STARS such as Michelle Keegan, Stacey Solomon and Rochelle Humes bring out their best baubles for the battle of the front door display bling every year.
And usually no one does Christmas quite like the celebs – and this year’s efforts ‘outside the houses’ are no exception.
But this year, some non-celebrity women have taken inspiration from stars such as Billie Faiers and Luisa Zissman and also splashed out to have lavish Christmas door displays professionally installed.
These Christmas-obsessed ladies have paid for jaw-dropping displays with glitzy wreaths and giant nutcrackers and they have given the celebs a run for their money.
Jessica Pover, 30, from Hertford said her aim was ‘the bigger, the better’ as she decided to have a luxurious festive display to get her children into the Christmas spirit.
The CEO of Beauty Heaven UK (@beautyheavenuk) said lots of Christmas activities have been cancelled this year due to covid, so she has gone to extra lengths to raise spirits.
She said: “This year I feel like everybody is trying to make that little bit more of an effort with outdoor displays and decorations to bring a little more Christmas joy.
“This is the first year I’ve had such a big display and it will be coming back every year! I wanted my own little winter wonderland.
“I contacted Bespoke My Bow and asked them to make me some reefs for my door and before I knew it, we were planning this big display.”
Jessica said it is great to see people walking past her house – smiling, pointing and taking photos – all she wanted was for her home to look magical.
The mother joked that she would have her whole driveway covered in snow if she could but she loves her festive display which cost her £6,000.
Jessica, who originally got her inspiration from Peggy Porschen, said she loves seeing reality star Luisa Zissman’s festive display as she goes above and beyond too.
She said: “Luisa doesn’t live far from us and every year, she goes above and beyond to transform her house and it looks incredible.
“Christmas is the only time of the year we can go mad with glitter, fake snow and cover your house with lights and just spread colour.”
While Gemma Goodale, 35, from Peterborough had a similar idea and had the outside of her new house transformed with black, grey and white decorations.
The accountant, who shares her family life on her Instagram @the_norman_cross_nest), said it was the first year she decided to have a professional display installed.
She said: “I saw so many celebs’ posts and loved the idea. It is our daughter’s first Christmas so we decided to go all out.
“This year we found out I was unexpectedly having a lockdown baby who was born last week so our decorations are installed ready for his first Christmas too.
“I loved Billie Faiers installation last year so I found the company who does her Christmas displays – Cupid Creative.”
Gemma said Christmas is the only time her and her partner can really switch off her work and enjoy downtime as a family – so she loves to make the season extra special.
She loved Christmas as a child and even more so now that she has her own family.
The mother added: “I love this time of year and having special memories with my family. This year’s display cost us £1,400.
“We have two trees decorated, the stairs have a garland on them, the island in the kitchen has a garland and then the front double doors have wreaths and decor all around.”
Fatos Ahmet, 40, who is the founding florist of Cupid Creative said installations can take anything from eight hours to numerous days to complete.
The florist from Sidcup, Kent, has been doing Christmas door installations for years – ranging from winter wonderland, Frozen, candy land and even a pastel nutcracker theme.
She said: “What’s a better way than seeing the back of the year than by sprucing up your home with a truly magnificent and magical display.”
Elsewhere housewife Chloe Tunstall is another mum who has decided to have an amazing outdoor display professionally installed.
The 26-year-old from West Midlands has been admiring installations for a few years and after covid ruined her Christmas plans, she decided to have luxurious decorations.
She said: “I decided if I was going to stay at home this Christmas, I would be staying home in style!
“I contacted Kelly Louise Floral Artistry who booked me in and discussed with me what I wanted my door to look like. This is the first year I have had it and I will never miss a year!
“I have always loved Christmas and especially after the year we have all had, I decided I wanted to go EXTRA and make this year special.”
The mum, who shares her family life on her Instagram @chlotunstall, decided to go for a pale gold, champagne and silver theme – with lots of sparkles.
She spent £1,000 on the door display but said she would definitely pay more in future – as she hopes to go ‘bigger and better’ with her displays.
Chloe said she took inspiration from Billie Faiers and said she loves the way that she designs her home and interiors.
She said: “I was totally inspired by celebrities Christmas door installations – especially Billie’s. Her home always looks amazing!
“I have had so many compliments from friends, neighbours and online. The display brings me so much joy, every time I pull up on my drive I just can’t believe that it’s my front door!
“I had my first baby this year in May, a daughter called Tru. I want her to have the most magical first Christmas so we can look back and remember it always.”
Kelly Louise Chapman, 40, is the founding florist of Kelly Louise Floral Artistry in Cheshire said she loves to create show-stopping designs like Chloe’s.
The company, which specialises in weddings and events, started doing Christmas installations after Kelly Louise’s festive archway at her home in 2019 attracted attention.
She said: “It was our last Christmas in our home so I went to town and created a wow factor Christmas archway.
“So many people enquired to book so we decided to offer the service this year as we were able to take on bookings due to covid meaning most weddings had been rescheduled.
“No request is too big or extravagant as our clients are attracted to our large OTT style.
“We use anything from 1,000 lights and anything from 500 baubles. We also use props such as nutcrackers and reindeer.”
Charlene Mennie, 33, from Essex also has an extravagant door installation at the front of her house with a giant garland, door wreath and two full size nutcrackers.
The mum, who shares her life on her Instagram page @xcharzy, said her family love Christmas and her daughter Violet gets so excited by the lovely decorations.
Their home has a red and white candy cane theme with giant lollipops, sweets and baubles while her daughter’s playhouse has been decorated with pink, silver and white unicorns.
Charlene said: “As a family we love Christmas and Violet is now at the age where she gets excited for Christmas.
“It really makes you feel like Christmas is coming and it excites you, especially when we see how excited Violet is for Santa’s arrival.
“We also decided to decorate Violet’s playhouse in the garden, in the same way but with a pink theme to match her playhouse.”
The mum said people always comment to tell her how amazing her display looks online and said they are even more ‘wowed’ when they see the installation in real life.
Charlene’s Christmas installation cost around £1,000 and took a full day to install after the decorations took three days to make.
For more festive ideas, mums are creating fake snow at the bottom of their Christmas trees using £12 fluffy white rugs from Amazon.
And this thrifty mum created a Christmas feature wall using 99p B&M wrapping paper… and there’s a matching table cloth too.
Plus this mum whose family trip to Lapland was cancelled due to Covid makes epic winter wonderland in her lounge using bedsheets.
