‘I’ve been putting my Christmas tree up early since the 1980s – I won’t stop now’

A woman has said that she doesn’t understand why people wouldn’t want to celebrate Christmas as early as possible, admitting she wishes mince pies were sold earlier in the year

A Christmas superfan has already decked her halls with boughs of holly and has put her tree up three months early to mark the special occasion. She hung her baubles and turned on the lights on the August bank holiday – despite the ongoing cost of living crisis.

Pip Bensley said she has been doing this since the 1980s though and has no plans to stop any time soon. She already has festive tunes blasting and is preparing to open her first Advent calendar of the year. Not only that, Pip is getting ready to send out her Christmas cards – now that’s organised.

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She’s keeping her fairy lights on throughout the day, but Pip claims that the joy she gets from her festive decorations far outweighs the sky-high electricity bill she is likely to receive.

The mother-of-two, who put her artificial tree up at her home in Southampton, Hants, on Sunday, August 28, joked ‘it’s not crazy, it’s just early’.

She said: “The cost of the lights isn’t much compared to the happiness they give. Spread the Christmas joy. Imagine if the world was full of happy Christmas people.”

Pip explained that her unusual tradition started back in the 1980s when she and a friend used to split the duty of having the tree up all year.

The 58-year-old explained: “It started back in the late 80s, I had a friend called Lisa, who used to put her tree up on Christmas Eve and left it up until the end of June. So I started putting mine up July 1 until the 12th night [January 6] – so between us we covered the whole of the year.

“When I met my husband we moved it to about October time – I thought he might not cope with a July Christmas tree.”

Pip – who is now separated – has two daughters, Alex, 27, and Ellie, 26, and it is Alex who is to blame for the tree going up in August.

She added: “My eldest daughter’s birthday is August 19 – so when she was at primary school we started having her birthday party as the beginning of Christmas.

“The parents would hate it because the kids would go home saying ‘why can’t we have our tree up, Alex has got hers up’. So I wasn’t popular with the other parents with that. And it’s settled to August bank holiday since then.

“I really hate all this Bah-humbug about ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that’ – how is it harming anyone? It’s happy, it’s Christmassy – why are people so grumpy about it?”

Sadly for Pip, mince pies are not available at this time of year, yet she thinks it’s ‘really good progress’ that Chocolate Oranges can be bought now.

Pip mentioned she has a particularly sentimental decoration on her tree, which is a moon that belonged to her grandad – the man who started her passion for Christmas.

She said: “My grandad, Charles, was a great believer in singing and dancing at Christmas – so he sang a lot. My birthday is two weeks before Christmas so the two events were always associated.

“I used to do the tree with grandad – it reminds me of the good times. It was the thing that we did together. It’s a lovely happy thing to do, why wouldn’t you? It’ll lift the household.

“There’s nothing nicer – you sit down in the evening the telly’s on, the light of the Christmas tree – it’s really nice.

“Everyone, when they take it down, are saying ‘oh what shall I put in its place?’ because they miss it, so why not?”

Pip said it was ‘horrible’ last year when she was ‘really late’ putting the tree up – in November.

“It just felt all wrong,” she said.

Pip said she cannot understand Christmas eve tree erectors: “I can’t cope with that – that’s so late. You’re missing all the fun and the anticipation.”

In addition, Pip said that the Christmas films start early in her house as well.

Do you start Christmas early? Let us know in the comments.