In today’s world, it’s no small thing to open your door to a stranger, but welcoming a steady stream of curious visitors into your home in the lead-up to Christmas is nigh on unthinkable.
For the Clark family, they couldn’t imagine spending Christmas any other way.
‘The Manor House’ may sound like a guesthouse or B&B in the Ayrshire village of West Kilbride, but this is very much the Clark family home.
Viewed from the street, thousands of glistening lights and ornaments breathe some much-needed cheer into the cold, dark and long winter night.
A giant teddy rides a train and a family of wicker deer look ready to join in with the excited rabble coming from visitors making their way up the garden path.
The true extent of the Clark family’s love of Christmas comes into view when you first step inside their home.
Mesmerising arrangements constructed from hundreds of festive baubles dangle from the ceilings and visitors are immediately struck by the realisation they’re vastly outnumbered by rotating Christmas trees.
Old television sets are converted into diorama music boxes and no fewer than 50 model Santa Clauses are on hand to hear how good (or bad!) you’ve been this year.
Ayrshire family opens its doors to home boasting 37 Christmas trees and 80,000 lights and 8 miles of tinsel
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Cameron says it takes between four and five weeks to erect all the decorations
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On the 37 Christmas trees hang some of the 10,000 baubles, each tree with its own theme, from London trips to Winnie the Pooh.
This will be the ninth year the Clarks have raised money for charity by turning the decor up to 11, but son Cameron traces the Clarks’ love of Christmas back to 1993 when his parents enjoyed their first date at a Christmas shop in Newberg, Oregon in the USA.
“I’ve grown up surrounded by Christmas,” he says, “it’s in my blood more than anything else.
“We do it in honour of my late father and I won’t ever stop because of that and I don’t think anyone in my family ever will, young or old.
“His love of Christmas was for it to not matter where you were in the world, you came home for Christmas – it doesn’t matter what’s under the tree, it was who was around it.
“So when we don’t have him here, this is our way of sharing that joy with so many others and our way of including him in Christmas every year.”
MORE CHRISTMAS JOY:
The Clark family home
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The family has opened its doors for charity
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Given the scale of the festive explosion in every corner of the house and garden, it’s no surprise that the planning and preparation takes over when getting ready for their first round of visitors.
Cameron says it takes between four and five weeks to erect all the decorations, saying nothing of the three months of planning needed in the summer.
The feat is all the more impressive when you consider that Christmas isn’t the only holiday where the Clarks open their doors: Easter and Halloween events have been hugely popular in recent years too, all resulting in commendable donations being made to local good causes.
Nevertheless, in the Clark household, Christmas reigns supreme.
Guests are treated to a leisurely walk through the home to take in all the festive cheer, a cup of hot chocolate at the midway point in the kitchen and toast-your-own marshmallows over custom hearths in the garden.
To keep the sugar rush going, freshly baked cookies and brownies are handed out at the door for the journey home.
Some 10,000 Christmas baubles hang in the home
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Each tree has its own theme
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For Cameron, having a full house for a few hours a day is a small price to pay for spreading a little Christmas cheer.
He says: “Once people started coming inside, be it our neighbours and friends for an annual Christmas party, it just became second nature to us to have those friends, neighbours and the wider community come in is now just second nature to us.
“It’s worth it just to share that with the extended community.”
For now, visitors are kept to the ground floor, gardens and covered areas outside, but Cameron has teased that next year’s 10th anniversary of the Manor House Winter Wonderland Walkthrough will be just too darned festive to contain in one floor of his family home.
As per the binding rules of ‘Twelfth Night’, all 80,000 lights, 10,000 baubles and 37 trees will come down at the start of January, safely placed in storage nearby until next year’s anniversary festivities, but you never quite know what the Clark family will pull out the stocking when the season to be jolly rolls around once again.
