The festive preparations begin

Every year my Mum and I take a pre Christmas trip up to London for lunch and to look at the Christmas department in my favourite store, Harrods. We try to make our visits well before the Christmas shoppers arrive in earnest as it then gets far too busy to really enjoy. The crowds in London near Christmas are something to see. I love the atmosphere at that time of the year but would rather not actually be trying to shop at the same time!

This year we made the trip a few weeks ago and I really think it was one of the best displays for many years. Harrods surprisingly allow photography in their store, so I snapped a few pictures with my smart phone.

This is the entrance to the department and yes the chocolate shop is in the same direction...how handy is that!










And look what greeted us through the door

Isn't that a beautiful display? Even the carpet had snowflakes woven into it.
They tend to have their decorations and tree baubles in "themed" sections...

Cool Britannia................(not really my cup of tea but this really does appeal to the tourists).

Nutcrackers and their friends...

A very cute display using an advent calendar theme, all the decorations were stored behind the windows.

Some very intricate (and very expensive!) musical boxes.

Lovely reds, golds and greens (my favourite Christmas colours)

and gorgeous silvers and whites. I loved this display, it was so wintery  and festive.

Usually my Mum treats me to a new bauble but this year I decided to have something slightly different.

These sweet little lights are battery powered and they will be going into my studio when I put some decorations out there. My daughter says it will be like Santa's grotto by the time I have finished with it ;0) I also bought some of  my tree chocolates.

And then when I was in Marks and Spencer I spotted a brilliant tin for my crafts..

Isn't he great! He contained mini gingerbread shortbread biscuits, which were yummy. Now that he is empty I have decided to use him for my Christmas ribbons. I am such a tin girl, I have quite a stash and I find them so useful for storage. I love finding something unusual and he is a super addition to my collection.

Christmas really is creeping up now, only 43 days to go. As you know I have been busy making cards for some time. I have also bought the crepe paper ready to think about making my crackers and I have started finding my cracker presents for the family.

Next Thursday I am meeting up with my dearest friend Karen. She is taking a half day off work. We are having lunch (with lots of chat of course) followed by an afternoon of Christmas shopping....yippee, my preparations will have started in earnest.

I need to be a little bit patient as before then I have my Open House tomorrow. I shall be spending today getting everything sorted out and displayed ready for my customers.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and that you too may be thinking about some Christmas plans ;0)

Thank you so much for all your lovely comments on my last post and if you need a countdown to The Wedding...it's 259 days to go!

Bye for now,

Jane x