Without a doubt, Fonthill Castle in Doylestown is one of my favorite homes to tour in PA, so I was excited when I had a chance to revisit to check it out during the Christmas season.
Holidays at Fonthill Castle offers the chance to tour the castle with a festive twist from mid-November through the end of each year. It’s definitely one of the most fun and unique Christmas things to do near Philly.
During this holiday event, the castle is decked out with trees in nearly every room of the house, as well as the exterior. The decorations don’t seem to have anything in particular to do with the home, but they are still quite beautiful and festive nevertheless.
There are three ways to see the home during the holiday season: standard day-time tours, evening tours, and meander days. I visited during a normal day time tour, but would love to go back again to see the castle in the other two ways.
Note that my comments will be largely on the tour that I got to experience during my visit.
First off, while your tour may vary based on the guide you get, the tour I took during Holidays at Fonthill Castle wasn’t really any different than the one I had taken previously during the rest of the year. The route is the same as other tours, and the guides don’t spend any significant amount of time discussing the decorations.
That being said, there are over a dozen beautiful decorated trees that the tour passes by, each with a theme that is noted on a sign next to the tree. There are also decorations in the fireplaces and scattered throughout the rooms.
They definitely go all out when decorating the castle.
In each room, guides go through the normal spiel telling the story of the castle and its resident, Henry Chapman Mercer (who also built the nearby Moravian Pottery and Tile Works and the Mercer Museum). So, if you’ve never toured the castle (or, like me, it’s been a while), you aren’t going to miss the history of the building just because it’s the holiday season.
Tours wind there way through the home (which is very much not handicap accessible with narrow and uneven staircases), passing through many of the castle’s 44 rooms. Guides do an excellent job pointing out the tiles embedded in the walls and ceilings of each room, as well as discussing how each space was used.
While they are talking, you are encouraged to look around the space, and there is ample time to look at both the normal items in the room, as well as to check out the decorations and trees in each space.
Some of the trees are more traditional, while others are quite whimsical, including uniquely-colored trees. I thought they did a great job of fitting the decorations in the space in a way that didn’t seem cluttered or out of place.
Standard day tours last about an hour and give you the best chance to learn about the home. However, if you’ve visited before, one of the other two options might be a better choice.
Evening tours offers the rare chance to see the castle after dark, and the lights on the trees and throughout the rooms are lit during this time. Tours are a bit shorter, only 45 minutes, but you’ll still have time to see this incredible castle and learn a bit more about it.
Weekend visits during Holidays at Fonthill Castle give you the chance to meander around the space at your own pace and spend as much or as a little time as you want (within reason, of course) in the castle’s various rooms. There is no formal tours during these Meander Days, but docents are available in each space to answer any questions that you may have.
Overall, I really enjoyed Holidays at Fonthill Castle in Bucks County. It had been close to a decade since I’d visited the castle, so the tour was fresh for me, and I learned a lot of new things about it and its owner during my tour.
The Christmas trees and other holiday decorations were very tastefully done, and really added a lot of festive charm to the space. I’d love to visit again in the evening to see them all lit up, though.
I’ll just have to make sure it isn’t a decade before I visit again.
Holidays at Fonthill Castle is open from November 15 through December 30, 2025. Tour options and prices differ depending on the day, so check their website to confirm the tours available each day.
Looking for more things to do nearby? Check out the best Christmas Attractions in Christmas City USA, Illumination at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, and the Lights at Peddler’s Village.
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