Garden centre puts out Christmas trees and decorations — on the hottest day of the year

A GARDEN centre put out Christmas trees and decorations — on the hottest day of the year.

Staff spruced up the shelves with seasonal stuff as temperatures hit 32C (90F).

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Among items on display five months before the big day were artificial trees, baubles, tinsel, snow globes and Santa decorations

Charlotte Harrington, the manager at Summerhill’s in Basildon, Essex, explained: “For many, many years now, we’ve opened our Christmas department on the August bank holiday.

"The stock comes in early and we gradually start putting it out on the shop floor. This is just a small fraction of what we have.

“But our Christmas displays are so spectacular it takes time to get everything set up, so we have to start early.

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“It may seem a little odd putting them out now — especially with the hot weather.

“But we have to plan so far in advance.”

The decorations went up on Tuesday as temperatures rose to 32C at Heathrow and Kew Gardens in West London.

The heatwave has seen millions of people pack beaches, parks and beer gardens.

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Charlotte, 40, said the garden centre was so well known for its Christmas displays that punters were already flocking to get their festive fix.

One customer even travels from Scotland every year.

Charlotte added: “It’s a real labour of love. A lot of planning goes into it and a lot of building. This is just a tiny selection of what we’ve got.

“We’ll gradually keep adding to the displays. By the August bank holiday, there will be a lot of sections already up.

“We’ll hopefully have everything done by October.

“We get emails as early as June asking when our Christmas displays will be up.

“It’s not for everyone, we understand that. More often than not, people love it. But it’s the way retail is these days. We are already looking at orders for next year. We have to plan so far ahead.”

Decorations should traditionally go up on the first day of Advent which falls on December 1 this year — the fourth Sunday before Christmas.