'I love our house to be red, green and gold, looking just like Home Alone'

As she invites us into her stylish home, Samantha Faiers shares her myriad of magical festive traditions

- MITYA UNDERWOOD

Samantha Faiers' chic Surrey home couldn't feel more festive - there's a full gardenscape around her front door, festive greenery sweeping up the stairs and a huge Christmas tree covered with decorations she's collected over the years. It's her favourite time of year, she tells us, as we arrive for our exclusive OK! photo shoot. And, although she admits she brought in the professionals for the front of the house and stairs, it's the tree decorated by Paul, eight, Rosie, seven, and Edward, two, that she's most proud of - despite the fact Edward's bauble-hanging is very much focused on one area at the back!

"The back of the tree is always neglected so I actually just decided to leave them all there," she says, laughing. "I love doing the tree with the kids. Every year we add little bits to it. I love red, green and gold, like Home Alone in the 90s."

Much of the 33-year-old's love of all things festive comes from her own childhood, sharing a bedroom with older sister Billie and secretly opening one present from their Santa sacks at 4am, before nodding off again until a more respectable hour. Now they have their own three kids, Sam and her partner of 10 years, Paul Knightley, 36, are all about recreating the magic.

"Mum always made Christmas very special for me and my sister," says Sam. "We did the same things, like decorating the tree together, right up until we left home. On Christmas Eve, we'd always go and feed the reindeers, then come home and she'd make homemade sausage rolls and we'd watch Christmas movies on repeat. Our grandparents always came over and we'd have music on, play games - it was the best day."

One of their own traditions involves Paul dressing up in "the cheapest, crappiest Santa outfit ever" to film a heavily pixelated present delivery video to show the kids on Christmas morning. Her dedication to this tradition knows no bounds.