Edinburgh family excited to see their New Town home on BBC Scotland's Christmas Home of the Year
An Edinburgh family has spoken of their excitement at having their Christmas-inspired home featured on a hit television show next week.
Creativity is at the heart of this festive home in Edinburgh’s New Town which has a theatrical feel to the festive staging on show, and that obviously caught the eye of BBC Scotland when selecting the five finalists for this year’s Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year, set to air on BBC 1 on Monday, December 15 at 8pm.
Drummond Place homeowner Miranda Dickson loves to entertain in her Georgian townhouse and embraces Christmas to make sure the family’s ‘Townhouse of Treasures’ is the most magical place for her children Zachary and Violet to enjoy.
Speaking about the TV show’s judges - Anna, Banjo and Danny - visiting her home, she said: “It was wonderful, a great experience. Although we never met the judges.
“There was a sequence filmed with myself, my son and our dog. Then we left the house for four hours while the judges visited.
“We are going to watch the show together as a family on Monday and have some festive canapes and other Christmas food.
“It was filmed at the end of November. My best friend lives in Chicago and she visits when Thanksgiving is happening in the States, so we have the Christmas decorations up for then, which meant we were ready for the cameras and the judges coming here.
“And as my daughter’s birthday is in on January 7, I like to have them down by them. So the decorations are up early and down early in our home.”
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A maximalist at heart, Miranda has over the years collated various decorations, some of which are vintage, and she makes a point of adding to her collection every year. So much so that she has 20 boxes of decorations in her attic.
Speaking about the festive vibes at her home, Miranda said: “I always like to decorate my home in all different seasons, but Christmas is the big one. It was super fun to have other people come and enjoy the festive spirit here in our home.
“We add to it every year, I just come across things and get new ideas every year. I make a lot of things as I like crafting. So I do things like that.
“I’m lucky to live in a very big house so I can have little corners where we can show off themes with lots of details.
“I love the Christmas Americana stuff. Not a modern minimalist Christmas, I’m about having more, more sights, more colours. I’m trying to be not over the top, and we have also got to live in this house, but I just love Christmas.”
On the show, which airs on Monday, Miranda told the cameras that her favourite spot in the home is the dinner table as “that’s where the best memories are made” every Christmas. She also revealed that people always smile when they visit her home during the festive period.
The judges were impressed when they visited the New Town home, with Danny stating he felt like he was in a Christmas movie before they had even entered the front door. When inside he described the “museum of curiosity” home as “total theatre” and said it was full of personality, adding “it feels alive”.
While fellow judge Banjo said the theme for the home is “just add one more thing”, describing it as “cosy” and that it “really feels like a family home”, adding that Christmas is about “more, more, more and this place delivers”.
And Anna described the homeowner as someone who is “clearly a fan of Christmas all year-round”, adding that the owners have “played with scale” in the large townhouse. Moving into the principal bedroom Anna loved the retro Christmas bedsheets, before putting on a large rabbit’s head which was sitting in the room to “feel Christmassy”. She finished by saying “I don’t think any of us were prepared for the extravaganza in this home”.
The family home was Miranda’s parents home so she has spent most of her life there, and she has owned the home since 1981, with lots of great Christmas memories gathered there since by the family.
She added: “Christmas and Halloween in equal measure are always a big deal here. My kids love Christmas, particularly when they were younger.
“I always wanted to give them a magical Christmas, special memories really. They still expect it now!
“Even when we lived abroad we always came back to this house for Christmas, so there are lots of great Christmas memories that were made in this house, like opening presents, having the tree up and just spending great times together as a family.
“I like the whole Christmas season, and I’m a big cook as well so I make all the Christmas foods including hampers.
“I love getting together at Christmas as a family, getting cosy, watching films together, making memories and spending time as a family.”
