The Story Behind Cragside's Victorian Christmas Ball
The National Trust team at Cragside in Northumberland are putting on a festive showstopper
Every Christmas, Cragside House is the stage for an imaginative showcase, and this year is no different with the theme, the Servants’ Ball. It will imagine that the Armstrong family are away for the festive season and the staff are throwing a mischievous party. With the servants in charge, the House will be in festive disarray, and nothing is quite as it should be.
Visitors will experience reams of ribbons, over-sized decorations in, perhaps unexpectedly, glorious technicolour. All while joyfully immersed in a topsy-turvy Christmas spectacular.
‘Every year we take inspiration from our history and collection to present a creative Christmas experience’, explains Clara Woolford, Cragside’s Property Curator, ‘and ideas come from a variety of different places.
‘Last year, Cragside’s dramatic landscaped garden sparked our imagination. Spirits of the Forest saw the woodland enveloping the House. Trees burst through tables, ivy climbed walls, snowflakes covered ceilings and forest animals roamed halls.
‘My favourite room was the Gallery. We filled it with 42 Christmas trees to create a woodland walkway into the Drawing Room, and it became one of the most photographed rooms of the season. We’ve set the bar high – but we’re really excited about bringing the Servants’ Ball to life. It will be very different to last year.’
For 2025, inspiration comes from a comparably small item in the collection. It’s a dance card from a servants’ ball held at Cragside on Thursday 27th December in 1894.
The dance card is a paper booklet that’s survived for more than 130 years. For something that was designed to be thrown away, it is remarkably intact with its original pencil still attached by a string. It likely belonged to one of the female servants and was used to reserve dances with the male workers at the ball. Inside the card lists a lively programme of polkas, waltzes and reels with the evening ending with the traditional Sir Roger de Coverley – an energetic ceilidh dance. Opposite each dance is space for the name of a man who had secured a dance with the cardholder to be written.
‘Balls were part of Victorian matchmaking, with strict rules of etiquette, even for servants. This card provides a glimpse into the evening of one of the staff members at Cragside. Inside, written in pencil, are names of some of the workers.
‘It’s been fascinating going through the names on the card and matching them to the 1891 and 1901 census records. James Ridell, aged just 16, was a joiner’s apprentice. Frank Wost was 22 and the dairymen to Lord Armstrong. Two brothers, George R. Baston, 20, and Robert R. Baston, 18, were sailors’ apprentices and George Grey was 17 years old and a joiner.
‘It's impossible to say who owned the card. It is likely, given the conventions of the period, that it would have belonged to one of the younger female servants, given the ages of the men listed. It would not have been seen as proper for a young man to have danced with an older, likely more senior female servant. There are several house maids, scullery maids, dairy maids, and under-cooks who could be candidates.’
The team are pulling out all the stops to bring the drama, excitement and romance of the party of the year to life with over-sized abundance, merry mischief and Christmassy chaos. The Kitchen will be where visitors first experience a sense of rebellious revelry. Here, it will appear as though all chores have been forgotten, so the cooks can have a cosy gossip ahead of the party. Imagine huge tottering stacks of towering crockery and trays of half-drunk glasses cluttering the benches and tables.
In the spirit of a pre-party get-together, the Study will be transformed into a boudoir for the female servants. Dowdy maids’ uniforms are discarded for their party finery. Jewellery and bowers cover mirrors, while fans, brushes and pins scatter across the desk, transformed into a makeshift dressing table. The garland on the mantle playfully festooned in pearls and feathers adds a touch of splendour to this rare and joyful escape from daily routine.
In the halls swathes of vibrant ribbons will sweep down from ceilings, creating a striped big top overhead. Multi-coloured lights will swag along the corridors, casting a magical glow and turning every walkway into a sparkling promenade. Cascades of streamers will tumble down the staircases creating an exuberant entrance to the ball upstairs.
In Cragside’s ostentatious Drawing Room, the party will be in full swing and the team are making full use of the double-height room to create a memorable and magical experience.
One of the things visitors may notice this year is the injection of colour. ‘Our fashionable love of warm white lights would have baffled the garish Victorians, so we’re adding an injection of colour everywhere.’
The Victorians loved colour – the brighter the better. Thanks to synthetic dyes and inks, decorations were incredibly colourful. Not just traditional greens, reds and golds as we’ve become familiar with through TV adaptations of Dickensian novels, but also pinks, purples and yellows. By the late 1890s, Mr. Woolworths had commercialised the bauble, producing it in gaudy colours for the masses.
The festive celebrations will continue outdoors with the return of the UK’s Tallest Living Christmas Tree for the second year running. When you’re planning to put up your tree at home, spare a thought for the team at Cragside who are dressing the huge 42-metre Giant Redwood Wellingtonia on the grounds. It will be festooned in 1,200 multi-coloured lights, to match the vibrancy and playfulness inside the House.
At a height that’s more than twice as tall as the Angel of the North, you need something a little more industrial than a pair of ladders. The team will be using a mobile elevated work platform, or cherry picker, with a 57-metre crane to reach the very top of the towering tree. Much like at home, every run of lights needs testing, and all bulbs are checked and secured to ensure every light is in full working order. Imagine discovering a blown bulb several metres off the ground!
It takes a team of four people two days to add the lights that are draped and fastened vertically so as not to put too much pressure on the branches of the tree that’s been part of the Armstrongs’ grand landscaped garden for around 150 years.
If seeing a huge Christmas tree tempts you further into Cragside’s grounds, you could try the Festive 5-Miler. This refreshing 5-mile walk is perfect for escaping the merry hustle and bustle, blowing off the Christmas cobwebs, or kick-starting healthier habits a few days ahead of the new year. If you’re new to Cragside, there are plenty of waymarkers to follow to keep you on the right path. The route winds along the banks of frost-covered lakes and beneath towering trees as you venture up and down the hillside. To celebrate finishing the route, strike a pose at the end-point selfie station.
After exploring, refuel with some festive favourites at the tea room. Elevate a hot chocolate with a splash of mince pie syrup and a slice of cinnamon-flavoured cake on the side. You could even tuck into a heart-warming turkey sandwich with all the trimmings.
At the shop, you can officially tick everyone off your Christmas gift list. The shelves are bursting with cosy homewares, stylish jewellery and accessories, tasty treats, books and toys. With festive cards and beautiful gift paper, you’ll have your Christmas wrapped up in no time.
