We visited this week - it's not an enormous house (compared to say Chatsworth or Blenheim) but worth seeing for the beautiful rooms and furnishings. The David Harewood exhibition was very interesting and thought provoking ( important to acknowledge that the wealth to build and furnish the stately homes of England was acquired through the labour of enslaved people). Sadly the catering was a let down. The Terrace Cafe was closed the day we visited, and a very limited and uninspiring offering in the rather charmless Courtyard Cafe - disappointing compared with other similar properties we've visited.

The main purpose of the visit was for afternoon tea, which did not disappoint……we were greeted like friends and given attentive, but not obsequious, service. The food and ambience were great, and I would thoroughly recommend. We also spent some time exploring the house and grounds - and again, all staff with whom we interacted were lovely and friendly and helpful. Very few people seemed to make the walk around the Himalayan garden and over to the Walled garden, which I think is a great pity (although we enjoyed the quiet 😊)…and for anyone who does venture round, do stop for a drink at The Bothy as we did. I will be returning.

Spur of the moment visit with my mum senior citizen to the artisan Christmas market. £7.50 each included parking, anywhere in the grounds. Well organised and well worth it. The stalls meander down the field bark and mud so wear decent footwear. We had a bite to eat in the courtyard café and a stroll on the terrace. They had a huge canopy up in the courtyard with fairy lights and Christmas trees and a wonderful choir singing. There were fairy lights and Christmas tree photo opportunities on the terrace also. The trees will in full autumn colour. Gods county indeed. Won’t hesitate to recommend and return next year!

A beautiful visit on a gorgeous autumn day. The trees and grounds were spectacular. It was understandably busy on such a sunny day and the staff were doing a great job trying to speed up the arrivals process at the gate. The artisan market was wonderful and very well organised. The walk around the stalls was combined with great views of the house and the children had a great time at the end running around the maze. We're members and will be renewing it for years to come, great value for money and we will treasure the memories we've made here, especially at Christmas.

We visited Harewood House yesterday in a group. As it's nearby I've been many times over the years and the house and estate are magnificent. But this visit was to see the house decorated for Christmas. Over several years I've been to a number of similar, and smaller, stately homes at Christmas and they've all been spectacular in their different ways so I was expecting something special at Harewood. Sadly it was underwhelming, there was a theme to the rooms but many of them looked as though they'd been done on the cheap. Too many piles of Christmas gifts, basically boxes wrapped in Christmas paper, decorations that looked as if they came from Poundland, and umpteen cardboard cards with messages on them which looked like something you'd see on a primary school classroom wall. I know that Harewood was late to the table when it came to opening over Christmas and I can only assume they finally decided to start doing it in order to cash in on the volumes of visitors who come along to these events, but if they're going to do it they should do it well. We all felt this was just disappointing.

After reading so many negative reviews on this year’s Christmas event we decided to take a look for ourselves We booked in for late afternoon and on entering the house we had a warm welcome Unfortunately only half of the rooms were open to the exhibition although as explained the other rooms would be open shortly for the Santa experience As we walked through the rooms we could relate to the past years having lived through those years Not too sure about Christmas 2050 the turkey will need a week to cook ! It was obvious the team had acted on the poor reviews and additions to the rooms added On exiting the house onto the terrace garden the fading backdrop brought out the magical effects of the light display walking down to the courtyard you had that Christmas feeling especially after the previous nights scattering of snow As we walked back past the advent calendar on the house we noticed silhouettes on the lawns of the fallow deer a magnificent site to end the walk We found it to be very interesting and the youngster will find it magical especially once they open the santa experience The only disappointment of the afternoon was to be served coffee at the terrace cafe in paper cups!!

Great experience today. We thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas Through the Ages experience in the house, the grounds looked great with the frosty covering, and the afternoon tea was fantastic and great value for money! Thank you to Jonathan and the rest of the staff in the Terrace Tea for being so helpful and accommodating. Highly recommended! Thank you.

We had a lovely day at Harewood today seeing Father Christmas. The Peppermint Christmas story was beautifully done and was very engaging for our 6 year old who loved it. Father Christmas and the team were great and there were a lot of happy children in the room with a nice quality present at the end. Felt special and we all left the experience feeling festive. We then went to look around the house after, it was a nostalgic tour through the ages, the wider house wasn’t traditional Christmas fair but it was good fun and littlie enjoyed the big game and the 90s room made us all smile and have a little dance. In summary Beautiful Father Christmas engaging experience and the house different… but go with an open mind and a pinch of nostalgia and it was good fun. The grounds also looked beautiful in the frost. We had a lovely time thank you.

Visited The Time Travel Christmas on Saturday, a truly tumultuous day thanks to Storm Elen. Well worth the visit even so. The family enjoyed their visit to Santa , who along with the Snow Fairy were on fine form. The visit to the House was entertaining as we went back in Time and then raced through the decades to the future. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon enhanced by a lovely chocolate brownie.

Great Time Travelling Christmas event. Good effects and decorations in the house. Quite a quick visit through the house with lots to look at, but that suited our children well. Not too busy, and refreshments were good quality although on the prices side. Lovely homemade ginger and apple cake. Nice walk through the Himalaya Garden and a play in the park for the children. Thanks for a great Christmas event.