Kirstie Allsopp Have yourself a merry little cross-stitch!
Christmas connoisseur Kirstie Allsopp is back and she’s having herself a merry little cross-stitch as she hosts a new craft show…
“This year we’ve had such incredibly different decorations on the show”
Kirstie Allsopp is Santa’s greatest ambassador! On Kirstie’s HandmadeChristmas, currently showing on Channel 4, she’s working harder than a gaggle of elves to get us all in the festive spirit, showing viewers how to turn their homes into Santa’s grotto and fill them with beautiful handmade trinkets.
And it’s not an act. Kirstie is so keen on the magic of Christmas that she still goes to great lengths to convince her sons Bay (12) and Oscar (10) that there really is a Father Christmas.
“We’re only recently slightly on the edge of them believing in Father Christmas, which breaks my heart,” sighs Kirstie (47) when we meet to chat about her Handmade Christmas. “But I did everything humanly possible – apart from hiring an actor to appear at our house on Christmas Eve! – to keep them believing. They want to believe, but it’s the other kids at school who tell them.”
Kirstie’s ruses have included throwing carrot tops around the back garden.
“Then we say, ‘Oh my goodness, those reindeer have spat the carrot ends from the roof!’ And I use different paper for the children’s presents from Father Christmas than on gifts I give.
“I also show them the movie MiracleOn34thStreet, too, which is all about believing in Father Christmas,” she continues. “Although I made the mistake of watching JurassicPark with them the next day and they were like, ‘It’s the same man!’” (The late Richard Attenborough plays both Santa in Miracle and Dr Hammond in JurassicPark.)
Yet even if Kirstie’s growing sons are wavering, she keeps the Christmas spirit alive with her annual TV series, Kirstie’sHandmade Christmas – it’s a deep dive into the holidays that demonstrates how to craft handmade Christmas gifts, decorations and food.
Even nine years in to the show (and after founding The Handmade Fair in 2014), Kirstie still derives great pleasure from participating in craft sessions onscreen.
“I learn so much on the show,” she says.
“In particular, I love decorating a Christmas tree, and this year we had such incredibly different decorations. One guy did origami decorations, a woman made decorations from her late father’s clothes and air mail letters, another made an edible and drinkable tree and another made amazing air-dry clay baubles. I get new ideas from whatever they’re doing – pet gifts, toys, hampers.”
And Kirstie contends that even those of us who don’t know one end of a glue gun from the other enjoy getting crafty during the holidays.
“There’s a lot of stress around Christmas and making crafts is incredibly relaxing,” says Kirstie. “When it feels life is all out of control, just sitting down and making something in a corner can calm you down.
“Also, days are short and cold and so you want to be inside, and craft-making lends itself to that. Crafts about warmth, like knitting and crocheting, can also be very Christmassy.”
But while Kirstie eggs us on to make our homes look like Santa’s grotto, she has a confession – she won’t be around to enjoy hers this Christmas. She will be lounging on a beach! She and her partner, Ben Anderson, a property developer, their sons and Ben’s teenage son, Hal, from his first marriage are jetting off to warmer climes.
“We’re going to the Bahamas!” confesses Kirstie. “Usually we have Christmas at home and New Year’s in a hot place, but this year we’re doing it the other way around.
“But New Year’s will be very festive – we’ll decorate the house in Devon with a tree and decorations in the traditional way because it’s important to the boys.”
Rest assured, however, that Kirstie’s Christmas abroad will be as festive as she can make it. “There will be a Christmas ttree where h we’re ’ staying t i and d I’m taking decorations in my suitcase,” she says. “After filming HandmadeChristmas it would be bizarre to go from 60 to zero, so I will make it as Christmassy as I can in a hot climate.”
Do we sense a new series in the offing? Kirstie’sCaribbean Christmas definitely has a certain ring to it…