These are Ollie's trees.
21:52Each tree has its own designated what three words.
21:55He's got 150,000, most destined for front rooms all over Britain, and just a few years old.
22:04But the biggies are more like 30, are pruned every few months, and cost £1,000 a pop.
22:12That to me looks like a great option for the north front.
22:16Abby and Adrian are hunting for two key specimens, at least 28 feet tall.
22:20Are you happy with it from the other side?
22:25There's a little bit, it's a little bit sparse, just at the bottom, but I think if that's the bottom and the back...
22:31If that's facing towards the house?
22:34Yeah.
22:35The north lake's there.
22:37Yeah, so that's the front where Ollie is.
22:39There's just a little, tiny little bit here, but I think we can get away with that.
22:43One down, but the next is the most important.
22:48If it's good enough, that might be job done.
22:52It's for the Great Hall.
22:55There's been a tree for Christmas in the Great Hall, going back at least 130 years.
23:01Each one increasingly extravagant.
23:04Now photographed by thousands, it's the centrepiece of every Christmas visit.
23:13Ollie's had one earmarked for over a year.
23:15With the pinecones?
23:22It is going to get tidied up.
23:24Oh no.
23:26The top branches are bare.
23:29We can't have that.
23:30Well, my mortal enemy in this field is a pair of buzzards that live in the wood behind here, fly into here to feed and they sit in the tops of the trees, break all the new growth off.
23:45We put these bird sticks on, but they're not buzzard proof. He sits on those and breaks those as well.
23:49Hopefully, he's got a plan B.
23:53I love the fact that he knows each individual tree, like you know each individual bauble.
23:58Despite the draw of artificial trees, Brits still spend over a quarter of a billion pounds a year on real ones.
24:06This one bothers me a little bit. It's lovely from about six feet up. It gets a little bit too straight as it comes down.
24:16Not all of Castle Howard's will be real.
24:19What height is this one, Oliver?
24:21But for the Great Hall, fake's not an option.
24:2325.
24:2425. That's the smallest we've had.
24:26In a long time.
24:30That's way too short.
24:35He's a bit funny. He's quite a lot taken off his bottom.
24:41Actually, this is nice from the front, Abby. This is nice from the front. This is really nice from the front.
24:44This is lovely.
24:46Not bad round the back.
24:47There's a little bit in here, but nothing that I can't disguise with a large green velvet bow or two.
24:57Now, to make sure they can find it when they come to cut it down.
25:02I've got my location.
25:04I've got resettled baseballs and carpets.
25:07Receiving Python's light bulb.
25:10Sounds like next year's Christmas theme, so...
25:12It's just six weeks until Oz descends on Castle Howard.
25:23At Christmas HQ, there's no time to waste.
25:27I'm personalising broomsticks.
25:30So for Tin Man, Dorothy, Scarecrow, Glinda and the Evil Witch.
25:37The whole team is kind of multitasking.
25:39Props are piling up.
25:42Dorothy's dress in the attic.
25:44Winky's tools in the yard.
25:47Floristry's full, so there's an overflow for faux flowers.
25:51So we've had a bit of a reorganisation in tent two.
25:55Wow.
25:56It's gorgeous. Really, really lovely.
25:58But Brian's at a standstill.
26:01Nothing left to do now, but wait. Drink tea.
26:04Oz's marketplace has to be painted tomorrow, but it's not ready.
26:11He's been waiting weeks for the final wood delivery.
26:15I've done all the prep I can.
26:18All of the backing with all of the bolt holes is all stacked neatly in piles there.
26:24The timber order is due today, but we're builder's merchants timing, so...
26:35Perhaps he should lend a hand in floristry.
26:39Piece of paper. Stretch it out. As far as it goes.
26:42Outside help has been drafted in to get on top of decorations for the hundred foot long antique passage.
26:50One six inches wide yellow crepe paper.
26:55We've already made thousands of smaller red poppies.
27:00For the floor spaces, we wanted to create some larger ones.
27:03So, Amanda has already made two poppies down there.
27:09As you can see, they're gorgeous.
27:11So, we're going to create more.
27:13And then, once you've done that, you cut off the excess.
27:16Using hand-dyed paper, every poppy's unique.
27:20Try not to cut your fingers off them.
27:22But making them is complicated.
27:24So, do you think I should add a little bit of green here?
27:27With nearly 70 to go, there's no guarantee they'll be finished in time.
27:31Hopefully, by the end of today and tomorrow, we'll have made two each.
27:35But there's still quite a lot to make.
27:39Outside, there's good news.
27:42Delivery is here.
27:44Finally.
27:45And bad.
27:47But it's got to be unloaded by hand.
27:48No crane this time.
27:53Ah, today is sent to triars, isn't it?
27:55All right.
27:56All right.
27:58Ninety-six lengths of wood, each 16 feet long,
28:03have to be carried to the workshop
28:06and assembled before painting begins tomorrow morning.
28:13Brian's got a long night ahead of him.
28:15Halloween is the final themed event at Castle Howard before it opens for Christmas.
28:34And the first part of Oz has arrived.
28:38Out of harm's way in the burnt-out wing, Mark's finishing his model.
28:42And it's grown.
28:45We're just looking at this join between here and the middle.
28:49Now so big, it's in three separate pieces.
28:54That centrepiece is quite heavy.
28:57If that will clear the door frame at an angle,
29:00then we've only got to worry about joining it to that one.
29:04What could possibly go wrong?
29:05Also worrying about bringing Oz in...
29:08Shall we just start from the very beginning? Sorry.
29:12We're walking backwards and forwards on ourselves.
29:15Adrian and the house curator, careful Matthew.
29:20What Matthew tends to have to do is completely clear everything.
29:25Yes.
29:26You tend to err on the side of caution, don't you?
29:28Curators by nature are very risk-averse.
29:30Yes.
29:32Top of Adrian's list, something he's been keeping quiet about.
29:37And then is this where we meet the Wicked Witch?
29:40This is where we meet the Wicked Witch.
29:42She's going to be stood in all of her splendour in front of the fireplace.
29:46And then accompanying the Wicked Witch are her two flying monkeys.
29:50Oh.
29:52Which are chimpanzee, real size, with quite big wings.
29:58So they're sculptural pieces.
30:00I was wondering whether I can perch one on a desk and one on a piano?
30:08Um, absolutely not the piano.
30:10It's a lovely broadwood ground piano.
30:13Eighteenth century.
30:15Very old, very fragile.
30:16Very fragile.
30:17And not particularly weight-bearing.
30:19Maybe the desk.
30:20The desk is, um, slightly more robust.
30:24That could have been worse.
30:26Next up, he needs permission to bring in the flat pack prairie house.
30:31Yes.
30:32And it's going to have to come this route.
30:34And I want to get it down.
30:35Down the passage.
30:36Down the passage.
30:37OK.
30:39Because the back wall flat is pretty enormous.
30:41So we've measured it.
30:42It will go past Fortuna.
30:44But I'm just very conscious it's a very big, heavy piece of scenery.
30:49Um.
30:51It's not a decision to be taken lightly.
30:54She's around about 2,000 years old.
30:57Yeah.
30:58And she's been here for about 200 years.
30:59Yeah.
31:00At the end of the passage.
31:04But yes, carefully around Fortuna, I'm sure we can get the prairie house squeezed in somehow.
31:09Yeah.
31:10Great.
31:11Success.
31:12Fortuna's smiling on Adrian.
31:19It's November.
31:20Installation month.
31:22The last few days have seen a whirlwind of activity.
31:26Green paint everywhere.
31:29Poppies in their hundreds.
31:32And a certain amount of feather fluffing.
31:35I have never worked with ostrich feathers.
31:37We'll hope for the best.
31:39At the house, precious furniture's gone into storage.
31:43While Abby's been wrangling a film crew to make a Christmas promo.
31:49So I think we were hoping to disprove the old saying about working with children and animals.
31:54OK, ready?
31:55Three, two, one, action.
31:59This could take longer than we thought.
32:00And at Ollie's farm, timber.
32:01Now, time has run out and Oz has to be taken to the castle.
32:16These are awkward as hell.
32:17And Brian's Emerald City market stalls are causing another big problem.
32:23I should have measured the height of the truck.
32:26It's one of those, everyone gets going and you've...
32:29Keep going.
32:30Keep going.
32:33Those are only eight foot, so they should fit.
32:38Ah.
32:40We may have to stick it on a bonfire.
32:42Right, let's bring it down and out.
32:43Right, three point turn.
32:56Except somebody stuck some peacocks in the way.
32:58Right.
33:05Right, your and Juliana, Eve, Theodora, your and down.
33:13Perfect.
33:14Watch the box, Mark.
33:18Castle Howard may be just two miles up the road, but the build starts tomorrow.
33:23Nothing can be left behind.
33:26Line the roof.
33:28Straight back, bend the knees.
33:31This feels tacky still.
33:33All right, I'll have to watch that.
33:38Alrighty.
33:43Ooh.
33:45That one.
33:47Paint been painted.
33:49Ah.
33:51Need to remember that, because we can't really take paint into the house.
33:56In less than a week, it all needs assembling, dressing and finishing
34:02before doors open for this year's Christmas.
34:05We're getting there.
34:07Maybe it's all going to come off again at the far end.
34:10It's going to be fun, isn't it?
34:13It's going to be fun.
34:15It's going to be fun.
34:17It's going to be fun.
34:19It's going to be fun.
34:21Castle Howard is closed to the public for installation.
34:24Piled high in the Great Hall.
34:2730,000 baubles, 37 fake trees, a kilometre of fairy lights and much, much more.
34:34Today's main aim, first thing, is just to get all of the decorations, the props, the floristry
34:40into the relevant parts of the house so we can start working.
34:46Scarecrow.
34:48Every day the house is shut is £10,000 in lost revenue.
34:54But nothing's quick in such a big space.
34:56This room alone is well over a hundred foot.
35:02It's a non-trivial distance to walk.
35:06Right, tape marker.
35:08Nuts, bolts, bolts, nuts.
35:13Scaffolding's going up to hang the highest decorations.
35:16And the curatorial team are dealing with their last delicate removals.
35:23This bed has been here since around about 1825.
35:28The chamber probably would have been there since 1825.
35:31Definitely not.
35:32As the decks find their homes, Brian's thinking about how to bring the prairie house up through the Great Hall.
35:42I mean, it's heavy. We know it's heavy.
35:45Statues, china, steps to fall down.
35:50Yeah, I'm a little bit nervous.
35:54Now, decorating can begin in earnest.
35:58Why make something permanent when you can just use hot glue, gaffer tape and cable ties?
36:06A crew of 18 is battling install one job at a time.
36:12Because it's so cold at this time of year, we need to add the heat back into it and get that volume back into it.
36:17So we spend the morning blow drying this.
36:21Bathroom number one is being readied for the Tin Man.
36:25The Emerald City Marketplace is taking shape.
36:28And Laura's tackling a garland for the flying monkeys.
36:32I think it's about four metres long, which is a bit silly really, but I'm sure it'll look great.
36:40But out back, there's been a terrifying delivery.
36:47If we bring the lips down, get rid of the teeth, get rid of the hair.
36:53Over 10,000 under fives are expected over the next two months.
36:58But the flying monkeys might just scare them all away.
37:02That was better already.
37:03Immediately better.
37:07I don't think so.
37:12Day two of installation.
37:13And the scaffolding's gone up.
37:15I'm not going to get round this corner, even if I get the scaffolders to move the pipes in.
37:31Brian's flat-packed prairie house hasn't been brought through.
37:35I have no idea how we're going to get the flat through now.
37:37Right.
37:42He has to find a way round.
37:47Going through here.
37:49Going to get Juliana and the girls to move all of the Christmas tree decorations and stuff here.
37:57I have to ask Dave to slide the tables around.
37:59This is our pinch point, this doorway here.
38:05Have I got enough on the diagonal?
38:12Three metres.
38:15It's going to be tight.
38:17Very tight.
38:18First through, the smaller side walls and floor.
38:25OK, we're going to have to be really careful of...
38:28Really careful.
38:30It's the cornices I'm most worried about.
38:33The ornate stonework is original.
38:36Over 300 years old and survived the fire back in 1940.
38:40But Brian doesn't want to let that get in the way of Christmas.
38:50Here comes the biggest piece.
38:53Let's stick a blanket over that top corner now, whilst you can reach over the banister.
38:58Are you OK?
39:08That was a near miss.
39:15I have to tilt it.
39:17Are you going over to Roger, are you?
39:19Yeah.
39:25Right, go on.
39:26We're going to have to bring you all round.
39:30Round.
39:32Yeah, if you can go towards the table.
39:35If we can bring this one towards the table.
39:36That's it, that's it.
39:37Keep going.
39:39Keep going.
39:43It's through.
39:46Now, the precarious journey down the antique passage.
39:52Heading straight for the 2,000-year-old Fortuna.
39:57Right.
39:58Don't bash it too far over.
39:59I'm going to hit the wall.
40:01Then, the final straight to the relative safety of the China landing.
40:13Next up, the 28-foot-tall Christmas tree.
40:16All right, we're coming in.
40:20Jason, stop.
40:22Have you got any room to lift it there?
40:25Head caretaker David's responsible for getting it in, without damaging it or the Great Hall.
40:30Well, we're trying to lift the front and the back to bring it up to bring it in, but currently it's dragging itself forward on the floor.
40:41Just stop! Just stop!
40:44We're trying a bit of a new system this year, using a winch, but the winch was kind of dragging some of the top branches along the floor.
40:53It would be awful to get it this far and then have a breakage.
40:56Manoeuvring one tonne of Nordmann fur is no easy feat.
41:10And blankets don't afford much protection for the surrounding statues.
41:17But there's nothing like a tree at Christmas.
41:19I love the smell of it.
41:28Yeah, I love having a real tree, but I always fall into the trap of, I've got low ceilings, it's an old cottage.
41:34I go to the garden centre and think, that looks like it'll definitely fit.
41:38No, it never does. Yeah, I always overdo it.
41:41And then you end up with the top, like that.
41:44No danger of that here.
41:49But will it pass inspection?
42:02Beautiful trick.
42:04It is a little bit of a crooked top, but no-one will know the difference since you've got a huge green velvet bow on it.
42:12It's going to be beautiful to dress.
42:16That's a massive tick.
42:18Just one major piece of the puzzle left.
42:21Scott to security, over.
42:24House head of operations, Scott, is trying to track it down.
42:29Any news on the yellow brick road? Over.
42:37As soon as it arrives.
42:38So that's a negative, it's not here yet. Over.
42:44Negative. Out.
42:51Doors open to the public on November the 12th.
42:54Hopefully once we get them all on there will be 500 metres of lights that have gone on this tree.
42:59It's the final push to get everything finished.
43:03Oh my God, look at her.
43:05Wow.
43:07Gosh, they've cracked on.
43:09Okay, this looks spectacular.
43:13Team Christmas are in overdrive.
43:14My first time seeing the witch.
43:17Wow, she's tall.
43:19And she's green.
43:20So here we are on the Emerald City tree.
43:31They went straight in a box in January.
43:34And have been labelled for the Great Hall tree ever since.
43:36The land of Oz is nearing completion.
43:51But there's still something missing.
43:56It's finally arrived.
43:57Let's follow the yellow brick road.
44:00It's only three metres long.
44:03Not ideal.
44:04Watch out for the poppies.
44:06But Abby's determined to make the best of it.
44:08Okay.
44:09So.
44:11If we flip it over.
44:16Oh, it looks good.
44:21I think...
44:22Well, what do you think?
44:23I think it looks great.
44:24I think it looks good.
44:26Perfect.
44:27For a short walk in Oz.
44:29So this is just the sample, so the rest will arrive...
44:31No, it's all here.
44:32Is it all here?
44:33There's four rolls of it here somewhere.
44:34I think it's all through the bedrooms.
44:35It's just...
44:36Random.
44:49Finally, it's ready.
44:52Nine long months in the making.
44:55From blank sheet of paper to the finished article.
44:58A Christmas in Oz is about to open to the public.
45:03We absolutely put our hearts and souls into these projects.
45:08And we're always thinking about what we can do differently and better.
45:11You work on it all year round and you're very close to it.
45:14But you'll never know until you see them walk through the door.
45:17Yeah.
45:18Oh, yeah.
45:37I have the best job in the world.
45:39I absolutely love it.
45:40And this has been our most immense Christmas.
45:42It has.
45:43It has.
45:44The biggest installation we've ever done here at Castle Howard.
45:46At Castle Howard, yeah.
45:47I caught a woman and she had two children with her and you could see her welling up and then she caught sight of me and she came over to her.
46:04I just have to say, I feel so emotional.
46:06She thought to cry.
46:10I'm feeling a bit emotional because I was here until one o'clock this morning.
46:13Just relieved that it's all done and it looks amazing.
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