30 things to know about Christmas at Biltmore

A conservative estimate is that Rick Conard has overseen the raising of about 100 tons of Christmas trees at Biltmore House.
Conard, the estate’s vice president of operations, worked on his first Christmas at Biltmore in 1987 and is celebrating 30 years with the estate this holiday season. Any video of the tree-raising in Biltmore’s Banquet Hall from recent decades will feature Conard supervising, directing, pointing and occasionally bellowing to his ever-changing teams of 40-45 people armed with many yards of rope.
Since each tree is about 35 feet tall and an estimated 3,500 pounds — and there are two giant trees each season, with a middle-of-the-night changeover in early December — every year is a new challenge. It requires, Conard said, “big strong people who are willing to pull hard, because they’re lifting up a couple tons worth of tree into the air in between a massive chandelier and an ancient tapestry.”
The only “minor mishap” he can recall is one year when the team was taking down the first tree to make room for the second and neglected to attach some crucial guide ropes. Conard doesn’t share the details, but no one was hurt and no damage was done to the home or its collections. But it’s not a mistake that will be repeated.
In honor of Conard’s 30 years with the estate, we here present 30 things to know about Christmas at Biltmore, which this year is built on the theme “A Vanderbilt Family Christmas.” The facts were provided by Conard; by floral manager Lizzie Borchers, who supervises all the decorating; and by the Biltmore publicity team.
1. If this year›s tree looks bigger, it may be because it is slightly above average, at 37 feet rather than 35. «It looks bigger every year to me,» Conard said.
2. Biltmore›s banquet hall trees are grown for the estate in Newland, North Carolina, by Andrews Nursery — which would be happy to provide you with your own giant tree, up to 60 feet tall, according to the nursery›s website.
3. The days of wandering the woods to find the perfect tree are over, Conard revealed. The nursery is “actually growing our trees for us now, not just searching for them.”
4. Arriving along with the tree at Biltmore this past week were “some extra limbs that the tree grower brings along with him in case we have some limb fatalities, if you will,” Conard said. Some branches inevitably break during the arduous journey from farm to banquet hall, which this year was completed on Nov. 1.
5. Those guide ropes from the organ loft to the trunk during the tree-raising are vital. “The biggest challenge for us is really the first 10 or 15 feet up,” Conard said. The men on the ropes are guiding the tree past a massive chandelier above as well as ancient tapestries and an antique throne below. “It really has just a few feet to get between those historic pieces and up into the air. After that, it’s pretty much a breeze.”
6. The guide ropes on the bottom are equally important but Conard hopes they never have to be used. They’re attached and staffed “in case we have an issue,” he said. “If the tree starts going down, their goal is to pull it away from the tapestries and let the tree fall to the floor. That’s why we make sure no one stands underneath the tree.”
7. The tree topper is a new design this year, and it’s a work in progress. “We pieced it together with branches, ornament and ribbon, but it took a little beating as it journeyed to the top,” Borchers said. “In future years we may put it on even before the tree makes the journey up the drive.”
8.-10. The Banquet Hall Christmas tree is decorated with 500 gift boxes, 500 LED Edison bulb-style electric lights and 500 ornaments. “Those numbers are what we have in our records from the the first Christmas here, so we stay true to that,” Borchers said. “I personally counted the ornaments. We had a little more than 500 but we just called it quits once I counted out 500. I wanted to be able to say there’s 500 on the tree with absolute certainty.”
11. It often takes two people to place the highest ornaments. “The guys [on the tree-raising team] really help us get the ornaments on,” Borchers said. “We get up there on the scaffolding as well, but we have to use big long hooks to get those ornaments in place. So even if [the guys are] doing it, we’re directing them, because we have an idea of where we want each piece to go.”
12. Another 13,000 ornaments are used on the other trees inside Biltmore House.
13. At least 13,000 more additional ornaments are used around the estate.
14. Biltmore staff members hand-light and place 250 luminaries around the driveway and esplanade in front of Biltmore House at dusk each evening for Candlelight Christmas Evenings tours (underway through Jan. 6).
15. The Christmas at Biltmore theme for 2017, “A Vanderbilt Family Christmas,” plays out a little differently in each room, Borchers said. Throughout the house, there’s “definitely an emphasis on the Gilded Age, lots of golds and reds,” she said. Beyond that, each designer on staff interprets the theme “a little differently. In the library you’ll see a travel theme, based on George Vanderbilt’s travels. And then in the tapestry gallery there’s a mix of earthy and natural [elements] with the Gilded, since the estate and the outdoors were a big part of George Vanderbilt’s life.”
16. Decorating Biltmore House for Christmas starts in early October on the upper floors, working down to the lower floors. Just 90 minutes before the tree’s arrival on Wednesday, staffers were still hanging fresh garland on the Grand Staircase and sweeping up the fallen needles below.
17. Plans for next year’s Christmas at Biltmore are already underway, with a theme selected. During this holiday season, design team members will select the rooms they’ll work on next year, and in January decorations will be packed away not according to where they appeared this season but according to where they’ll be headed for Christmas 2018.
18. More than 1,000 traditional poinsettias can be found in the Christmas displays in the house and around the estate.
19. Another 1,000-plus plants include amaryllis, Christmas cacti, orchids, peace lilies, cyclamen, begonias and kalanchoe and potted green plants.
20. Some 360 fresh wreaths and sprays and 130 faux pieces are placed around the estate.
21. The fresh wreaths are made of white pine and Fraser fir, ornamented with golden arborvitae, holly or other natural materials, such as twigs and cones.
22. What›s a «kissing ball»? Look for 100 of these orbs made of fresh white pine and Fraser fir, or of dried and faux materials, found all across the estate.
23. Placed end to end, the fresh evergreen garlands used across the estate would stretch more than 1.4 miles, or 7,527 feet. Those garlands, made of mixed white pine and Fraser fir, are replaced weekly to maintain a fresh look and fragrance.
24. Faux garlands stretch another 1,200 feet in Biltmore House and about 1,500 feet elsewhere on the estate.
25. You could count up to 1,000 bows among the decorations inside Biltmore House.
26. Another 2,000 or so bows pop up on the estate outside the house.
27. What most folks would call “ribbon” includes everything from narrow cording to 8-inch-wide strips of cloth, made from velvets, metallics, satins, burlap and printed cottons.
28. Eight full-time floral designers work on Christmas at Biltmore along with 17 staffers on the floral reserve team.
29. In addition to the floral team, staffers pitching in for Christmas come from Engineering, Housekeeping, Museum Services, Horticulture, Guest Services, Security, Events and other departments. “The thing I just love about Christmas here is all the different teams of people that it takes to make it happen,” Borchers said.
30. This is Borchers’ first Christmas in charge of the holiday decorations, although she’s been with the estate for 2½ years and previously supervised Christmas decor at the Inn on Biltmore Estate and the Village Hotel. Her goal in designing the banquet hall tree’s decorations was simple but lofty, she said. “I just want people to feel at peace looking at it. I want people to walk in and just say ‘Wow.’”