Live reindeer, a £4k photo booth and £70m winter wonderland home... Yes it’s Christmas for Tamara Ecclestone
AS the heiress daughter of a billionaire, she is used to having all she wants...
For Christmas it will be no different for Tamara Ecclestone.
And she gave me a glimpse inside the fairytale £ 70million mansion she shares with husband Jay Rutland, 37, and four-yearold daughter Sofia.
A huge silver wreath is split in half to go on each of the two huge front doors, flanked by brightly lit polar bears and deer which the royals at Kensington Palace next door can gaze at for free.
Beneath a huge chandelier in the hall is a wooden advent calendar as big as a person.
Gold
Step past numerous unicorns and you’ll find TWO ceiling-high pine trees and a £4,000 Magic Mirror photo booth.
She has hired FOUR real reindeer to arrive on Christmas Eve at a cost of £1,000 each – and bought authentic food for them.
Sighing, Tamara, 34, admits she has “no idea” how many baubles she bought but insists there are no decorations made of real gold.
The average Brit spends £810 on festivities. So, I ask, what does this lot cost? “I don’t really want to talk about money,” she tells me. “Obviously it’s more than just putting up a tree. It’s big. But pretty normal.”
“I s t art Christmas shopping in summer. Well, in September. I’ve always embraced it but since having Fifi it’s so magical. Seeing it through her eyes it’s even better.”
Tamara’s dad is Bernie Ecclestone, 88, who made £ 2.5billion as boss of Formula One.
But she insists: “Growing up, Christmas wasn’t big, nothing like this. My parents didn’t make a big deal of it like we do. I think my dad thinks I’m mad.”
Magical
Yesterday Tamara held a party for five-year-old Sofia – known as Fifi – at an exclusive hotel with reindeer – just two this time – an owl and 50 excitable children.
The weekend before they flew to Lapland to meet Santa.
“I’m grateful I’m able to give Fifi the most magical Christmas and get to experience all these things with her,” says Tamara.
“But for me Christmas is also about giving back. At Fifi’s school we take toys in to kids who don’t have as much.”
Each year she hand-picks gifts for children at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
She says: “I got a bunch of toys that are all wrapped up and we’re having them taken to the hospital.”
Tamara’s home is magical but she won’t be there this Christmas.
The family will be in Los Angeles with her sister Petra, 29.