Ideal Home Christmas Show Review
Ideal Home Show Christmas
Reviewed by Jenny Sparks
As a fan of both Interior design and Christmas (who isn’t), I knew spending the day at the Ideal Home Show Christmas was going to be great. Upon arrival at Earls Court the show didn’t disappoint. Outside there were lots of white Christmas trees to welcome you into the Christmas spirit. Once inside the first thing you saw was the largest real indoor Christmas tree in the UK at 15 metres high and over 7 metres wide, which was very impressive. It was good to know that once the show was over, the tree was going to be cut and donated to young London based furniture designers, recycling enterprises and to be used in furniture making. In front of the this tree there was the 1001 tree maze created from living trees which were available to buy or hire out for Christmas. The Little Tree Company could deliver your tree straight to your door and once the festivities are over they can arrange for your tree to be collected and re-planted ready for next year! What a great idea. From within the tree maze came the lovely sound of Christmas music coming from the bandstand.
With over 500 exhibitors offering Interiors & Furnishings, Food & Drink, Home Improvement, Fashion & Beauty, Gadgets & Gizmos and Gifts & Decorations my daughter and I didn’t know where to begin, and I certainly don’t think we got to them all. There were stalls to keep the whole family interested and once we had been to as many stalls as we could and had spent a lot of money on some great deals, we needed to have a seat and something to eat. Again there was a vast choice of dining options available and we eventually settled on Pizza Express. After refuelling we decided to catch some of the demonstrations on offer, so we watched as Linda Barker showed us some great ideas for home-made Christmas decorations. She demonstrated how to make a stocking, a Christmas wreath, a table decoration, an advent calendar and many more and certainly inspired my daughter and I to have a go. We also learnt new gift wrapping skills from Neelam Meetcha, seasonal recipes and handy tips from Martin Blunos, fashion tips from the winter trend catwalk and fashionable party season hairstyles from Stuart Phillips. The show featured many other celebrities on previous days such as Gino D’Acampo, Olly Smith, Laurence Llewellyn–Bowen and many more.
All in all we would recommend the Ideal Home Show Christmas to everyone as a great day out and a perfect start to the festive season. As this was the inaugural show, we are glad to see that it will be returning next year and so will we.