‘I’ve always been obsessed with Christmas,’ announces Dan Cooper, keeper of the trees and baubles at the John Lewis Christmas Shop
But then this will be Dan’s 25th year of Christmas at the company, during which he’s seen an awful lot of trees, baubles and tinsel. ‘I remember the first year I was part of the Christmas team – I put forward a penguin decoration and everyone thought I was mad, saying, “What do penguins have to do with Christmas?” Now everyone loves a novelty decoration and the more peculiar the better. At least my penguin came from an icy home!’ he laughs.
Dan, who's known as ‘Mr Christmas’ by his colleagues, spends the entire year immersed in fir trees, fairy lights, stockings and snowflakes. The yuletide enthusiast has always embraced over-the-top festivities. ‘I love being creative and flamboyant, and at Christmas you can be even more extravagant.’
Going wild has been well and truly encouraged in the John Lewis Christmas Shop over the years and today, there’s more choice than ever to indulge every Christmas whim. When Dan joined, there were just 13 trees in the collection – now there are an astonishing 81 varieties. In the last 10 years there have been some wonderfully whacky trees, including the 'upside-down tree’ and the ‘little black tree‘ of 2011, but Dan says there’s been a shift towards realism in recent years. ‘Natural-looking trees that are as realistic as possible are our focus now,‘ he admits. ‘We’re creating specific species, be it a Serbian spruce or Colorado fir, and we mould each branch tip from real cuttings.’
“The honest answer is that we make up where Christmas goes next”
Of course, Mr Christmas is already working on Christmas 2021. He won’t reveal next year’s Christmas looks, but there’s a mischievous sparkle in his eye. ‘I’ve just seen our first selection of cracker and wrap designs,’ he says. Dan has several Christmas ‘hits’ throughout the year, with his biggest moments being March (when the range gets unveiled to Partners), Christmas in July (when the majority of the press see the decorations for the first time) and the third week of September (when the Christmas Shop opens). ‘It’s wonderful seeing the decorations in huge volume, having had just a few samples up until this point,’ Dan enthuses. ‘When Christmas is over, it can feel a little “damp squib” though, even if we’ve done really well. But it doesn’t last long as we’re already way into the following year!’
Dan never tires of Christmas. ‘Very occasionally – around July time – I think, “Wouldn’t it be nice to go to somewhere like the Bahamas for Christmas”. But I know I‘d spend my whole time looking at their decorations!’ he laughs.
At home, Dan starts his own Christmas decorating early, usually after Black Friday. ‘I have seven trees to dress, so I like to take my time,’ he says. ‘I pop on some music, maybe pour myself a G&T and indulge – I can’t be rushed or stressed when I decorate. I live on my own, so I don’t have anyone to offend. I’m very tree focused, even putting them in spare bedrooms for my guests to enjoy.’ Follow Dan’s top tree tips to making your tree look amazing.
His own decoration collection has been curated over many years, ‘which is something we know our customers do too,’ he explains. ‘Six of my trees are dressed to suit the room they go in. They are really full. I do allow myself an experimental tree though, where I can do something a little different,’ he says. I've built up a colossal collection of decorations at home – I must have five or six thousand. I would love to find space for an eighth tree, but I don’t have another room. It might be time to extend outdoors – the garden would be the final frontier.’
So if Dan wasn’t in charge of Christmas, what would he be doing? ‘It would be something to do with gardens and the outdoors,’ he answers in a flash. ‘I’m busy planting up pots of cyclamen and tulips as we speak.’
“You won’t find an inflatable Santa hanging off my chimney!”
You have to wonder where Dan finds his inspiration. ‘The honest answer is that we make up where Christmas goes next,’ he confesses. ‘We have a brilliant Design Studio, who pull the trends together, but with Christmas there’s no great diktat that you have to follow – no one saying that you have to do a woodland look like this, or that you simply must have a baking theme like that. We decide on what we do, responding to what customers bought this year and how we can pull ideas together in an exciting way for next. Colour always works for us, I see lots on my travels too, and we also work with a great team of suppliers.’
Dan doesn’t panic if certain hero decorations sell out as soon as they hit the shelves. ‘The people who shop for Christmas early on are the ones looking for something really unusual and exciting; they’re also the ones who enjoy spending 20 minutes or so choosing wrapping, matching up shades of ribbon and finding the perfect tags for their gifts,’ he says. ‘As we get nearer to Christmas, people are under more pressure and tend to be less adventurous. That’s when we need to make sure we’ve plenty of the more familiar designs available, like wrapping with holly on.’
‘I do think we now look for any excuse to decorate, whether inside or out,’ he adds. ‘The stakes have become much higher, thanks to social media, as you can share photos of your tree or your home. We’ve come through a phase of minimalist, simple living and now people want to create those special “moments”, whether at Halloween, autumn, Christmas or Easter.
‘Decorating outside for Christmas keeps on getting bigger and bigger too,’ says Dan. ‘I like to use simple white fairy lights outside – you certainly won’t find an inflatable Santa hanging off my chimney!’
