Kirstie Allsopp has become the queen of DIY Christmas over the years, drumming up festive cheer with her homemade baubles and crafty colourful wreaths.
However, this year, for the first time ever, the TV presenter is escaping the traditional British festivities and boarding a plane to the Big Apple for a lavish New York Christmas. Kirstie, 52, is taking her partner Ben Andersen and their sons Bay, 17, and Oscar, 15, on an American trip to the famously festive city — and plans to celebrate the holidays in style.
“We’re in a hotel — I’ve never been to New York for Christmas so I’m beside myself with excitement,” she beams. “I picked this hotel in March, which looks like the most Christmassy hotel. I must remember to double, double, double check the booking!
Kirstie's Homemade Christmas is a festive staple on UK telly (Getty Images)
Kirstie and Phil are close friends in real life (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)“We’re going to do it all. We’re going to go to a basketball match, we’re going to go skating. I want to do the Rockettes [Radio City Music Hall’s dance troupe], the kids are less keen on that. We may have to negotiate that one.”
Kirstie didn’t originally intend to spend Christmas in the States, but the family settled on New York after making “a chronic balls-up” with her kids’ travel plans.
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“To be absolutely honest, my son was going on a school ski trip and we were spending Christmas somewhere else, where we often go for Christmas with friends,” she says.
“I realised I couldn’t get him from that place to that place, so I was like, ‘Right. How do I make this work?’”
But with all the stress now taken out of her festive arrangements, the family will be stopping by a friend’s house on Christmas Eve — and Kirstie plans on doing it in style.
“I will walk down to the hairdressing salon in the hotel and have my hair done for a Christmas blow-dry,” she laughs. “And then I will drift out. I mean, what do you usually do on Christmas Eve? Fret, wrap, panic – the whole thing. So it will be a miracle. I’m really excited about that.”
Although the Location Location Location co-presenter is buzzing for her American trip, she’s still healing after falling down a flight of stairs in September. Kirstie was left “bruised and battered” after tumbling down some stairs in a pub while filming the Channel 4 show — and is still unnerved by the ordeal.
“I lay on the floor for 20 minutes, the ambulance man picked me up, did tests, and they said, ‘Look, you haven’t got a major spinal injury, but you’ve obviously done something, so you should probably go for an X-ray,’” she remembers.
Kirstie and Phil have been friends for several years (Channel 4)“I went back up the stairs and by that time this adrenaline high, which I’d never had before, kicked in. Oh my God, that stuff’s amazing,” she says. “I was laughing, I was chatty. Gus, my lovely work driver, took me to hospital, and I was lying across the back seat and I was literally chatting away, telling stories.”
But it wasn’t long before the high wore off and Kirstie was left with the “awful” repercussions. “It’s my tailbone — I can’t go to a certain point,” she says, leaning forward. “So I can’t go on my rowing machine, which is a real bore, because that’s my quick sweat high. It’s the one thing I can’t do yet. There are other things — I’ve now become funny about running for trains.”
Kirstie will be wrapping and packing all her Christmas presents ahead of the holiday, however there’s one gift she won’t be taking with her — and it’s from her Location Location Location co-star and longtime pal Phil Spencer.
“Phil gets me the same present every year. Should he change the present he gives me every year, I’d be horrified — it’s a ham,” she says. “I’m going to have it over New Year.
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“My parents always had a Christmas ham and I wasn’t aware of how much I missed that as a part of Christmas until one year, I get this ham from Phil,” she gushes. “Ham and scrambled eggs, ham sandwiches, bubble and squeak, ham and salad — it’s the most useful thing to have in the house around Christmas time. It lasts for ages and you can freeze it.”
It’s been a tough year for Phil, who lost both his parents in a tragic car accident in August, and Kirstie says she regularly checks in with him. “If I’m worried about Phil, I will call Phil’s wife and say, ‘I’m a bit worried about Phil,’ and I think he has had conversations with my other half,” she says.
“We don’t hang out outside of work because we are together all the time so our other halves need us back. But we’re welcome in each other’s homes at any time and we talk to each other all the time.
“It is the relationship that it looks like — partly because after this length of time, somebody somewhere would have found the crack,” she adds. “We’re both one in four, we’re both very close to our siblings. We have got a lot in common.”
As for Kirstie’s hot Christmas DIY tip for this year, it’s time to grab a glue gun and some broken baubles for outdoor decor.
“I realised how incredibly weatherproof Christmas decorations are,” she says. “I have all my Christmas decorations in clear plastic boxes but there’s always the ones that I can’t chuck out or they’re missing their tops. Get a glue gun, shove all of those on something, shove them outside and they’re going to look fantastic!”
Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas airs on Sunday 10 December at 8pm on Channel 4
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