This review is virtually useless I’m afraid to all those visiting this site now; but I’m writing it before I forget all these pearls of wisdom about where to get your Christmas tree and decorations from. Please bookmark this site and come back again in 11 months time! Just so that you don’t forget, visit this site every day anyway!
This is how to do it
Yes, this isn’t going to be of much use now until next Christmas, but I thought I’d write it quickly before I forget. This is mainly relevant to people in my local area as well as I’ll mention garden centres near to Tonbridge.
Well, first of all, my advice for Christmas lights is – although they may be cheaper in catalogues, they nearly always go wrong, so you want to buy them in a local shop as several catalogues requre you to pay for return postage and lights are heavy. This year we had 3 sets of LED B&Q lights and they have all gone wrong. I’ll be getting my refund tomorrow. Woolworths “twinkling” lights, with no other functions, really means every other one will flash occasionally. B&Q lights and decorations are cheaper (and better I thought) (our B&Q white fibre optic twig tree was £10 cheaper) than Homebase, even with the constant 20% off. However, Homebase do stock the cheaper pine Christmas trees – perfect if you want a cheap (£10 for 6′) large tree for outside. Don’t be tempted for indoors – you’ll be lucky if it keeps its needles for 2 days; as we found out last year. B&Q don’t do those cheap trees, but they were the cheapest place to get the Nordman Fir, fast becoming the most widely available tree as it keeps its needles and they won’t kill you. One year I got an expensive tree that kept its needles but they were so sharp I gave up decorating it – can’t remember what type of fir that was though. Back to my point: For Nordman, B&Q beat the prices of Homebase and the flower stall in the High Street, and the guy in the santa costume outside the golf place, and both Lidles carpark and the carpark by Sainsburys petrol station!
The best lights we’ve had are made by ‘Shades’ which we got from Polhill garden Centre, near Riverhead, Sevenoaks. Polhill also have a humungus Christmas decoration section for every single colour scheme you could want. We bought our fake tree from there as it was the best value 7′ realistic-looking (no fake snow or pine cones on this one) that we could find. People have actually asked if it is real or not, so it passes the test. However, Notcutts Garden Centre in Pembury although a smaller selection, they seemed more classy, and unusual.
You wouldn’t guess I go mad at Christmas would you?