On Sunday we took a trip to Elveden to absorb some of the Christmas spirit and pick up some supplies for the festive season. Having visited at a similar time last year, I was adamant that this should become one of our Christmas traditions every year.

I felt slightly sad that we’ve already got our Christmas tree as they had hundreds, if not thousands of fabulous trees to choose from in a whole range of shapes and sizes. There were some beautiful huge 8 foot beauties right down to desktop size cuties.

Clearly lots of other people came specifically to buy a tree, it was amusing to hear the classic lines as we wandered around. It seemed like the popular choice was for the gorgeous New Foundland dogs to deliver the trees to cars by dog-drawn-carts.

These orange wreathes looked amazing and I  regret not buying one while I had the chance.

There was even a road train!

Although we usually hate trying to shop anywhere that is heaving with people, Christmastime has to be an exception as I do like the atmosphere. We really wanted to have a good peruse round the estate shop to browse the hundreds, nay, thousands of local and luxury goods.

Many local meats pretty much all locally reared. Someone commented that some are probably zero miles.

So many gift-y items. Next year I’m thinking of just buying everyone a hamper. They look lovely!

Well hello sweetness, come to Mama!

I may have bought a white choc snowman for myself, a milk choc Santa for Husband and a little bag of scrummy peanut butter fudge.

I love the proper wicker baskets you carry round the shop. Luckily they are sturdy enough for a rather heavy load as we filled our basket with goodies. Most of the items are for us to eat on Christmas day, plus I found some tasty sounding mulled berry punch which is perfect for me as I’m not drinking.

We were all shopped out but full of Christmas cheer by the time we headed home. We’ll be back next year.