Christmas in July 2016 - part 1

Before you all take a massive sigh and tell me to sod off for talking about the ‘C’ word this early in the year (Christmas you naughty-minded people) I wanted to throw in a little disclaimer here and say that it’s NEVER too early to think about Christmas. Especially when the English summer has been total crap so far and you’re actually wearing a jumper in July.

Last year I did a quick roundup of the Christmas in July events that I went to and you all seemed to love it, so I thought I’d do something similar this year. I’m splitting it into 2 parts this time, purely because there have been a LOT of Christmas events and my mind can only take so many glittery deer in one go.

So today I’m showing a few sneaky peeks from the likes of Paperchase, The Body Shop, Wilko and Sainsbury’s. There’s more to come from Selfridges, Debenhams, Liz Earle and a few more surprises next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

I’ve pulled out my favourites so far – prices/full on gift guides to come a bit closer to the time. Think of this as your Christmas amuse bouche rather than the full on roast dinner. I’ll stop with the god awful puns now and just crack(er) on with all the Christmas goodness. Sorry. Couldn’t resist one more.

The Body Shop are going advent calendar crazy this year, with three different ones available for different budgets. They’re also launching personalised body butters, which will be available in store and will make a lovely gift for all ages. There’s a heavy animal theme to tie in with their charity project – every gift sold will help protect an area of rainforest.

I got a tiny bit distracted by ALL THE FOOD at the Sainsbury’s event, not least the cute little Westie-shaped chocolate shortbread that was shoved under my nose. Their home department will be all about the copper come autumn, so I fully expect to see bloggers lining up at the doors to get their hands on some of the new bits coming in.

Copper kitchenware was also a big theme at Wilko, where they’ve got everything from copper saucepans, right through to copper cutlery. The Christmas ranges were really lovely – my top pick is the faux fur throw which looks hella Zara Home but is in fact £30. Oh yes. Beauty-wise they have a makeup advent calendar for just £5 – non-branded of course, but a great treat for teens. There’s also a copper beauty range (do you sense a theme here?) with an illuminated mirror, trinket boxes and some very soft bristled makeup brushes.

I nearly wet myself with excitement when I walked into Paperchase’s event and saw a giant pineapple cake and if I’m honest, I didn’t get any calmer until sometime after I left the event! For personal reasons (AKA my pineapple obsession), I will be buying ALL of their Tropical/Mexicana themed decorations, however there are also some super lovely collections with less bold themes. The Sprouts/Gingerbread men/Christmas Dogs are ridiculously cute and I suspect will be big sellers. I have my eyes on a few large glittery bambi and a pink flamingo, but the giant hot pink pineapple may prove too much to resist.

Christmas in July part 2 to come shortly…