Festive cheer is on the cards for retailers and manufacturers of Christmas decorations according to the Centre for Retail Research, which analysed the buying habits of 1,000 consumers.
Sales are expected to rise by 15 per cent to around £2.4 billion for the coming Christmas season, with traditional decorations and wooden products driving sales, along with an upswing in foil decorations and paper products. Overall Christmas spending is forecast to rise only slightly by 1.3 per cent.
Brits are also expected to be making a lot of their own items at home as the crafting and do-it-yourself boom continues unabated. Expensive ‘blingy’ decorations and presents, by contrast, are not topping Santa’s wish list, although there is likely to be a rush on electronic products such as Kindles, tablets and mobile phones.
Jonathan Hughes, commercial director at traditional decorations supplier Festive Productions said: “The retro Christmas is definitely back. We have seen that our tinsel orders up 60 per cent, realistic artificial trees up more than 40 per cent and sales of traditional decorations in red, gold and silver up 55 per cent.”
The managing director of Premier Decorations, John Athwal, also agreed with the findings, saying: “People are definitely coming back to more traditional colours and styles as they seek to find the feel-good factor and are willing to spend money to achieve that.” Premier has seen an ‘incredible demand’ for wooden tree decorations, he added.
Developments at Spring Fair International 2013 will reflect this consumer trend with the opening of a dedicated hall for Seasonal Gifts (Hall 2 of The NEC). This part of the show will be strongly focused on Christmas and seasonal gift items, with a fantastic selection of complementary product offered by floral suppliers presenting beautiful artificial flowers and display vases. Gift items for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween and of course Christmas will all be available.
Wreath by Enchante, can be seen at Spring Fair International Hall 2 Stand F40
