The Ideal Home Exhibition

I managed to get two free tickets to the Ideal Home Show at Christmas at the Event City location opposite the Trafford Centre. They should have cost £20. David I set off early so that we could be there for when it opened and avoid the mad crush that these things can often be.

We stayed for around 2 hours and I think this was adequate time for us to have a look around the exhibition and the attached Cake & Bake show. Two shows for the price of just one ticket! There were Carol singers on arrival surrounded by white sparkling Christmas trees. I loved this Minions Christmas Cake too.

There were stalls aplenty selling everything from wine to hot tubs. We bought 5 blocks of speciality cheeses for Christmas (they are all best before March 2017) for £10 and 6 bottles of the most delicious Prosecco which is being delivered on Tuesday. These cost us just £39 and we also got two small bottles free which will be great for taking on a day trip out sometime. 

We did not buy anything else because we don't really need anything and the prices are nowhere near as cheap as you can find on a carboot sale. Some of the Christmas decorations and homeware were just wonderful but they are always eye wateringly expensive at these shows. This did not seem to stop people buying at there were quite a few people laden down with bags.

There were bars, restaurants and plenty of food and drink stalks dotted all over the show. We grazed our way around some of the stalls sampling cheese, cake, biscuits, wine and liqueurs.

I loved the little photo opportunity areas that they had dotted around.

There were talks and displays on wine tasting, how to effectively cook your turkey etc. We were not too bothered about these although they certainly were well attended.

We loved our visit and would certainly visit again. It really got us in the festive mood although I don't know whether I would pay for full price tickets to attend as although it was very interesting the majority of it was trader stalls. Lovely to look around but I felt like it needed a little more somehow.