Christmas is truly all around at Geoff Stonebanks‘ bungalow (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
For the first 11 months of the year, Geoff Stonebanks’ East Sussex bungalow is pretty unexceptional.
But then December hits – and his home becomes a sea of more than 10,000 different decorations, including 2,500 baubles and 32 artificial trees.
Such a Christmassy choice of decor has seen Geoff, who lives in Seaford, branded the ‘most festive man in Britain’ – and it’s a title he’s proud to hold.
The mammoth operation starts on the last weekend of November, when Geoff embarks on the exhausting job of getting the decorations ready for action.
By December 1, his winter wonderland is complete.
Decking the hall, lounge, dining room, window panes and sideboards with all things festive, there’s a Pacman-themed ornament on one Christmas tree, a flying cow on another and a toy Santa in a space shuttle above his hallway mirror.
His most pricey purchase is the Thomas Kinkade ‘Wonderland Express’ Christmas Tree, worth near £200. A small train circles the tree when switched on.
‘Each room has a different theme’ Geoff, 70, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘The lounge is black, gold and silver; the dining room is mainly reds and greens and what we call our “garden room” has a collection of about 12 trees at the moment. Each one is decorated in a completely different way.’
Geoff’s decorations include a blown glass Pac Man ornament (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
He also owns a Weihnachtspyramide (centre) – which originated in the Ore Mountain region of Germany before spreading more widely in the 18th century (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
Geoff’s love of all things Christmas began as a child at his parents’ pub, the Dolphin, in the heart of the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire.
Mum Barbara mobilised him each year to help decorate the popular watering hole. Geoff would put up tinsel, carry in trees and hang up decorations above the bar.
He continues: ‘The Dolphin would open on Christmas Day so people who lived alone had the chance to have some company. It needed to look the part.
‘In the sixties we got a lot of decorations from Woolworths as it was the place to go back then. But, being a country pub, we also brought in holly and ivy from the garden.
‘It always looked really nice and as I got older, I started to take control of the decorating a bit more. I probably got a bit bossy with it all.’
When Geoff’s parents retired in 1987, he adopted the sizeable pile of festive items left at the Dolphin. Since then, he has only added to the collection.
The festive lounge bar of the Dolphin, in Oxfordshire, during the 1980s (Picture: Geoff Stonebanks)
Geoff (centre) with his maternal grandparents and parents in 1971 (Picture: Geoff Stonebanks)
The 70-year-old has lost track of how much his collection may cost in total. What’s more, with quarterly bills, he says it’s ‘totally impossible’ to work out how much the lights cost each December.
As part of his collection, Geoff has decorations from the now defunct-Woolworths, 1930s baubles from Prague and a series of White House themed festive ornaments. One of his most prized possessions is a pierrot doll – a clown-like figurine – which hangs on the wall of his lounge. It was made by his grandmother, Elsie, in 1961 from a ping pong ball and pipe cleaners.
‘People have always been fascinated by the bungalow at Christmas,’ adds Geoff, a former Royal Mail manager.
‘For about ten years, we had an annual party in the house each December with friends and family. I’d thought “what’s the point of having these beautiful individual decorations when, hung on mass, you lose the impact of them”.
‘So I used to take pictures of them, print them off and create a quiz for people who arrived at our party. They’d go round the house to find the decorations and note down details about them, and the winner got a bottle of champagne. People got quite into it.’
Thanks to his Christmas haul, Geoff is in the running to scoop £1,000 in the UK’s first British Collector Awards.
One Christmas tree is never enough for Geoff (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
And despite the pensioner’s bungalow being the star of many Christmas TV reports, here in the UK and as as far as Germany, his partner, Mark, keeps him humble.
‘Mark and I have been together for 23 years now. When we met, he couldn’t bear Christmas – it just wasn’t for him,’ admits Geoff. ‘He’s come to tolerate it and my collection in the years since.
‘Mark does like the bungalow once the decorations are up, but he doesn’t like the assembling process. He stays out of the house for those bits.
‘We have a small terrier called Chester who, remarkably, has never been bothered by the decorations. He’s never confused the Christmas tree for a real one either, not yet at least!’
Geoff’s mum, Barbara, lived with the couple until she moved to a nursing home this year. Now 96, she has always been her son’s team Santa over Mark’s team Scrooge.
Geoff hopes to bring joy to others with his festive fun (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
The 70-year-old would host parties centred around his decorations (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
He continues: ‘I’m taking a few boxes to her this week of spare decorations, she’s missing it a bit. There’s about 30 rooms in her nursing home, but hers will certainly be the most festive.’
Despite his love for his Christmas collection, by New Year Geoff admits he’s usually had enough. Over the course of a few days in January, his bungalow will return to normality. Much to Mark’s pleasure, no doubt.
Geoff adds: ‘If I’m to keep collecting, I suppose I will eventually need more storage space.
‘I’ve been very good this year, I’ve only bought one decoration. I went to Whistable [in Kent] last weekend and saw that somebody had painted oyster shells with beautiful Chrismtas scenes. I had to get one, I hadn’t seen anything like it before. That’s my only new decoration this year, but there’s plenty of time left for that to change.’
Recently, Geoff has also been exploring what to do with his collection when he reaches an age where the assembly process could prove more taxing. He’s reached out to museums in the hope his festive finds could continue to spark joy for decades more.
But for now, Geoff’s content with his own, very special, winter wonderland.
Geoff still has fond memories of his time decorating the Dolphin pub (Picture: Geoff Stonebanks)
His collection has grown to 10,000 pieces of memorabilia (Picture: British Collectors Awards)
‘I am proud of my Christmas collection’, he says. ‘I’m glad it can be celebrated in the British Collector Awards, I hope my little bungalow can reach even more people nearer Christmas.
‘I post a lot of pictures near December 25 and sometimes do get some negative comments. I suppose it’s a little “sad” to some people, butmy collection does make people smile.
‘If what I’m doing can encourage others and inspire them to get a little bit more enjoyment out of life, then that must be a good thing.’
Geoff has just entered Airtasker’s British Collector Awards which is open for people to apply until January 26, 2024. Find out more here.
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Christmas is truly all around at Geoff Stonebanks’ bungalow in East Sussex.
