For over 60 years now, Seaford resident and Sussex Exclusive’s gardening feature writer, Geoff Stonebanks, has been creating Christmas magic in his homes and collecting Christmas decorations. As a child from the 1950s and from the 1960s living in his parent’s pub through the decades until the present day he has collected homemade, unusual, international and everyday Christmas decorations.
From the 1960s…
Geoff now has a collection of over 40 crates of memorabilia (some dating back to the 1930s purchased in Prague) and over 25 assorted artificial Christmas trees of varying heights. His vast collection includes homemade gifts from family members and many purchases from Woolworths bought to decorate the Dolphin Public House.
Pictured below, in a cabinet, is a small tree that was purchased in Woolworths in the early 1960s with some of the decorations from the same time. The small Pierrot figure pictured (above) was made as a gift tag for a Christmas present Geoff received from his paternal grandmother, Elsie Stonebanks, back in 1963 and was made from a ping pong ball, some felt and pipe cleaners. It has been treasured now for 60 years and looks as good as new.
The small yellow church along with two glass figures were gifts from his maternal grandmother, Dorothy Brooker, back in the 60s too.
Geoff’s also the proud owner of a plastic Woolworths tree topping angel from the 1960s, a vintage Christmas tablecloth that belonged to his grandmother, a small pottery snowman made by Geoff at school in the late 1950s and 2 glass baubles from Woolworths from the 1960s.
To the 1970s…
Once Geoff moved away from home in the 70s, he began buying his own decorations and when his parents, Ron and Barbara, retired, he inherited those that had decorated their pub.
To America in the 1990s…
Following several Christmases spent in Washington DC through the late 1990s, Geoff became interested in the official White House tree decorations, issued each year by the White House Historical Association. He now has every decoration from 1992 to date, which are displayed on a grey wire tree every year.
Celebrity Christmas decorations
Fast forward to 2017 and Geoff decided to try and get some publicity for his Christmas decorations, creating a website in the process, although little did he know that his decorations would acquire semi celebrity status. A journalist from The Mail contacted Geoff and arranged to come and shoot his collection for a feature. At the time of the shoot, the trees were dressed across four different rooms. Once the Mail’s picture editor saw the images, they asked if all the trees could be moved into one room! Geoff initially declined, as it was a huge undertaking, that was until they offered a large amount of money to complete the task. His trees were featured by the Daily Mail on 23rd December that year. That same year, Juliette Parkin came and filmed a news item for BBC SE Today, which was broadcast on the 15th December.
Roll on to 2018 and there were features posted online with both The Daily Express and The Mail online. By 2020, things began to hot up with the trees featured by the Daily Mail on 23rd December that year. Athena Films (a production company commissioned by Channel 5) also approached Geoff to include his collection in an hour-long documentary, along with other collectors, entitled “Incredible Christmas trees and how to decorate them.” The programme was broadcast on 28th November 2020 and can be viewed via Geoff’s website.
Following the broadcast of the C5 programme, Geoff was invited to join Holly and Phil, live on This Morning, on Wednesday 2nd December. Bearing in mind it was Covid year, the coverage was filmed from his iPhone, set up in the house, so sadly not fantastic quality. He gave them a quick tour of the three decorated rooms. By 2021, C5 repeated the show Incredible Christmas trees and how to decorate them on 21st December.
Fame overseas
2022 was quite an amazing year too with the German national TV broadcaster, ZDF contacting Geoff in late October and seeking to make a film about getting the decorations out of store and setting them up around the house. They ultimately visited twice, once to film setting the decorations up and again to film the finished rooms. The resulting film aired on their Mittags Magazine lunchtime programme in Germany on the 9th December. In light of the success in getting a German national broadcaster to visit and film the collection, BBC SE Today contacted Geoff with a view to revisit with Chrissie Reidy interviewing Geoff for a film that was broadcast on the local news. The resulting piece aired on the 6th December.
Later in the month, the Jeremy Vine Show on C5 were having a debate about Christmas tinsel and invited Geoff to participate live from home but the most significant year by far though was last year, 2023, when there was a great deal of interest in talking about Geoff’s collection. It all began with some great coverage in the Metro newspaper on 1st December quickly followed by a feature online in the Daily Express on the 9th of the month and an interview on Heart Radio with JK and Kelly Brook on the 18th. Amazingly, a Norwegian reporter contacted Geoff too and published a great feature in that countries Dagbladet newspaper on the 4th December.
On 7th December ITV Meridian decided to film a segment on the collection which aired on the local news that evening. This then prompted ITV’s This Morning to make another approach, with a view to sending a cameraman to film live from Seaford on the show on the 18th December. The programme hosts that day were Josie Gibson and Craig Doyle. After being filmed across the three decorated rooms they ended top in the lounge, when the cameraman presented Geoff with a gift from the programme, live on air, of a “This Morning” silver bauble to add to his collection.
2023 was then topped off with an appearance, live from home, on Christmas morning on Sky News, with Geoff talking about his Christmas decoration collection with Gillian Joseph. Geoff had set up his own small studio in one of the rooms at home and the broadcast was relayed through his laptop to the studio. All in all, quite an amazing backstory for Geoff’s 60-year addiction to Christmas decorations.
More details of Geoff’s Christmas decorations at www.geoffschristmas.co.uk
For more about Geoff and his amazing garden and achievements:
