For over 40 years, Christmas-obsessed Lorraine Gordon has been collecting decorations – she now has so many, that decking the halls in her Surrey home takes around nine days.
‘I used to be a decorator, and I’ve collected them over years and years,’ Lorraine, 61, tells Metro. ‘I’m not very good at throwing things away.’
Every home she’s ever lived in gets the same treatment to mark the Yuletide season, and since 2020, daughter Mads, 26, has been recording the process for their 585,000 TikTok followers.
The videos are now beloved by fans, who liken the day Lorraine brings out the Christmas decorations to the first sighting of the Coca Cola Advert.
‘I do all the greenery first, and then all the lights and the large pieces. The rest of it takes forever,’ Lorraine adds. ‘We could do more, but I lose the will to live in the end.’
Naturally, over the years Lorraine has curated quite the collection – including multiple Swarovski crystals decorations, her favourites.
Each year, she’s gifted one by her immediate family – although she reveals they sometimes double up, as she now has a flurry of glass snowflakes.
She even decided to find a decoration from each of the years that her three children, Mads, Dev, 22, and Ash, 19, were born. Lorraine scoured eBay for the ornaments – for Mads, there’s one with her birth year, 1998, emblazed across it.
The family pick up decorations on their travels too. ‘We went to Salzburg last year and got some really nice quirky bits including a rustic bell, an icicle tree, and a star for the top of one of our trees,’ says Mads.
And while it might sound like the family spends lots of money curating their festive home, both Lorraine and Mads are firm believers in the idea that creating magic doesn’t need to be expensive.
‘We don’t spend as much as people think, buying most in the sales too. The cost comes in at £100 per year, perhaps less,’ Mads adds.
They’ll also make decorations to cut down on costs. This year, the family got creative and made some mince pie fairy lights, inspired by a similar design from luxury brand Fortnum & Mason. They’re big fans of places like B&M and The Range, too.
‘I buy Christmas lights in the summer or in the sales after Christmas, because they’re cheaper,’ Lorraine shares. ‘And if anything goes missing or breaks, we replace it early on in the year rather than towards the end.’
When it comes to actually decorating, Lorraine puts her children, as well as husband, Glynn, 58, to work – enlisting the brothers to help with the heavy lifting, including an extra large nutcracker.
‘There’s a set place for everything,’ Mads adds, noting that she and her siblings usually help with the three trees.
Towering over the rest of the decorations, the 7ft trees are plastic to cut down on waste, but they get spray painted in different colours each year to switch it up.
Lorraine even has some nods of Christmas in her home all year round. The family built and designed their house themselves, and made sure to include festive elements, like a log burning fireplace. There are even trees carved into the wooden bannisters up the stairs.
And, since Lorraine couldn’t decide what colour tiles she wanted in the kitchen, they decided to create a giant blackboard, where each year they design and paint a Christmas mural.
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‘Our friends and family come over for festive drinks and games nights leading up to Christmas. They all think the decorations are amazing but have known my mum for years so expect nothing less,’ Mads adds.
Of course, what goes up, must come down, and Lorraine ensures her decorations are packed away by Epiphany on January 6, when Christmas traditionally ends, and after which it’s considered bad luck to have decorations up.
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‘I’m a little bit superstitious,’ Lorraine concludes. ‘But I like to keep them up for longer to spread as much joy as possible.’
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