As a student, it would be fair to say that I do not have unlimited funds, which is always difficult when you go somewhere with literally thousands of things you wish you could buy and the Christmas Ideal Home Show was no exception to this. To liven things up a bit I decided to give myself a theoretically £1000 to spend at the show to see how I would be able to decorate my room for Christmas on a £1000 budget.
I headed to the bedroom display that had been designed by Laurence Llewelyn Bowen for inspiration. I loved everything in the display, but with the bed alone priced at £4500 I realised I needed to be thinking less of a Laurence Christmas and more towards a limited budget Christmas.
I decided the most important purchase for Christmas would be the tree, so I set off to find some fairly priced foliage. I was amazed when I came across a display of Christmas trees with a sign that read ‘Hire your Christmas Tree Today.’ At first I was confused as to how this would possibly work, but as I read on, I learned that The Little Tree Company hires out Christmas trees for the holiday period and then collects them again and replant them. I never had heard of this before and thought it was a brilliant idea so I decided I would spend £95 of my £1000 on a planet friendly tree.
With the tree sorted, I set my sights on decorations. I found a display of Christmas trees decorated to match different themes, for example children’s Christmas and Chic Christmas. I decided I would go for the ‘Classy Christmas’ theme, after all if I was going to pretend I had £1000 to spend on decorating my room, I might as well pretend I had the class to match. The classy Christmas tree decorative set took another £50 out of my budget.
As I moved past the tree section, a stand of artificial flickering candle lights caught my eye. I love candles, so the thought of having plug in candles that would never fade was too much to resist. If I had actually been buying them, I know I would have wanted enough to go all the way around my room – 100 would probably do it. £300 gone.
No Christmas would be complete without oversized light up snowmen and Santa’s. There was a stand selling different kinds of the light up figures. I narrowed it down to the five I liked the most which would have cost £250.
With just £305 left in my imaginary bank account, I decided to treat myself to a £5 Henna tattoo, which even though I got with real money I decided that I would also deduct the £5 from the fake money as well to leave myself with an even £300.
After much deliberation I thought that the money would be best spent on a 6 foot advent calendar, which instead of chocolates provided gifts of jewellery, make up and vouchers.
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| Me and Gino! |
As I was imaging what it would be like to open a luxury gift everyday in the run up to Christmas, a very different kind of luxury item came into view, celebrity chef Gino D’acampo. I grabbed my camera and started ‘happy snapping’ – taking as many photos as I could without any regard for how poorly they were coming out, or how annoying the flash must have been to him as he tried to continue with this phone call.
He then started heading for the exit and I knew it was now or never. He caught my eye, and flashed me a smile with his dazzling white teeth and smouldering eyes; quite honestly I thought I was going to pass out. I managed to compose myself enough to shout ‘PHOTO!’ On reflection, this must have sounded more like a military command than a hopeful request from a fan. He glanced at his watch before deciding that he had time for one photo.
The problem was that he was one side of a barrier and I was the other side of a second barrier but true love knows no boundaries. So I climbed over the first barrier, and to my surprise he climbed over the barrier on his side so we could meet in the middle. It was at this point that I decided not to confess my love, instead choosing to believe that he must have felt the same way. Of course, as a married man, he was not able to tell me this but I knew that climbing over the barrier was his way of letting me know.
As he walked away, I collected myself and went to see how the picture had come out. To my horror, it was extremely blurred and dark and he had already left so I could not take it again. Although I will not be able to use it as a Christmas card photo to send to friends and friends, it is good enough to print out and put in my purse for ever more.
The items I had wanted to purchase as the show may have had expensive price tags, but a picture with Gino D’acampo was priceless.
On reflection I was probably a good job that I didn’t really have £1000 to spend otherwise all I would have come home with would have been 100 fake candles, a tree with decorations, a giant advent calendar and some light up snowmen; all the ingredients of an extremely tacky Christmas. So this year for Christmas, Santa, please bring me a sense of class in preparation for Christmas next year.
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