Jane Malyon, a super Christmas fan from White Roding, Essex, has admitted to keeping her Christmas tree up all year round and living in a constant state of festive preparation. Every room in her house is adorned with “tell-tale signs” of Christmas, including stockings, presents, and crackers on the table at all times. Malyon’s grown children, George and Edward, often travel and show up at her doorstep without prior notice, prompting her decision to always be ready for the holidays.
“The solution seemed to be let’s be in Christmas mode at all times – we call it Christmas standby,” Malyon says. “We’re not bonkers, we don’t have a 20ft inflatable reindeer outside or wear Christmas hats the whole time, but every room has some tell-tale signs.” Although Malyon admits to being “seasonally challenged”, she and her husband Roger, both 68, find joy in their constant state of readiness for Christmas festivities.
Malyon’s inspiration for her year-round Christmas decor came after her sons found themselves unable to spend the holiday season at home. George was traveling with the Cirque du Soleil, while Edward was working at a hotel in Toronto, Canada, with his partner. Malyon says George once went to great lengths – “a plane, a coach, two trains, and a bus” – to show up at the family home without warning. “So it adapted into always having a Christmas stocking at the ready, always having some presents at the ready and always having a turkey in the freezer.” Malyon adds, “Often, without any notice, we go hurtling into mad Christmas mode.”
Despite her unconventional decorating habits, Malyon sees her Christmas standby as an opportunity to create memories of “family love” all year round. “We do agree this is on slight eccentricity side, just slight, but I hope you realize we do have the reason for it,” she says. Malyon owns a cream tea company and admits that she and her husband are “old enough to know better,” but they continue to find joy in their year-round Christmas cheer
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