The Christmas items were very reasonably priced at this garden centre
Everything around us is starting to turn festive as Christmas gets closer and closer. In the lead up to the festive period, there is one thing I like to do – and I’m sure others do – which really gets me into the Christmas spirit.
That is looking around the Christmas section at a garden centre. This year’s garden centre of choice was the Cherry Lane Garden Centre in Peterborough.
I’d never been here before, so I was intrigued to see what it was like. From the outside, the garden centre seemed small but as I stepped inside, I was proved wrong. It stretched out towards the back and was like a tardus. As I entered the Christmas shop – which was signposted at the front entrance – a winter archway was my first sight.
It was surrounded with small and large nutcrackers, guarding the arch which led to a path of Christmas trees. I couldn’t resist and headed through the arch, it felt like walking through a mini winter wonderland. The Christmas trees were all dusted with fake snow, which made them look all the more enchanting.
Through the arch, was an entire wall filled with tree decorations and a lot of different gonks! There were gonks of all shapes and sizes, as well as different colours. The colours of all the decorations were beautifully arranged, grouped altogether to create a rather satisfying gradient. It made shopping for a specific colour very easy as everything was in one place.
There were a wide range of tree decorations to pick from, both traditional and quirky ones to choose. Looking at the prices, I was pleasantly surprised by their reasonable prices. Hanging decorations ranged from £1.59 to £1.99.
Amongst these decorations was a shiny rubber duck with a red bow on. I love ducks (emphasis on the love) and for £1.99, it was coming home with me.
I made my way around the corner and there was a shelf dedicated to Grinch merchandise. The Grinch isn’t one of my favourite Christmas films, but I thought the decorations were funny and perfect for any Grinch fan. The next part of the centre was full of twinkling lights. There were lights for trees, but also outdoor light displays like reindeer.
The otherwise darkened room was brought to life by all of the bright lights. It felt like I was out on a winter night – minus the cold weather – seeing houses decorated for Christmas. One part of this section that caught my attention were light up wooden decorations. They included homely scenes, with light up fires, as well as snowy forest scenes with reindeer.
These were very sweet, and again not badly priced. Some smaller ones cost £3.99 upwards, while the bigger ones ranged from £7.99 up to £12.99.
Of all the larger light displays, there were some decorations that looked like kaleidoscope colours. These intrigued me the most as they were different to the usual twinkling outside decorations, and I hadn’t seen something like this before. Next I came across my favourite decoration.
This was a rustic golden house, with a window that looked into Santa with a sack of presents by a Christmas tree I loved how this one lit up with the snow falling down.
The next section I came to was full of festive food. The section was full of sweet treats and savoury goods. Again, this was all reasonably priced and similar pricing to supermarkets. Before I left, I noticed a strange hanging decoration. It was a trail of presents that led up to a Grinch in a Santa costume riding a sleigh. I thought this was a very comical, and made me smile.
I left Cherry Lane feeling jolly and excited for Christmas. If you are looking for some Christmas inspiration or just want a gander around a garden centre, then the Cherry Lane garden centre might be worth a visit.
