Tesco's Handmade Vintage Christmas

Back in July, when the mercury was hitting 30 degrees in London, I entered into the Tesco's Christmas Grotto to get a sneak peak at what they had to offer for Christmas 2013. I was expecting to see a range of lovely designer inspired Christmas decorations and gifts and a table laden with delicious fare to eat on Christmas Day. I wasn't disappointed.

I just love the deer cushions and I'm sure I could find a home for the lit blossom tree.

What I wasn't expecting to find was the array of vintage inspired and handmade delights to adorn my tree. There was even a hint of kitch which are on my 'must have' list.

Tesco have really scuppered my plans for Christmas this year. I love making things, creating something from some scraps of fabric or some wool but this Christmas it looks like I don't need to because the range has some amazing handmade decorations which I would have spent hours crafting.

I'm sure I could bluff it and convince everyone I have been stitching bird decorations out of my Dad's old tweed cap and wrestling wire coat hangers into bird cage card holders.

Not only that but I am going to amaze some guests this Christmas with my new found confectionery skills when I milk the big Tah-dah moment unveiling these cakes and confectionery.

Admittedly they may not believe I hand carved the chocolate turkey (!) but Yes, I was absolutely up till 3am tempering my chocolate and hand dusting my marzipan fruits. Oh and that cake. Yes I've been feeding it brandy since August. The thing is, the Tesco Christmas Cake has been drinking brandy for months just like you would do at home if you didn't have three children and your need to drink the brandy was far greater than the need to get a cake drunk.

The attention to detail that goes into the confection is astonishing. You see that chocolate cuff around this cake...

Well it has been especially made for Tesco so that it doesn't shatter as soon as a knife even so much as winks at it. It is flexible. And edible. And delicious.

I did get some crafty inspiration though. All I need is two dozen packets of assorted biscuits, 12 blocks of chocolate, 3 kilos of sugar and scaffolding. Gingerbread houses are so 2012.

And should I find myself with 120 eggs, 6kgs of castor sugar and a week I don't know what to do with, I may just whip up a few meringues to build a Christmas Tree.

Happy Christmas list writing x

Disclosure: This post is part of the Britmums project with Tesco.