Glam Christmas

On the 8th December we intended to have a long day out to the Malverns, the weather decided otherwise, here it was the start of a snowstorm lasting a couple of days.  The temperature was in the minus figures, it was biting cold and the snowflakes were horizontal in the driving wind.

Never mind, we stopped off at Hanbury Hall for a 70's and 80's themed Christmas!  The idea came about because in the 70's and 80's the hall was rented out and the occupants became fairly infamous locally for their wild parties. 

Christmas card perfect on the outside, but like an explosion in a glitter factory inside!

The huge tree in the hallway had been lovingly decorated with different colours of lametta, the front drawing room was playing Morecombe and Wise on a loop on the TV and people were relaxing with babycham and snowballs, next to a silver glitter tree. 

The dining room was stuffed with tupperware holding all manner of 70's and 80's food.  Twiglets and cheese balls, anyone?

The retro bar was taking orders for babycham and snowballs at £2 each (2017 prices!), all drunk straight from the bottle with a straw.  Just look at that pineapple ice bucket! 

In the main drawing room, vintage toys were scattered under the tree

Despite being a child in the 70's, some of these were new to me, never heard of computacar, others, like the Grandstand video game, I had heard of but didn't have myself. We did have Monopoly (much to my dad's annoyance as I always won!) and Frustration (which we still have!)  

Actually, most of these toys never crossed the threshold into our house, I feel quite deprived now!

Upstairs, more cabinets with the now rarer items displayed, all belonging to volunteers I believe

I did have a Sinclair ZX81 which was black and white, but my mother bought it off a second hand man at the rag market. I do wish I still had it as it would probably be worth a decent bit by now, but I kept it in good condition and sold it in the 90's to a young lad who was interested in computing

One bedroom upstairs was dedicated to the morning after the night before, sometime in the 80's, Katharine Hamnett Wham t shirt, denim clothing and Frankie GTH bag scattered about the room, another bedroom had a body in a sleeping bag on the floor!

Across the parterre and in the long gallery were yet more toys, we found a pair of rainbow Christmas trees and played Buckaroo for a while, both losing and both fed up of picking the bits up from where they had been thrown by the mule 

Back outside, and the snow wasn't stopping, we had a quick wander around, the house really does look picture perfect in the snow

The vegetable patch was covered with a gentle layer of Winter frosting and we spoke to the chickens, and the lady feeding them, before continuing our walk 

We found this mistletoe at arms length, I couldn't bring myself to pinch a bit!

Past the parterre, which I have once again managed to capture on a tilt (I can't blame the camera, it is user error!), we continued back to the car and home.

I managed to take this photo while we were driving back home down the lanes, and it really is one of my favourite snow pictures so far this year.

Hope you are all staying safe if you have had icy weather, and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!