Felixstowe in July. Maxine White’s shiny, black van slides past bearing the name of her company,
The Christmas Decorators. It’s a unexpected reminder that the season of goodwill is a mere 24 weeks away.
Most of us have thoughts only of barbecues, holidays and hosepipe bans. Maxine’s mind, however, is on lights, garlands and oversized trees. It might be mid summer, but she’s already planning what Christmas will look like for shops, shopping malls, town centres, offices and homes throughout Suffolk, Norfolk and north Essex.
Fast forward to about the time this magazine is published and Maxine is putting those plans into action, bringing sparkle and shine to East Anglia’s high streets and homes. Her days (and evenings) are long, the work hard, the responsibility enormous and the expectation daunting, but she loves it.
“It’s one of the best jobs there is,” she says. This is Maxine’s second Christmas as The Christmas Decorator for the eastern region. She’s a franchise owner, part of a national company, founded about 14 years ago by Liverpool couple Nick and Sarah Bolton, who came up with the idea while they were running a restaurant in Aspen, Colorado.
One winter, business was rather slow, so Sarah put her design talent to use and went to town with the restaurant’s Christmas decorations. Business immediately picked up and soon regular customers (including one or two celebs) were asking them to decorate their homes.
When the couple returned home to the UK they decided to create a business out of their Aspen experience,and so The Christmas Decorators was born. Maxine got involved six years ago, when she helped out a friend who was a Christmas decorator in Essex. “I really enjoyed it,” she says. Four years later the Suffolk franchise became available and, deciding it was just the opportunity she had been looking for, took it on.
Bu hikaye EADT Suffolk dergisinin December 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye EADT Suffolk dergisinin December 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
‘Look at me!'
Jan planned a modest start to 2020. It’s not going well.
Treasure Island
Lindsay Want goes on a walking adventure around Somerleyton on the ancient island of Lothingland
New beginnings
In the bleak, dark days at the start of the year, life stirs
In black & white
Felix Aldred follows the fortunes of a family of oystercatchers on a Suffolk river estuary
Hot dates
Mark your calendar for some important milestone events in 2020
Applause, applause
Bury’s Theatre Royal, the only Regency theatre in the UK, is a hidden attraction that deserves to have its name up in lights
2020 vision
With the New Year upon us, heralding opportunities for change and renewal, we asked some of Suffolk’s leading lights about their hopes for the county and their personal ambitions for the coming months.
Dreaming Of A White Christmas
Maxine White and Ady White (not related) make Christmas happen. They’re possibly Suffolk’s closest thing to Santa’s elves.
Food From The Heart
It’s ten years since Justin Sharp opened Pea Porridge in Bury St Edmunds. He’s still proudly delighting customers with simple, satisfying seasonal food, brimful of flavour
An All Together English Walk
Lindsay Want takes a seasonal family stroll around the parklands of Huntingfield and Heveningham