YOU could be forgiven for thinking the Christmas and New Year in a stately home would be an extremely lavish occasion.

But for the Trevelyans at Wallington Hall, it was a simple affair not too dissimilar from our own.

Wallington Hall in Cambo served as a family home for ten generations to the Trevelyans and the Blacketts before them.

Currently festooned in 1,000 Christmas trees, it is not hard to imagine the family gathered around their own tree at the hall where they lived until 1958.

House and collections manager, Lloyd Langley, said a truly Trevelyan Christmas began with decorating the tree.

A large tree, which had been cut from their own estate, would proudly stand in the central hall covered in candles.

The hall was also home to a grand sleigh and rocking horses.

On Christmas Eve the family would hold a charity dance in the courtyard but Christmas morning was when the festivities really began.

The morning would always begin with opening the stockings, all gathered in bed.

An extract from Mary Trevelyan’s A War Diary 1939 reveals a short poem the family wrote referring to this tradition:

Half a tonne of Trevelyan sitting up in bed,

Some dressed in blue or green, some dressed in red.

Some sitting at the foot, some at the head

But all beginning Christmas in the parents’ double bed.

The stockings, which Lady Molly Trevelyan hand-knitted herself, would usually include oranges, sixpence and building blocks for the younger children.

The family would then take to the central hall where presents would be arranged in age order.

Presents would not be under the tree but in a circle surrounded by chairs with the family members names written on them.

Lloyd said: “The Trevelyans would receive very few presents and they would be wrapped in brown paper with string.

“Their Christmas was all about family and was not ostentatious at all.

“The Trevelyan family were unconventionally conventional; it was not a Christmas for the gentry”.

Once the presents had been opened, the family would go for a walk outdoors and play a game of hockey on the front lawn.

If it was cold enough they would be able to skate on the frozen pond in the grounds.

Indoors, they would play games, including one called “humpback zebra” which the family came up with themselves.

The highly-anticipated Christmas dinner would be made by staff in the enormous farmhouse kitchen and was served on the Royal Crown Derby dinner service.

The staff would bring the traditional dinner into the dining room and the family would serve it themselves.

Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan was said to have made a grand gesture out of carving the turkey.

During dinner, the dining room would be filled with laughter.

The family also had crackers at the table but they were not allowed to pull them until their Granny said so.

“They would pull them all together to make one big bang, which was very Trevelyan”, Lloyd said.

Somewhat unique was the fact they did not drink with their Christmas meal.

Lloyd believes this is because they were having too much fun eating food and playing games like musical chairs and pass the parcel.

Later in the day the family would gather round the piano to sing carols.

Molly was known to be an excellent musician and Charles was a great singer.

Lloyd described the typical Trevelyan Christmas as “self-made”.

They would not listen to the radio or watch television; they made their own entertainment.

Later in the afternoon high tea, complete with a tiered iced Christmas cake, would be served in the central hall.

In January the family hosted a party with the tenants from their farms. The New Year celebration would involve food and dancing in the central hall.

“Inviting their tenants for a party showed just how down to earth the Trevelyans were,” Lloyd said.

This year, Wallington Hall has recreated that old Trevelyan Christmas spirit.

The stately home has been decorated in Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes, from a 30ft one in the courtyard to tree paper chains and a miniature tree in the doll’s house.

Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan began a Book of Trees in 1891 to record the trees on the family’s estate.

Molly continued recording measurements in it until 1966.

It took the team three weeks to make Wallington Hall fittingly festive.

Lloyd said: “We wanted to offer something at Christmas so that people will still want to come to Wallington in the winter time.

”People can still enjoy the grounds and we have a number of people coming for walks.

“That’s the spirit of what the family would have wanted, people enjoying the outdoors.

“The Trevelyans were all about the conviviality of Christmas.

“In many respects they mimicked what the wider community was doing.”