It only seems like yesterday you were packing away the Christmas decorations but already it is time to start getting the house ready for the festive season.

This year, instead of dragging that box full of tatty tinsel and that dog-eared fairy out of the loft, why not treat you and your family to a festive revamp.

How about a colour theme – maybe gold and black? Crimson and silver? LED lights provide a funky, energy efficient and more reliable alternative to that old set of plastic monstrosities with a few missing bulbs.

And remember – Christmas isn’t just for looking at, it’s an all-round feast of the senses. Think soothing sounds and seductive smells to get you in the holiday mood.

Traditional or modern, camp or classic – inject some glamour into your Christmas. Let’s face it you’ve worked hard all year so treat yourself. TV Interior Kings Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan are available to advise on festive flights of fancy.

Colin and Justin’s key trend this year is to bring the outdoors inside the home and give your home the sights and smells of a winter wonderland. Also, informal is seriously ‘in’ and the smells of freshly baked cookies and creamy vanilla should waft through to entice guest to forget diets and start enjoying themselves!

Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan join us live to discuss Christmas interiors.

For more information visit www.ambipur.com

H: Katy Pullinger, host
C: Colin McAllister
J: Justin Ryan

H: Hello and welcome to the Homes and Garden Show, I’m Katy Pullinger. It probably feels like it was only yesterday when you were packing away the Christmas decorations, however the season to be jolly is almost upon us – again! This year, instead of dragging that box full of tatty tinsel and that dog-eared fairy out of the loft, why not treat you and your family to a festive revamp? How about a colour theme? Maybe some subtle lighting? Maybe some soothing sounds and seductive smells! What with so many options, who better to be here to offer us advice than TV’s Colin and Justin – hello boys

J: Hello there, how are you doing?

C: Hello, happy Christmas darling!

H: Happy Christmas indeed. Now remember we are live today, so if you want to get your questions to Colin and Justin, type in the box, click send and we’ll tackle as many as we can. So boys, Christmas, what does it mean to you?

C: For us, you know it’s all about actually finding the balance. Harmony is really important at home because we differ so much in our approach to Christmas, ok, Justin likes to go overboard – big is better –

H: No way!

C: I know. Big – I mean like this – big, big, big

J: The information’s all there!

C: Whereas I like to go for a really paired down minimalist approach to Christmas –

H: Right

C: Ok so we take it in turn and turn again, kind of each year, so I had my way last year and all I did, I actually projected Christmas images onto a bare wall

H: That is so original

C: So we had nothing to tidy away, nothing to dust, no rubbish, nothing, you just switch off the projector, stick it in the cupboard, end of story

J: But come on, surely Christmas, well certainly for me, Christmas is about a real celebration, it’s about decking the halls, it’s making a real statement, and we have homes that are fairly restrained and fairly low key, so I want, for 12 days every single year, to really go over the top, so 12 days before and 12 days afterwards our home looks like an explosion in Santa’s grotto. I really like the whole kind of more is more thing, and I like colour, I like the drama, but in our general day-to-day life we kind of pull that back a little bit but come Christmas we go crazy. Well I go crazy – he doesn’t

H: Have you got your theme sorted for this year?

C: Yes what are you doing to me this year?

J: This year, well this year we’re going to do silvers and really icy blues and turquoises, and we’re pulling it all together with shots of black as well, and I think if you’re confident in your decorating, it’ll work for you at any time of the year, so your silvers, blues, lots of reflective surfaces, mirrored balls, disco balls – everything that says glitz and glamour

C: I think the important thing is to add to your existing décor

H: Yes

C: You know and that’s something we always recommend to people, you know I mean if you’ve got a particular style you’ve been following all year, then chances are you know you’re spending on a new sofa now, you kind of freshen up the house because guests are coming for Christmas, family are coming from overseas, you know the last thing you want to do is add loads of clashing colours that don’t go with your wonderful new home. Because then what happens you know all your guests come round, they see this really gaudily dressed home, they don’t see the beautiful kind of interior behind that, and then come 1st week in January you strip it all out, the house looks really bare, so it’s a total false economy, you’ve spent all that money on a brand new look and you’ve just killed it over Christmas

H: Well speaking of guests though, are you hosting Christmas yourselves or are you going to do the rounds of family or –

J: We’re doing a bit of both. We both are based in Glasgow so Colin will see his mum and I’ll go up to Inverness where my mum lives, although we both actually live ourselves in Glasgow, and then after Christmas we’re jumping on a plane and we’re dashing off to Mauritius. We go to the same place every single year, and it’s the most incredibly indulgent, relaxing environment. Last year in the suite next to us, you wouldn’t believe it, Nelson Mandela1 I swear to God, we’re walking along the beach, after Christmas and all of a sudden we’re walking on the beach with Nelson Mandela. We’re going back there this year. Faye Dunaway was there last year as well.

C: Yes

J: Robson Green from Robson and Jerome –

C: Princess Caroline was there

H: Robson Green / Nelson Mandela.....

J: I know it’s a very glitzy affair

C: Dr Fox – I tell you it’s like a who’s who – it was like Big Brother!

H: Amazing

J: On the beach

H: Look at you rubbing shoulders on the beach!

J: G-strings on the beach more like love!

C: Oh please don’t go all Peter Stringfellow on me!

H: Oh don’t – Dr Fox g-string, no! I don’t want to hear that! Now I do have a question that’s come in from Jenny and she says “I’ve just moved into a lovely period home, but all of the decorations I bought for my last house are quite modern in style” – so kind of what we were touching on before, lots of silver and purple. She’d really like to keep the decorating in character with the house but she can’t afford to buy completely a set of directions – directions?

J: Decorations

H: Decorations! “Any suggestions on how I can decorate in style, on a budget? What would you do?” Colin?

C: I mean for me, I’m a great believer in if you actually have a period home, you know if you have a heritage property, you don’t have to become Victorian or Georgian. You know we have a Georgian house in Glasgow you know, and we have restored a lot of it, so all the plaster’s back in there, the panelling’s in there, big fireplaces have been reinstated, but all of our furnishings, all the things we actually function with are really, really modern you know, and I think that’s the trick with a period home, is not to be too slavish to the past, but to try and interpret it into the future, you know so I would say actually if she’s so worried about the budget and she still loves last year’s decorations

H: Yes

C: I would just re-use them, I’d throw caution to the wind, you know and maybe just do something that’s really focused, you know make more of a focal point of like a fireplace, and maybe – and really intensify that, and the Christmas tree, and that’s it

H: Yes

C: You know, keep it really really simple

H: Simple

J: You don’t have to break the bank, we’re all about going into the garden and plundering all the kind of shrubbery and bringing in gorgeous wreaths, dressing the top of a hearth or a mantelpiece, studding it with gorgeous candles, studding it with gorgeous globes, and all manner of sparkly stuff. And for me it’s also about getting the atmosphere right as far as – not just what the eye can see, but the other senses as well, do you know we do a lot of work with Ambipur and they do the most incredible range of scented candles. They have one in particular – a couple of types that are great for winter. One of them’s all about the great outdoors and pine cones –

H: Oh I love that smell yes

J: All that gorgeous aroma. And the other one is – it’s a much, much softer – much much softer smell, its called winter dream. And think about roaring fires and really lovely soft lavender smells and gorgeous ambers, and all the vanillas and all the caramels –

C: Yeah!

J: Think of when you were a little girl

H: Oh yes

J: And your mum made you a lovely pot of steaming hot milk for Christmas. It’s all about going back to those days, so do all of that, and then it can be something as simple as taking a pile of Christmas decorations and putting them in a really gorgeous big bowl, smack dab in the middle of your living room table or your dining table as a great centrepiece. It’s not how much money you spend, it’s how you spend it and it’s what you do with the money that you’ve spent that really makes the biggest difference

H: Definitely and that actually answers some of the questions that we’ve had in from Lindsey, perhaps she says “how can I create a complete winter home feel without breaking the bank?” you know it works for that – go for the senses and the smells –

J: Yes absolutely. The other fantastic smell is Winter Woodland and that’s the real kind of, the gorgeous kind of walking through the forest on a really cool, crisp winter’s night, and that lovely aroma of pine just scenting the atmosphere. And all of those aromas are kind of triggers in your mind that take you back to family values –

H: Cinnamon and –

J: Cinnamon and all that gorgeous stuff

H: Gingerbread men

C: Absolutely. You know you were talking there about kind of like not breaking the bank, you know I mean there are so many things on the market at the moment you know that are dedicated to Christmas aren’t there? I mean there’s Christmas glasses, there’s plates with Santa on them, you know the shops are absolutely heaving with it. You know what we are great believers in is actually not going down that route at all. If you’ve got great crockery, if you’ve got fantastic champagne flutes that you would use all year

H: Yes

C: You know just bring them out and dress up the table, you know you can actually go to stores like Hobbycraft and get a little kind of beautiful sparkly snowflake kind of decals, you can actually stick them on your wine glasses. You can put one on a plate as well, it won’t come off when you’re eating, and create your own little festive look, you know and then at the end of the day you just peel of the sticker and stick them in the dishwasher and you’ve got them for the rest of the year you know. So I think if you’re about to invest in some serious new Christmas crockery, stop – just buy some great new crockery, maybe even like the Jasper Conran platinum collection that’s in Debenhams, it’s really sweet, and you know that’s going to give you a metallic detail that you could dress into a Christmas scheme, but then you could use it for the rest of the year

J: But also what’s incredible is the fact that the high street now is – come on we’re in the credit crunch and as much as I don’t like to say it because I think the more we talk about it the more that we tempt it, but we are in a credit crunch and the high street now has responded so quickly to give people really good home kit. Stores like Matalan are – do you know they’re just championing the way. They’ve got the most amazing storm lamps for like £5 each. Plonk a store lamp in the middle of the table, plonk a gorgeous candle –

H: Like a snow shaker?

J: No no

C: No like a hurricane lamp

J: Yes like a hurricane lamp

H: Oh right sorry, I see what you mean, right

J: Plonk one of those in the middle of your table, plonk in a gorgeous Winter Woodland candle and all of a sudden you’ve made a big, big statement and on the subject of the decorating, a question we’re asked regularly is – what’s your best way to decorate the tree? Is there any particular route that you should follow and simple advice, when you have got your tree, hopefully a real tree with roots that you can plant into the garden and then bring back in next year, put your lights in first right into the depths of the branches then you put the garlands on second and then baubles and all final decorations on third. If you get that order wrong it will really displace the final look. So lights on first, garlands on second and “darling balls” on third.

H: Another thing I have heard before that if you just buy ribbon, but a whole ream of ribbon then you can just tie bows on the tree and it is so simple and cheap.

C: I think as long as you actually think of the overall look, and that is what we are always saying to people about their décor in general, think about an identity and then try an achieve that rather than being so kind of like snatch and grab. Yeah I love the idea of ribbon and a couple of Christmas’s ago we made our own little pomander. We got oranges and studded them with cinnamon and tied them up with ribbon.

J: Cloves

C: yeah with cloves and we hung them on the tree. We created our own like Christmas decorations.

J: And again they are both visual and aromatic as well because they really tincture the air.

C: And it is good to get the kids involved as well. We like to work with our nieces and nephews, get them all round as well and make it a real family experience.

H: Now talking of family I have got a question from Dave and he says “I am cooking for the In-laws this year and wanted to make a real impression what advice would you have?”

J: Do you know what every big high street department store now has the most incredible range of ready-made or semi ready-made food. It is time to fake it. I have cooked Turkey’s from scratch, taken this huge big bird taken the guts out and stuffed it and tied it.

C: Nice

J: It is a little bit of a laborious process, somebody never wants the tail end bit, and most people always want the white meat. Why not cut to the chase get down to M&S, get down to your local food hall and buy pre cut up Turkey sections that are ready to bake. Buy all your vegetables pre done, do as much as you can the night before. Make soup the week before and freeze it. Do all of those things, and then bring them all out bit by bit on the big day. Take it really casually. Do we want to be stressed out when our friends arrive?

H: Not at all.

J: No of course we don’t. So it is all in the planning, to fail to plan is to plan to fail.

C: Well exactly...you have got him angry now. Are people are coming to visit you or the turkey?

H: Exactly

J: I like what you did there.

H: I like that. It is about having your friends and your family around you, having a bit of fun, bit of music on, get the smells going get the atmosphere.

J: It is a whole multi sensory thing. Let’s face it Christmas is the same Christmas as you have always had. We know now that we have to be much more careful in the way we celebrate and spend, because there is less money available. As much as the décor is important, very very important, for me it is the people who come to our homes during Christmas and over the holiday period. It is the friends and the family...It is that fantastic email that comes out of the blue or that lovely phone call. The minute the phone rings and you answer it, it’s your Granny or your long lost cousin who has lived at the other end of the world who says I am coming to town next week got any space at your table? We live in an ever smaller world, everything is out there for us to find out very quickly, because of the Internet and because of the media. The good part of that is we can travel to friends more quickly, we can entertain more easily, because we are better educated as a world.

H: Now just quickly we are going to be chatting for a bit longer. If you want to send us a question remember you can just put it on the box on your screen and press submit and we will try and get through it as well. Where do you start with Christmas? What is the first thing you do to get you in the mood? We have got somebody who has asked...Gerry in fact who says “What do you do to get festive initially?”

J: Dress myself up as Santa Claus and run round the house naked!

C: I think you can’t help it. I think it is good to get out and about and get into the high street and look at the decorations and see the families all out there. I am sure in towns and cities up and down the land... like in Glasgow you can go ice skating and you’re right in the centre of town in George Square. It is the same in South Kensington. You can go to the museum and skate there. Stuff like that it dies feel a bit kind of like apple pie, kind of like jolly but it really does get you in the mood. I think that is what it is about. As soon as you start with the Christmas parties and that type of thing as well. You can’t help it you know it is going to happen. I don’t know why people are funny about getting festive because you can’t escape it.

H: Exactly. I love it when the German market arrives in town, they pop up over night.

J: You get your Stollen and Gingerbread.

H: Mulled wine.

J: All those type of things. You can build a gingerbread house. I love it when it is really cold and you put on your furriest gloves and your best scarf and your hat and you go out wandering. Again you call your friends, and you call your family and then you go back home, you put the Christmas music on. There is a particular track by a band called the waitresses which is called Christmas Wrapping and it is so...”Put your boots back on and go to the all night grocery”. Every time I hear that I love it. All my goodness do you want to hear something really special? Do you want to hear Colin and Justin sing the Coventry Carol? Listen it is amazing, listen to this.

C: This is for the person who doesn’t feel festive.

H: OK. 3..2..1

C: Trust you to throw this on me....

C&J singing: “Lule lulaa little tiny child bye bye lulie luu. Heir of the King in his regime charge everyman to say this poor young thing of whom we do say. Bye Bye lulie luu”

H: How fantastic

J: That and some mulled pies or whatever they are called...Mince pies. I am so excited I am jumbling my words. That music, some mince pies, some mulled wine.

C: Some scented candles

H: It is free entertainment. Print off the lyrics online.

C: It is all there. Bring back Carol singing I say.

H: I love the sound of Carols

C: Bring back Carol Vorderman.

H: Now let’s go through some more questions. Ruth says “I love to have a colour scheme for my tree decoration and I use this to decide on my present wrapping theme as well. I would like to do it a little bit different without having to buy everything new. How can I add a little something without it costing the earth?” It is that cost question.

C: Absolutely. I think if you actually have a preference this year. She sound like she has totally got it, she almost wants to do something individual and brave. If you are trying to look at the cost and how to actually limit the impact but still get the big wow factor. I think she could use an accent colour. So maybe you have, just like if you were decorating a home, you might have something that was kind of neutral backdrop and then you could add some really zesty throws and pillows. I liked your good idea for the ribbon so maybe she could get like a zesty lime green ribbon and use that as the accent colour. So wrap every single parcel in that, use that as an accent on the tree as well and just use one strong single colour that will give the whole thing uniformity.

J: Or go for lovely neutral that go with any dramatic scheme. So lovely brown paper again back to traditional values, gold ribbon silver ribbons look fantastic, even simple white paper. All of those things in decorating work really well you have a white painted room and an accent colour of, I don’t know, green or red or blue, follow that through from your décor. Don’t stress out about spending an absolute fortune on wrapping paper that cost £20 a roll. Just buy basic components, white paper, wrapped confidently. Cut yourself out some gorgeous name plates. On the subject of name plates, and that kind of detail.....

C: Name tags.

J: Name tags. When you are having your friends round for lunch on Christmas day and you want to work on the little name plates, you get yourself a big glossy leaf, bigger than these aspidistra leaves, a big castor oil leaf and write on the leaf with a gold pen or a silver pen the name of your guests

H: That’s a lovely idea.

J: And then personalised crackers. Put a lottery ticket inside a cracker or a little bag of your friends’ favourite sweets. Our top tip when your friends are coming call them before hand and say “what is your favourite Christmas song?” and then quickly get all those tracks downloaded on the internet so there is a song there for every guest. That is one way to make your friends feel utterly spoiled and utterly special.

C: You want to make it special don’t you? I have seen in the past, you know those little bags of gold coins, the little chocolate gold coins, if you want to add some sparkle to the table and you don’t want to go over board. I've seen people sprinkle those over the table. Then at the end of the meal you are actually guaranteed to get the kids to help you clear up the table because you say you know what if you get all this stuff in the dishwasher your reward is you get to eat these.

H: Bribery I love it.

J: Right back to the cash thing, we have lived in a world for so long where money was no object and now we have all learned the salutary lesson we need to take more care. There are so many way that you can make your Christmas absolutely fantastic without breaking the bank and the subjects that we have talked about today and really a few pointers.

H: Well I want to squeeze a few more questions in. Rachel says “Any ideas of where to get eco friendly decorations or how to make them?”

C: You know what I think there is nothing as eco friendly and pocket friendly as actually going to your own garden, getting some lovely pieces, some of the greener pieces. Or if you are going to go to your local florist and have a wreath made get them to cut you some extra bits from the same so that you get this beautiful green very eco friendly piece on the front door, but then a soon as you open the front door you maybe continue that same colour scheme, the same materials as a lovely dressing on your fireplace as well. So there is continuity and obviously you are keeping an eye on the planet as well.

H: Especially things like holly as well. It is instant Christmas.

J: Of course. Stores like IKEA have lots of really gorgeous Norwegian, Scandinavian, Swedish décor that is made of little straw dollies and all the natural products and stuff. Those things have little impact on the environment as they are created. Think of that as well as back into your garden, under your bush bring in your stuff and make yourself a lovely little wreath.

H: A candlelight as well.

J: Again candlelight I have to say candlelight we talked about this before it is the smell and it is also the visual. You sit there and you look down and you see the lovely flickering lights. A winter wonderland candle particularly by Ambipur is one of those things that ..... the sniff factor is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful to look at and it is all about for us memory creating. It is taking you right back to the little triggers that remind you of things when you were a little boy or a little girl.

H: I think that ties quite nicely into Sean’s question candles are pretty romantic aren’t they and he says “he agrees about all the nice smells. I am not just talking about eau de toilette I am thing that Christmas poses a great opportunity to host some romantic evenings. What else could I do to enhance a romantic experience?”
C: Oh blimey. I am thinking Viagra love. Don’t overdo it with the Christmas thing, there is nothing worse than some rampant dude at Christmas standing there with a Reindeer on the front of his boxer shorts. You don’t want that, you don’t want to do that. I think girls don’t go for these huge really in your face gestures. You don’t want that do you? Do you want some bloke standing there with flashing antlers?
H: No you don’t and it is like that scene from Bridget Jones, where he is standing there in his Christmas jumper with the reindeer on the front and you think...

C: No you just think nerd alert. You don’t want that what a dork.

H: At the same time a bit of mistletoe.

C: A bit of mistletoe is good fun, it is hanging above the door, and you don’t want it on a piece of wire hanging over your head like some kind of idiot at the office party. A bit hanging over the door is nice obviously you dim down the lights, you have got the candles there, the right smell is in the air. You really are setting the scene for seduction.

H: I think at this time of the year it goes hand in hand anyway. Everyone is in a lovely mood. It is almost instant romance anyway.

J: Well it is your best time to cop off. You have had your Christmas lunch. “Have a sherry love!” and you have spotted that person form the other side of the office. This is the night that I am going to land that person. Happy Christmas.

C: Sean please do not photocopy your bottom.

J: That is never popular.

H: No and it is probably quite dangerous.

C: It is what Britney does in her new video. She photocopies her bottom. Bizarre

H: Right I think that is all we have got time for guys. That is all the time we have got for today but if you want some seductive smells for your home then check out ambipur.com and thanks for watching and thanks so much Colin and Justin for joining us.

C&J: Our pleasure

H: So until next time have a lovely, happy Christmas.

C: Happy Christmas

J: Happy Christmas

H: Goodbye.

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