Does anyone remember BHS Christmas in the 90's?

[crochetmonkey74]

Was thinking yesterday about when BHS were the first store to really 'do' Christmas and they had all stuff we had never seen before- like the big iced gingerbread hearts and themed 'banks' of colors coordinated decs etc. We used to LOVE it and would get excited when it launched. Does anyone else have fond memories? I can't find any pics online at all

Some lovely, if bittersweet memories here.
I remember going on the bus with my gran to the nearest big town and doing BHS, Littlewoods and the big Boots.
Coffee in BHS but lunch in Littlewoods. And we'd do all my Christmas shopping in that one day

I remember getting my first Christmas tree after moving out of my parents, and getting all the decs from bhs. It was beautiful, I have a (physical) photo of it somewhere. It was the first time I ever had a real tree as we always had fake at home. This was 20 years ago and still a lovely memory.

I also remember getting loads of pressies from there, there was something for everyone.

The first time I was ever able to do Christmas shopping in a Christian country was at uni in the Nineties, and therefore there was BHS. I'd never seen anything like their Christmas shop, but the one thing I always wanted was a Santa's Marching Band. On a student budget there was just no way I could afford it. By the time I could, they'd stopped selling them. Grrrrrr!

one thing I always wanted was a Santa's Marching Band

I can remember this!!!

Just looked up the country vine pattern - it’s really lovely and going for good prices on eBay

I was only thinking about this yesterday and reminiscing. Every year my mum & I would go late night shopping and wonder around the BHS Christmas section and then go and have something to eat in the cafe upstairs.
The display always seemed huge (took up a lot of the shop floor space) and was made up of round tables with a large Christmas tree in the middle of each. Every tree would be decorated in a theme and then all the items on the tree were available to purchase in baskets etc on the table.
It always seemed magical and was definitely the biggest and best Christmas display in any of the shops.
They always used to put a lot of effort in to their Christmas windows too.
I can't think of any shop nowadays that even comes close to BHS Christmas displays of yesteryear

I've still got my gorgeous gold angel. I bought it one Xmas Eve, when they were selling everything off. £25 reduced to £6 I think. I used to always go in on Xmas Eve and buy lovely new deccies in the sale for next year.

Shufflebumnessie
Yes! I could spend ages looking in all the little baskets and working out which themed tree was my favourite

@Comefromaway I know where you are talking about, I used to queue there with my mum every satutrday for ham off the bone in the food hall. Spikey man was scary as a child. My grandson calls him Jack Frost.

It was, to my mum, the poor man's M&S.

No that was C&A!

I got my wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses from the Romford branch back in the 80s.

I can remember Lewis'sin Leicester, although could not remember the name of it until this thread.

I was telling my Husband the other day about memories of going up the wooden escalator to the Christmas floor where they had tables out with all the battery toys (like the barking,flipping dog) set up on them.

Afterwards we we would go to the cafe over the road for ice cream floats.

Shopping was a proper experience then and a treat only to be repeated a couple of times of year not this constant fast fashion, shopping as a leisure activity malarkey.

I can see a few Liverpool people on here referring to Lewis's - hi!

Used to love BHS. When I was first married, I used to take a day off work and get 90% of my Christmas shopping done in one go.
My bridesmaids dresses and wedding shoes came from there too. I wonder why it ever closed, it seems so well loved.

I was a Saturday girl in BHS from 76 to 79. We used to love the special Christmas gifts that they brought out - something for every price range and I loved the busy atmosphere too. I also think that there was something innocent about it - not the ruthless consumerism of today....

I too have fond memories of BHS.

I think the 90s were the height of the 'spend, spend, spend' culture when conspicuous consumption really was a thing, particularly at Christmas. I can recall massively long queues to buy baskets full of 'merch' in M&S - you just wouldn't get that now.

Also, the shops took more risk on the seasonal merchandising then. Much more choice. I was thinking this only yesterday when bemoaning the poor selection in most high street shops. Not much worth buying that has that 'wow' factor.

Yes!!! I don't remember exactly why or who arranged it but for several years in the early 90s while I was at secondary school, we would sign up for a night taking people with disabilities/mobility issues around the shops in town to do their christmas shopping (we did the carrying/reaching items/pushing wheelchair etc and I seem to recall the shops stayed open late specifically for this event). BHS Christmas section was always one of the favorite requested places from the shoppers. It had all the best stuff, lots of novelty and unusual items you couldn't find anywhere else. Loved it!

I bought our Christmas decorations from BHS for our first Christmas in the house we'd just bought, which would have been 1995 and we still have and use them every year - there's two sets of baubles in delightfully clashing colours - no themes with new decorations every year in this house.

We've added a few new ones over time, generally individual slightly nicer ones, but we still use all the old basic BHS ones as well.

I definitely have Christmas decorations from BHS but it would be a challenge to determine which they are, all these years down the line.

BHS is missed - shoes used to be quite good and yes, I do remember their impressive lighting department.

Yep. Woolworths and BHS were the places of my christmas memories. I do miss those days. I mostly shop online for convenience:(