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T’is the season when garden centres and shops swap their usual stock for all things festive and sparkly. And if you haven’t been thinking about stocking up on treats or food, updating old decorations, or buying Christmas presents, perhaps it’s time you should.
Delivery couriers are, unsurprisingly, slammed from Black Friday to Christmas, so if you’re an online shopper, you should probably be getting all of your orders in now.
If you’re in the minority who like to go and spend an afternoon browsing round your local shops, you could find some real Christmas treats. I’ve been on the hunt for something different this Christmas and have been visiting many-a-local garden centres. It also feels good to be supporting local businesses. But don’t worry if your locals stock different things to my locals, as I’ve also looked round the supermarkets and some nationwide retailers to see what they’ve got on their seasonal shelves.
So, here we go, my list of Christmas finds.
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Decorations
On a morning outing to one of my local garden centres with my son, we found Christmas dinosaurs. Yep, you read that right: Christmas dinosaurs. Not sure why a dinosaur would count as a Christmassy animal, but I suppose you can stick a Santa hat on anything and call it a Christmas dec.
These dinosaurs were made of a sparkly green tinsel, with a tinsel Santa hat and scarf with googly eyes. The small, baby T. rex cost £2 and the larger, grown-up t-rex costing £6. Not bad for decorating a kid’s room or adding a touch of fun to a living space.
Turns out, you can also buy these tinsel dinosaurs on Amazon – who would’ve thought. It will cost you more, however. The dinosaur itself will cost you £8.99, plus postage. Cheaper to support your local shop. Do it. You’ll thank yourself in a few years when it hasn’t closed down.
Next up, we head to Meadow Croft’s German Christmas market filled with all sorts of different bits. (The garden centre completely reorganises itself every winter and transforms half into a grotto-style German xmas market.)
Of recent years, I’ve developed quite a soft spot for gonks. At Meadow Croft, I found a small, viking-style gonk for £10.99. You could size up to a medium one for £17.99; but, if you really like gonks, you can spend a bit extra and get a large one for £24.99. (My gonk is in the picture above.)
Gifts
Mr Trotter’s Getting Piggy With It gift box looked exciting. In the box, you’ll get: pork scratchings in two different flavours, sweet chilli jam, caramelised onion chutney, and a pack of sausalami. In the garden centre I found it in, I could buy it for £19.99. On Amazon, it’ll cost £28.99. Our advice? Have a nose round your nearby garden centres first, or even their online site. For example, you can get it from Charlies for £19.99. We know Amazon is the easy option, but sometimes it is definitely worth shopping around.
Looking for a Secret Santa for someone you barely know? A personal handheld massager. Best case scenario, they have an achy body and love it. Worst case scenario? They take it as a hint that you think they need to get themselves off more often.
My kids thought it was funny, but it was really good for massaging a bit of after gym stiffness out of my neck when I had a quick try. It’s a respectable £10, so shouldn’t blow your Secret Santa budget, it can also make a good stoking filler. Don’t forget the batteries. I found this one in Menkind.
Food
Now to the good bit: treats.
It’s yet another garden centre find, but you can probably also get it in a supermarket: Tony’s Chocoloney Gingerbread for £4.99. In our taste test, those who weren’t keen on ginger thought it was overpowering, those who did like ginger gave it the thumbs up. In other words, if you don’t like ginger, choose a different bar.
Another food find of mine were the M&S Milk Chocolate & Cinnamon Tortilla Rolls. These received a tepid response from the taste testers: of the six that tried a handful, only one person liked them. Luckily for them, that meant they got to take a nearly-full bag home.
I didn’t find this one, but Sydney did: Simon Dunn Chocolatier’s do some novelty brussel sprouts. Never fear, they’re only mint covered milk chocolate balls. Or are they?
