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Dear Reader, |
Behind the scenes at Country & Town House we have been furiously working to get our next edition of Great British Brands to press. Building on our first ten years, this 11th edition - with Dylan Jones as editor-at-large and themed New Frontiers - is our best yet, packed full of features by today's most acclaimed writers and the brands innovating across fashion, wellness, technology, geopolitics, craftsmanship and culture to shape the next era of luxury at home and abroad. You can pick up your copy from 9 January. |
In the meantime, with Christmas just under two weeks away, we bring you last-minute things to see, places to go and great shopping ideas for those who don't yet have Christmas wrapped and ready to go... |
What To Do |
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Watch As The Shard Lights Up London |
This year's Christmas light show from London's tallest building comes from within - 12 members of staff, from housekeepers to security managers, were chosen to create this display. Led by self-taught impressionist Gustavo Zuluaga Villegas, a housekeeping team member, the artworks - including reindeer, a starry night, and the word 'London' - will illuminate the top 20 storeys of the building, rotating and repeating hourly every night until New Year's Eve from 4pm until midnight, and again from 5.30am to 7.30am, bringing festive cheer to late-night Londoners and early-bird commuters. |
Catch A Musical At The Lane |
Enjoy festive afternoon tea, pre-theatre dinner in the Grand Saloon or drinks in the Cecil Beaton Bar at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, ahead of watching Hercules, the Lane's Christmas show with performances on both Christmas Eve and Boxing Day afternoons. |
Order Cake Fit For A King |
The baker behind William and Kate's wedding cake and supplier to Harrods, The Ritz, Daylesford and Waitrose - Fiona Cairns - has launched an online shop. You can order her handmade cakes until 22 December for Christmas delivery, whether that's a traditional gingerbread loaf or Christmas cake, or something more fun like the Christmas pudding cupcakes or gingerbread star lollipops. |
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Visit The Biscuiteers Icing Cafe |
Biscuiteers - the cutest biscuit brand in Britain - has been charming families since 2007 with its colourful sweets. New to order this year is the 3D ice your own reindeer and the pantomime biscuit tin (a pirate ship, pumpkin carriage, glass slipper...you get it). Or the annual favourite in our household is the DIY gingerbread house and the box of snowmen biscuits that arrive unclothed ready to be dressed for the cold in iced hats and scarves. We will also be making time for afternoon tea at the icing cafe in Notting Hill, where you can decorate as many biscuits as you like. |
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Thirsty for more?The team at C&TH have hunted down other top festive things to do in London - from the Southbank's pop-up igloo to raclette on the rooftop of The Berkeley - and for more present ideas, take a look at our excellent 12-page Gift Guide, this year themed around the biggest television hits of 2025. You'll find it in the current issue of C&TH and on Instagram. |
C&TH's Christmas List |
Alexandra Llewellyn |
A bespoke Alexandra Llewellyn backgammon board is on the list for a big, big birthday (and has been since I saw a jockey friend's one, with his silks, favourite horses and family memories all wrapped into one beautiful board) - but for Christmas I'd happily settle for a pack of her skull playing cards (£145 for two). The poker sets too are stunning, for the marquetry boxes alone. |
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Farrar & Tanner |
Delve into the Farrar & Tanner Christmas catalogue - the Head Chef and Drinks Cabinet are my favourites 'departments'. The knives are something else and I have also bought a pair of garden secateurs for my FIL from the National Trust collection. You can even have these engraved. |
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OKA |
Arranged by price, OKA have created the ultimate shopping guide to raise your guest bedroom game, festive things for the Christmas table (like the above set of four 'napkin crackers' in Indian-block print tied with velvet ribbons and with proper treats inside like a comb and a horn bookmark) and gifts (including some £50 and under). |
Ettinger |
At Ettinger, it is the luggage that stands out - we are particularly coveting the Cotswold weekend and Hurlingham overnight bags, not to mention the chic portfolios and 'man totes' for laptops, wallets and phones. All of which can be personalised. Time to upgrade the shabby work backpack. |
Shopping finished? All that remains is to wish all our readers a very happy Christmas and a jolly new year. |
Until 2026! |
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Great British Brands 2025 |
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Buy your copy of Great British Brands 2025 here, or find the digital issue here. |
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Best Of British Q&A: Sabina Savage |
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Favourite British brand? 'Favourite' is a big claim, but, as I'm currently renovating: Atelier Ellis natural paints. Hero? Creatively, Lee McQueen has always been among my greatest inspirations. Personally, the late Dame Jane Goodall. Weekend? Somewhere rugged and coastal. We'd take a treacherous walk, then a bracing sea swim, followed by a pocket sandwich, hedgerow blackberries and flask of hot tea. Meal? Homegrown produce fresh from my garden in north London. Everything tastes better straight from the ground. Shop? Adam Bray often manages to tempt me with his chic curation of antiques. Undiscovered gem? Somerset's West Country Carnival is full of folkloric tradition and unique spectacle. It's held each October/November, dates back to the gunpowder plot and is said to be the largest illuminated carnival in the world. Favourite British idiosyncrasy? Our eccentricity. Song? The Lovecats by The Cure. Book? Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner was a reference used for my recent design, The Scrimshaw Skeleton, and has really lived with me over the past year. What should Britain bring back? Membership of the EU. |
Discover more at Sabina Savage. |
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