‘I hire a brass band & snow machine when I turn on my Christmas lights’
The outspoken and, at times, outrageous Luisa Zissman tells Closer how she kicks off the festive season in style
From The Apprentice to Celebrity Big Brother, Luisa Zissman has proved she’s never one to do things by halves, and Christmas is just the excuse to go all-out.
The entrepreneur is married to millionaire tycoon Andrew Collins, with whom she has two daughters – Indigo, three, and Clementine, two – as well as Dixie, nine, from her previous marriage. And the 32 year old reveals she loves making the build-up to Christmas into a huge event for her children.
COUNTDOWN
“I love Christmas so much,” she tells Closer. “I start shopping for decorations in October and we kick off the festive season with a big Christmas party, which always happens in November.
“The whole house gets lit up and we do a Christmas lights switch-on with a brass band, fireworks and snow machines.
We are kind of extra. Every year we add more lights.”
An early adopter of Christmas, Luisa – who has her own podcast Loose Lips with Anna Williamson – started decking out the outside of her family home in festive lights during the first week of November. Last year, she put up a total of five Christmas trees six weeks before the big day.
The star was catapulted into the spotlight during her 2013 stint on The Apprentice, when she reached the final, but lost out to Leah Totton – with whom she remains close pals. The TV star and her family live in a lavish mansion in Hertfordshire, which Luisa renovated to include an enormous soft play room for her girls.
Luisa reveals that, as the countdown begins, she gets just as excited as her daughters. “I love ‘elf on the shelf’,” she says of the tradition of taking pictures of an elf around the house. “I’ll do something different every day for them. Watching the kids is just magical – and I’m a massive kid myself when it comes to Christmas.”
But when 25 December arrives, Luisa says the day is more low-key and mostly spent cooking at home with family. “We go to church on Christmas morning, which is pretty much the only time in the year that I go to church,” she says. “Christmas for me is quite an easy day cooking-wise, because it’s just me and my immediate family – kids, parents and my granddad. It’s a lot but, sometimes, I’ll do Sunday lunch for 20 people at my house.”
CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
For some escapism after a busy festive season, the family have a change of scenery and visit family, with a trip planned to Andrew’s native Ireland. “We normally go away after Christmas, so we’re going to Ireland this year,” Luisa says.
She cherishes memories of her own childhood Christmases, including her bestever present that was too big to fit under
the tree. She says, “My parents bought me a horse when I was 15 – that’s one of the best Christmas Days I’ve ever had.” Despite treating her three girls this Christmas, Luisa has said she doesn’t want to raise “spoilt, horrible children”, saying, “They do have a lot by default, but I think I’m conscious of instilling in them a good work ethic.”
Luisa recently revealed that she has an old-school approach to parenting, saying some mums are “scared of their kids”. She adds, “My parenting technique is quite tough and not overly sympathetic. I do not pander to them at all. I want them to be tough, strong, independent and feisty women.”
● Luisa’s podcast Loose Lips with Anna Williamson is available from all podcast platforms
‘I’m a massive kid at this time
of year’