A timeless tradition continues: Biltmore’s employee Christmas party

Although Christmas at Biltmore is our busiest season of the year, for one special night each November, Biltmore employees and their families gather to enjoy their own special Christmas evening amidst the twinkling lights and beautiful decorations adorning Biltmore House.

Today, our event programming team oversees the employee festivities, and this tradition is one of the many ways Biltmore honors Mr. Vanderbilt’s legacy.

Learn more about the annual employee Christmas celebrations that began over 130 years ago.

While there are no images from the first Christmas celebration, we know that preparations for the big event were extensive and no detail was left unattended thanks to archival letters and news articles.

Biltmore’s first employee Christmas party

When George Vanderbilt first opened Biltmore House to his family and friends on Christmas Eve 1895, guests were greeted in the Banquet Hall by a splendidly tall tree laden with gifts for estate workers. He enlisted the help of Mrs. Charles McNamee, the wife of his friend, who assisted in purchasing land for the estate, to provide Christmas gifts for 300–500 guests, including estate workers and their families. Mr. Vanderbilt greeted everyone in the Banquet Hall on Christmas afternoon, and members of his own family helped distribute the gifts, which included Christmas trees and trimmings for estate employees to decorate their own homes.

“Not only did Mr. Vanderbilt provide very generous Christmas bonuses to employees, but can you imagine what this party meant to employees’ children and families? Some people came from as far away as the Tennessee state line, and that was quite a trip—especially in horse and wagon days,” said Patricia, Biltmore’s Entertainment and Events Manager.

1907 receipt of gifts purchased by Edith Vanderbilt for employees Christmas festivities.

A festive family affair

George married Edith Stuyvesant Dresser in 1898, and she took an immediate and active interest in the estate’s annual Christmas festivities as soon as she and George returned from their honeymoon in October of that year. She began making detailed lists of all employees’ children, their ages, and choosing special gifts for each of them—more than 600 children in all!

In 1905, when George and Edith Vanderbilt’s only child, Cornelia, would have been five years old, the New York Times reported the following details about the holiday cheer at Biltmore:

“Mr. and Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt this afternoon provided for nearly a thousand children of Biltmore estate employees a big tree in the banquet hall of the chateau. The little ones were loaded with useful gifts and toys…bought in Asheville in the last week…Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt welcomed each of the little guests, many of whom came twenty miles from the coves and mountain tops of the Vanderbilt forest domain, some walking, some by ox team and some mule back…. Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilt…personally distributed all the gifts, aided by Mrs. Edith Wharton, Mr. Wharton, and Mrs. Ernesto G. Fabbri (George Vanderbilt’s niece].”

In her oral history, Edith Cauble, whose parents worked on the estate, recalls:

“Christmas parties where Mr. Vanderbilt stood on one side of the front door of the House in tails, and Edith stood on the other side wearing a long velvet dress giving out oranges and candy. In the Banquet Hall there was music and Cornelia would run around with the other children.”

Biltmore employee Christmas party held at Antler Hall in 1916.

Employee Christmas celebrations continue

Edith and Cornelia Vanderbilt continued the employee Christmas parties even after George Vanderbilt passed away in 1914. In 1916, the event took place outdoors at Antler Hall—a large home originally located where The Inn on Biltmore Estate now sits. In the archival photograph featured here, you can see Edith Vanderbilt just to the right of center, wearing a dark hat, and Cornelia to her left in a white hat.

Today’s employee Christmas festivities include visits with Santa!

Modern-day employee Christmas celebrations

Although the wrapped packages under today’s Banquet Hall tree are decorative rather than full of surprises, that doesn’t mean Biltmore has ended the Vanderbilt gift-giving tradition! It’s still a grand occasion with gifts for the children, visits with Santa, and a wonderful opportunity to see America’s Largest Home^® lit by the glow of candles and firelight during Candlelight Christmas Evenings.

“It’s really neat to me that this tradition has remained year after year. We’ve modernized it a little with Excel spreadsheets and such, but otherwise, it hasn’t changed that much. We give more than 300 gifts each year, and though they are more contemporary than the presents children would have received in the early 1900s, they always reflect the Vanderbilt spirit of warmth and generosity,” said Patricia.