Channel 4's Christmas at Blenheim Palace is back on our screens on Saturday 2 December 2023 at 7:25

Blenheim Palace is over 300 years old and it takes a lot of work and money to keep Blenheim Palace in good shape.  Indeed, now the aim is to undertake works to the value of £40 million over the next 10 years so that Blenheim can preserve the World Heritage Site.  It’s a Baroque property with an extensive collection of portraits, furniture, sculpture and tapestry.  A charitable trust manages it all, inside and out.

Blenheim welcomes over 900,000 visitors a year - a third of them in the festive season.  And the palace is to become the stage for Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Snow Queen.  Each state room represents different parts of the story. 

It's a vital part of the calendar for securing Blenheim's future - a critical time for the staff as they work to make everything perfect!  With 12 artificial Christmas trees and over 100 more trees to follow, the Collections team need to move the priceless collection out of harm's way - centuries of portraits and Japanese vases.  You wouldn't want to drop one of them.

There’s lots going on at Blenheim Palace over Christmas. 

You could take out an Annual Pass or a Privilege Pass and you can see the benefits of each here. And there are gift vouchers here for these passes.

Blenheim has a five year pledge to combat climate change, which you can find out about here.

Visit Blenheim Palace's website here.

How about...


How about giving a loved one a Blenheim Palace Visit and
Afternoon Tea with Glass of Fizz for Two?
Available for £129 (on offer, it was £144)
through Virgin Experience Days.

There's a great offer on Merlin Thrilling Theme Park Tickets for Two on offer with BuyaGift.co.uk, if you want a day out for people who love thrills and to get the adrenaline pumping.

And it's on offer - it was £89.00 and it's now £59.00,
saving you 34%.
Not only that, you can get a further 15% off
with our exclusive code** that BuyaGift
have kindly given visitors from this website!
The code is AHW2023

Make the most of day entry at one of the following:

- Alton Towers Resort, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
- Chessington World of Adventures Resort, Chessington, West London
- LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort, Windsor, Berkshire
- THORPE PARK Resort, Surrey
- The London Eye, Southbank, South London
- SEA LIFE London, Southbank, South London
- Cadbury World, Birmingham, West Midlands
- London Dungeon, Southbank, South London
- DreamWorks Shrek's Adventure! London
- Madame Tussauds Blackpool, Lancashire
- SEA LIFE Blackpool, Lancashire
- Blackpool Tower Dungeon, Blackpool, Lancashire
- Warwick Castle, Warwick, Warwickshire

So there's plenty to choose from for a great day out!   Please note the "What do I need to know" section for booking information etc. 

**Our exclusive code AHW2023 is valid with BuyaGift until 31 December 2023 and it's site wide with BuyaGift even for special offers and 2 for 1s!  (Some products are excluded.)

Visit BuyaGift here.

The British Newspaper Archive keeps expanding week by week! 

It's a partnership with the British Library and the aim was to digitise up to 40 million pages from the British Library's collection over a 10 year period.  Well, it's gone way past that - it now has an incredible 72 million pages to explore!

Give your loved one an incredible window into past life
with a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive.

The collection is just staggering.  And the joy of it is that you don't need to leave the house to view it all - you can do it from home, perfect as we approach that time of year when the nights are drawing in and it starts to get colder.

Give the history lover in your life
a subscription to the British Newspaper Archive - 
or why not subscribe yourself?

I love the fact that you can delve into all aspects of life and society to see what people were concerned about at the time;  you can search up births, marriages and deaths, and find out what life was like for your ancestors!  What would they have been talking about at the dinner table?  What would they have been concerned about? What was being advertised, what was popular? What social events were taking place that they might have gone to?  How did they fill any spare time they had? All fascinating stuff, giving you a great insight into life in the past.

What was in a boy's comic in olden times?  

Newspapers give us clues and hints as to what people thought was important and really can add to our knowledge of the fabric of life and the glue that held it together.

This is a great gift for anyone who loves immersing themselves into history, even without leaving the house.  I've got a subscription and it's amazing how easy it is to get so involved in what you're looking at that you go from one thing to another on it without realising how the time is going!

They now have over 72 MILLION pages dating from 1700s for lovers of history, social history, family history, ancestry and what life was like back in the day to explore. 

Give a gift subscription to the British Newspaper Archive today! 

Well, many of us enjoy the build up to Christmas, with the music, the decorations, get-togethers, greetings to send, the thought of several days off in a row.  And equally many people don't - the thought of those get-togethers, finding the right present, listening to the same Christmas music wherever you are....!!

So one of the things you could do is to treat someone to an Advent Calendar and Virgin Experience Days may have just the thing - they've got one for wine, one for gin and one for chocolate.  There's also Joe and Steph's popcorn Advent Calendar, a Pork Crackling and Beer Advent Calendar from Snaffling Pig, and a Pork Crackling Advent Calendar from Snaffling Pig.  They start at £25.95.

This is the Luxury Red Wine Advent Calendar from Virgin Wines
for £99.99

There's also a Luxury Gin Advent Calendar from Virgin Wines
for £110.00

This is the Pork Crackling Advent Calendar from Snaffling Pig
for £25.95


View the Advent Calendars available through Virgin Exprience Days here.