TERRAVINA CHRISTMAS….. OPINIONS, LIKES, DISLIKES AND WISH LISTS
With Christmas now much nearer and the countdown soon to begin, the TerraVina team have been excitedly mentioning decorating the halls with boughs of holly, Tra La La La La etc…… however, whilst I personally love the excitement of decorating and making the hotel look lovely for the festive season, I don’t enjoy the commercialism of it all and I try to resist decorating too early and I boycott tinsel all together. However, that said, I have actually already Christmas decorated the hotel’s public rooms twice over this year, once in August and then again in October for two different photo shoots, so by the time I actually unpack the baubles for a third time this year, the excitement of unwrapping them all will have waned slightly.
This year, inadvertently, I have caused enormous controversy amongst the team. Following two years of Christmas tree disasters…. One year all the needles fell off the tree after only a week of being in situ and the replacement tree (which should have been at least 6ft) arrived at just over 3ft nothing… we had to build a leaning tower of wine boxes to elevate it to a respectable height and then last year, I “adopted” a tree (again it was supposed to be tall, bushy and lovely, but was instead no taller than me- 5ft, and not very impressive if I’m being completely honest- the tree not me!) which arrived rooted in a pot, with feeding and watering instructions. I delegated the watering to Pearl, our fantastic “breakfast gem” and she did a brilliant job of covering herself in pine needles every morning until the tree was completely bald by New Year’s Eve. Thus the tree was sent back to be replanted in the forest but it looked very sad and sorrowful- unsurprisingly the company I adopted it from have not contacted me this year to ask if I would like to borrow it again.
So…… and this is where the rift has been caused, I bravely decided to go against tradition and have unreal trees this year, but thinking it would be better to be upfront and proud of the fact- in fact make a statement about them, I have ordered white ones (but I actually wanted bright orange or lime green but wasn’t able to source either colour)… however the teams’ reaction has been mixed. Some people (Pearl) are relieved as she has been let off watering duties, but others, (Laura, our head sommelier) are very unimpressed and instead of feeling like Mummy Christmas I have been cast as Ebenezer Scrooge instead!
However, I am up for the challenge and I am determined to convince all those in the team who are unhappy with white Christmas trees that they can look just as beautiful if decorated well… in fact my new mantra is that it is much better that the real trees stay in the forest and that the ones we have will last for years and are as eco friendly as a fake tree can be…. The jury’s out on if I will win this particular contretemps, but either way the hotel will be decorated by the 2nd week of December and will twinkle and shine in all its usual TerraVina Christmas glory…… thankfully the Secret Santa draw is being organized by the team, what a relief as that’s some controversy I can avoid!
Quick update, since writing this particular blog and it being posted 2 days later, the white trees have arrived and they are lovely….. in fact even Laura is warming to the theme- Result!
Enjoy the Christmas countdown as much as we do. Till next week
Nx
