We know, we know… it’s nowhere near time to deck the halls, don the festive jumper and get 2pm drunk on Baileys, but there’s nothing wrong with a bit of early prep, is there? Because let’s be honest, this whole year has been as miserable as the first day back to work in January, and at this point we’ll take comfort in any form it comes. Especially if it’s a festive form.
Cue, Kirstie Allsopp: you see her in a knitwear number, sat next to an open fire, and you know you’re in for something cosy. If you’ve not watched one of her crafting classics before, let us give you the lowdown: filming from an enviable cottage which is probably worth three mil, Kirstie talks us through various home crafts, such as flower arranging, cocktail mixing and bunting sewing. All designed to inspire us to get off Instagram and go back to 1930 via the medium of crafts.
Naturally, some of the projects in previous iterations have been in turn ridiculous and impossible, causing furrowed brows and second-degree glue-gun burns. But this one promises to do what it says on the tin, and be quick and easy…ish. She shows us how to make wax crayon baubles – weird, we know – mini steamed puds, and homemade Chrimbo cards. Obviously, the likely end result is you going on Pinterest for a bit, pinning a few cool crafts and then never ever revisiting them. But to be honest, it doesn’t really matter whether you have any intention of actually making them, this show is a cosy Christmas treat, and might just be ticket to ridding yourself of the lockdown blues, and bringing in the gold, frankincense and myrrh of the festive season.
Naturally, this middle brow telly got largely ignored by the critics in the broadsheets, but we are of the people, and for the people, so you can rely on us to show you the good stuff. However, stepping out from the crowd, Lucy Mangan of The Gaurdian gave it a solid write up, saying the programme is “perfectly designed to keep away what threaten to be quite some seasonal blues,” with its “atmosphere of cosiness and nostalgia.”
First aired in November 2020.
