20 November 2023 , 10:03
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Festive-mega fans who simply can't get enough of Christmas can visit a café where it is December 25 every day.
Businesswoman Kim Warren is so crackers for Christmas she has opened Britain's first all-year-round festive café. The 40-year-old sells mince pies, Christmas pudding, fruit cakes and turkey and cranberry sandwiches with all the trimmings whatever the season.
The self-confessed Christmas lover opened the Yuletide café as an extension to the Little Christmas Shop which she also runs. Ironically, the only day of the year Kim shuts up shop is December 25 when she puts her feet up with her family at home in Ironbridge, Shropshire.
Despite having festive tunes blaring all day long, Kim claims she and her staff never tire of them. Her favourite is Mariah Carey's classic hit 'All I want for Christmas is You.' The café offers a Christmas themed afternoon tea filled with turkey, brie and cranberry sandwiches with Christmas cake for £24.99.
Kim said: "Why not have Christmas all year? Everyone loves Christmas and it’s something different and I thought gap in the market and it worked. I had a smaller shop and I felt like I needed to expand so I moved to a bigger shop.
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Kim blasts out Christmas tunes all day, every day (Anita Maric / SWNS)"I do festive food all year round. This is the first one to do Christmas food and decorations all year round. We’re serving turkey, mince pies, and Christmas cake. We do adapt a little throughout the year.
"We have bakers who do it from scratch. We’ve been here seven weeks now but the Christmas shop is what we originally started with. We do more classical jazz music throughout the year and then Christmas music. We do sometimes start playing the favourites. We don’t really take notice of the music because we’re busy. It’s like white noise. We have our favourites, but we are always on our feet and busy."
Kim says a lot of her customers are tourists and that her business is booming after an emerging trend which sees holidaymakers buying souvenir Christmas presents.
She said: "It's very popular, we’ve got a local following so we see repeat tourists. Back in the day people used to collect magnets and spoons, but now people buy Christmas decorations. We opened the shop three years ago and people said we wouldn't last five minutes.
"But they love us. There is a trend to get a Christmas present from wherever you go, so we have the tourists who come to Ironbridge and locals who visit regularly, too. I did not think I would grow out of the old shop but we did. People love it here, they come in and film the place for their social media."
Kim is always careful to make sure she has a year long supply of pigs and blankets fully stocked by ordering them in January. She added: "You have to just be very, very organised. Everything gets ordered in January, we try to support small independents. It’s something different, no one has got that in the UK. People still come down here on holiday and all the tourists come in. Our biggest seller is a local wooden tree that’s made from the local wood. It’s handmade by a local man called Mike. In the festive tea room our best seller is our festive afternoon tea."