Christmas at Biltmore Estate in Asheville

Biltmore Estate is open Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Days. Estate is open 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. daily. Admissions Gate and Welcome Center 8:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Monday–Thursday, 8:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Friday–Sunday. Biltmore House Front Door closes at 3:30 p.m. Monday–Thursday and at 4:30 p.m. Friday–Sunday. Hours on Christmas Day are 11 a.m-6 p.m.

One hundred fourteen years ago this Christmas Eve, George Washington Vanderbilt first opened Biltmore House to family and friends. Vanderbilt’s legacy for legendary hospitality lives on today and especially during the holiday season when Biltmore House is elaborately decorated for Christmas, offering guests a glimpse of what it may have been like to be one of his guests during that special holiday season in 1895. Known for being one of the largest holiday displays in the Southeast, Biltmore House and the surrounding 8,000 acres of the estate will celebrate its annual Christmas at Biltmore.

As in years past, the event will feature 100 decorated Christmas trees; hundreds of wreaths and bows; hundreds of poinsettias; 30,000 lights in the house with another 150,000 lights used around the estate; 10,000 feet of fresh garland; and more than 25,000 ornaments. Biltmore House’s holiday centerpiece, a 34-foot Fraser fir, spends the holidays in the 72-foot high Banquet Hall, adorned with lights and surrounded by hundreds of brightly packaged gift boxes. The Biltmore House front lawn will glow with a lighted 55-foot Norway spruce, surrounded by eight “islands” of smaller lighted trees and nursery shrubs.

Reservations are not required or available for the daytime celebration. TIP: Saturdays are the busiest day. If you can only visit on a weekend, arrive early Sunday morning. The estate welcomes about 275,000 visitors for the Christmas season.

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