Happy Christmas
Christmas tree boss denounces fake versions
The head of Britain’s Christmas tree-growing industry has likened artificial versions to “toilet brushes” and claimed they are damaging to the environment.
Roger Hay, secretary of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, admitted sales of real trees are likely to fall this year as a result of Britain’s worsening economy.
But he insisted they look better and cause less damage to the environment than “junk food” artificial trees, particularly as they can be recycled into compost.
One in three of Britain’s 25million households – around 8million – bought a real tree last year.
But 25 per cent price rises because of import costs and the pound’s weakness mean real trees cost up to £40 this Christmas, compared with less than £10 for a fake one.
Source: The Telegraph
Mr Christmas scales back celebrations.
A man who has celebrated Christmas every day for the last 14 years with a full roast dinner, champagne and presents is scaling back his celebrations because of the credit crunch.
Andy Park, known as Mr Christmas, has munched his way through 117,600 sprouts, quaffed 5,110 bottles of Moet, and sent himself more than 230,000 Christmas cards since his festive fetish began.
But this year the 44-year-old electrician, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is having to make swingeing cuts to keep his unique devotion to Yuletide on the road.
Mr Park, a divorcee, said: “I’ve been through 37 electric ovens and worn out 23 video recorders by watching the Queen’s Speech every day. I’ve also sent myself 235,206 Christmas cards. But these days the postage is so dear I’m having to deliver them myself.
“The credit crunch is getting to me big time and I may even have to cut out the champagne and start singing for my Christmas dinner.
“The lunch with all the trimmings and alcohol is costing in excess of £150 a week, but I’m fighting hard not to let the financial crisis ruin the celebrations.
“I’m not being tight but a few of the little extras are having to go. I’m only having one Christmas tree this year, instead of two, and I’m cutting back on the Christmas lights because of energy bills.
“I used to get a 14lb turkey, now I’m going for a 9lb one. I refuse to compromise on champagne and always have Moet, but now I’m having to make it last two days.”
Every morning since July 14 1994, the father of one has breakfasted on mince pies and sherry, before opening the presents he has bought for himself. Then he eats a full roast turkey lunch and watches the Queen’s Speech on video, his favourite being her “annus horribilis” address.
When he last took stock of his intake in October, Mr Park calculated that he had consumed 5,110 turkeys, 94,080 mince pies, 28,224 roast potatoes, and opened 204,400 Christmas crackers.
Explaining the moment his life changed, Mr Park said: “I’ll never forget the day it started. The sun was shining, but I was just feeling fed up and bored, so I went home and put the decorations up. Suddenly I was happy. I thought, this is fun. So I did it again the next day, and the day after that.
“People do think I’m crackers, but I enjoy treating myself and I’m the only one in the world who does it. Others have tried to copy me, but they can’t last.
Maybe Mr Christmas should have a go on our Happy Christmas Turkey Scoffing Game?
Source: The Telegraph
McFly switch on Christmas lights
More than 50,000 people gathered in central London to watch pop stars McFly turn on the Regent Street Christmas lights. The foursome did the honours at 6.50pm from a stage set up at the junction of New Burlington Street and Regent Street.
Bass guitarist Dougie Paynter said: “It was awesome and there was so many people there to see it.”He added: “So many great people have done it before. When we did it there was a plaque saying who had done it in the past and there was people like Sir Anthony Hopkins and members of the Royal Family.
Thousands of small energy-efficient lightbulbs have been used to design the lights which are based on the theme of stars.
The tradition of switching on the Christmas lights dates back to 1954 and previous guests invited to turn them on include Diana, Princess of Wales, pop star Kylie Minogue and jockey Frankie Dettori.
McFly begin a UK and Ireland tour on Friday in Sheffield and will release their next single, backing the Children in Need appeal, on November 24. Dougie said: “We have been on the show before a few times and we opened it last year I think, but doing the single is another honour.”
The double-A side features the track Do Ya, from their current album Radio:ACTIVE, and a cover version of The Faces’ Stay With Me.
Source: The Press Association
Call of Duty tipped for Christmas No.1
Online bookies Paddy Power is now taking bets on which game will top the all-formats chart this Christmas.
The favourite is Call of Duty: World at War, with odds of 5/2 at the time of writing. FIFA ‘09 is close behind at 4/1, followed by Need for Speed Undercover (5/1). Gears of War 2, LittleBigPlanet, PES 2009 and Resistance 2 have all been given odds of 8/1.
Our money’s on Monopoly (150/1) or perhaps even Resident Evil Zero (250/1). You can see the full rundown over at the Paddy Power website.
Source : Eurogamer
Notice something different with HC today?
After months in development Happy Christmas (or HC for short) are pleased to announce “WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE, YEAH”.
After spending months listening to feedback and comments from our beautiful users (that’s you :-)) we have tried to create something a little bit different yet functional to help with all your Christmas needs. So what’s the big deal?
Well, apart from our trendy new look you may notice some major improvements? We now have a new and improved price comparison shopping portal which includes over 100k products from some of the UKs largest and most established retailers (see all our suppliers).
We also aim to bring to you the latest discount codes and offers, you will find these listed on the blog and it is possible to RSS them straight to your desktop so you never miss that next money saving idea.
On top of this you will also find new and improved E-Cards, Games, Facebook Apps and Christmas Info. We also have loads more planned for the coming months delivering great Christmas Fun, News, Info and Shopping all year.
Thanks for reading, any comments? Speak up, we can’t hear you at the back!
Its a Steal!
For those of you that aren’t aware, the Happy Christmas head office is based in Tonbridge, a quaint little market town based about half way between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks in the South East of England.
Tonbridge holds a few distinct landmarks including: a medieval castle, the river Medway, Tonbridge School, and, oh yeah, the site for the largest robbery ever to take place in England!
Our office is just a 10 minute walk away from where the biggest heist in England took place, a £53 million ($106m) raid on a Securitas depot. Yesterday announced the news that five men have been convicted of kidnap, robbery and firearm charges. Sentencing takes place on Tuesday.
Our new website, laptops, company cars and office expansion is a pure coincidence, I was in the office all day!
Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas?
We hope you don’t mind but we analyzed 1000 of your Christmas ecard greeting messages to see what you are using as your favoured festive terms.
Well although our site is aptly named HappyChristmas.com it seems that 64% of you signed off Merry Christmas, 30% were loyal customers and used Happy Christmas while the remaining 6% used other terms like Happy Holidays.
We also found that our most popular ecard sent this year was our Festive Scene
Have a Happy Christmas!
A Happy Christmas for online UK retailers
A recent article published in the Sunday Herald highlighted that the UK is expected to become the biggest online retail market in Europe with over 27 million people expected to buy something on the internet this year.
With total online sales in the UK set to reach £40 billion this year it is predicted to only get better for online retailers. Figures are expected to quadruple to over £160 billion by the year 2020 accounting for 40% of all UK retail sales.
As a general rule online retailers have lower overheads so the best thing is, consumers could save more than £13 billion a year by shopping online! However, with only 11 online shopping days to go until Christmas time is running out!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR ONLINE UK SHOP…
Save Money!!
You may have noticed that this year Happy Christmas have teamed up with I Want One Of Those (IWOOT) to bring you great offers to help you save money across their unique and wonderful product range!! In the build up to this Christmas use the following Happy Christmas discount codes to save money…
XMAS1
£10 off when £60 spent
End Date: 1st Jan 08
XMAS2
£15 off when £100 spent
End Date: 1st Jan 08
VOFF8
£5 Off when £20 spent
End Date: Oct 08
Click here for I WANT ONE OF THOSE!
Wii Wish you a Merry Christmas
For a second year running UK high streets have completely sold out of the Nintendo Wii. Consumers are now desperately scouring the web in order to find the jewel in the crown of Christmas presents this year.
The Wii Console in the UK normally retails for £179 ($360) however online with auction sites like ebay, Wiis are exchanging hands at over £350 ($700) with one desperate buyer reportedly paying over £2500 ($5000) for one!!
We use a couple of games consoles providers for our Happy Christmas shop, so if you are looking to buy one give these a try. But make sure to let us know your stories and how you are get on!
Shop GameShark Store.
Shop Gameseek
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