Spirit of Christmas at Olympia

[BeaLola]

Has anyone been before & any advice / sugestions - thinking of booking tickets to kick start my Christmas shopping !

I usually go to this and also the Country Living one which is at Angel. I usually come away having spent quite a lot of money with not much to show for it! Because I have been several years running now it's starting to look a bit samey but it is nice and festive. They have more unusual decorations which you would probably not find in your average garden centre. The food stalls are good and have nice tastey bits and pieces which you can try. It can get very busy and those avid Christmas shoppers can also get a bit pushy and shovey. I would advise looking around the whole place before actually buying anything as some of the stalls will sell very similar looking things at different prices - especially scarves for some reason. On the last day - Sunday - especially in the afternoon, some stalls start slashing prices and doing extra 'show deals'. It's a nice day out - I look forward to the Christmas one as it smells all nice and festive. They do a Spring version as well. There are not many places to eat especially if you don't want to book in the very over-priced champagne bar. Some people take packed lunches. I usually just pick bits and pieces from the stalls and then have a hotdog from the sausage stall which is always there. Take cash as not every stall will accept cards.

Also take a look at the exhibitor list in advance and check their facebook pages. A friend often has a stall and they get a certain amount of tickets which she gives away to facebook fans. Saves a bit of cash.

It can all be a bit samey but they are trying to attract more designer maker types for some variation.