By Scarlet Pughe 

Christmas in Kent

This weekend I decided to head home to visit my family in Kent.  My dad came to pick me up from the station, excited to return home so he could see my reaction to the Pughe’s Christmas decoration display of 2019. 

My family have always been big on Christmas ever since I was a little girl. Until the age of 10 I received calls from ‘head elf’ (my dad upstairs on the landline upstairs, putting on a Scottish accent) asking what I wanted for Christmas, a great way for my parents to get a good detailed Christmas list. My dad would be up on the roof ringing bells on Christmas eve, when my brother and I were about to fall asleep, so that we would think Rudolph had landed and father Christmas was coming. But my main memories of Christmas are my parents sheer skills at making our house into a Christmas grotto. Think Harrods meets country house. 

What I realised on this particular trip home was that my mum is unknowingly a born art director. She has designed our Christmas ever since I was born. Every year her craft has improved and this year she really has surpassed herself. 

As I arrived home, the electric gates opened to be greeted by a sea of warm white twinkling lights covering every tree and bush in sight. I then walked in the front door instantly noticing a new Christmas smell lingering in the air – mum had bought Christmas reed diffusers which were strategically placed through the entire house to make it smell like Jo Malone had partnered with Father Christmas for a special Christmas collection. A nice new touch. My mum proceeded to give me a tour of the entire house pointing out all of her design decisions. Each of the FIVE Christmas trees had their own colour scheme to compliment the colours of the room. After 45 minutes of explaining her design decisions, the tour was finally over. 

She made me a cup of tea and said ‘So, Scarlet, have you found yourself a boyfriend yet?’. To her disappointment I said no. She then proceeded to tell me how I should get a move on because she has Christmas plans for my children. I was intrigued. What were these plans?

Step one – put a Christmas runway in the garden so that the reindeer have somewhere to land. 

Step two – get nine reindeer and put them in the paddock. 

Step three – put named collars on all the reindeer.

Step four – get a snow machine so we have a guaranteed white Christmas.

Step five – get the biggest tree that will fit in the house and let the children decorate it (then redecorate it when they’ve gone to sleep so it’s not an eye saw).

Step six – Decorate the tree house (that would have been made for one of their birthdays) into a children’s Christmas grotto. 

Step seven – hire the father Christmas from Harrods to come on Christmas eve.

Merry Christmas xoxo