Year-Round Christmas at Gisela Graham’s South London Headquarters

Gisela Graham has been designing Christmas decorations for over 40 years, with her company’s bells and baubles sold globally and counting superstar Cher among its clientele. Despite its international presence, her firm, Gisela Graham London, originated from modest beginnings. “It’s become a cliché now of course, but I did literally begin the business at our kitchen table,” she informed the BBC. The German-born designer relocated to the capital in her twenties. After marrying and having two children, she expressed a desire to “do something creative,” leading her to start designing decorations for sale at craft fairs in the 1980s. She clarified, “For me, it was always going to be centred around Christmas as these were the first decorations that I had made as a child growing up in Germany.” She further elaborated on her childhood memories: “My mother and I crafted straw stars together and hung them on the tree year after year, and the sense of family and Christmas being indelibly entwined has remained with me ever since.” Ms. Graham’s enterprise officially commenced in 1983 at the Harrogate Fair, utilizing the family garage as a temporary storage facility for inventory. As orders increased, the company established its offices and showroom in 1992 within a converted stable block, situated amidst terraced houses near Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle, south London. The location was partly selected due to its superior transport connections. The building, which previously functioned as a Victorian hansom cab yard, was deemed especially fitting by Ms. Graham, who currently serves as the firm’s creative director. She stated, “Choosing a converted stable was ideal for a business initially centred around Christmas.” The company experienced sustained growth over time, producing decorations that were distributed to numerous retailers. Prior to its relocation to Walworth, it had already become the primary Christmas supplier for Liberty’s, a luxury London retailer. Subsequently, Gisela Graham London products were retailed through a diverse range of establishments, from “small one-shop businesses [to] garden centres and larger outlets.” Retailers globally, spanning from the US to Japan, also commenced stocking the company’s merchandise. Ms. Graham remarked, “We even have one lovely independent store customer in Kyiv who is still ordering for Christmas every year.” The company recently established its own online store, enabling direct purchases by consumers. To meet this demand, novel products are conceived anew for each Christmas season, with manufacturing occurring significantly ahead of time. Ms. Graham stated, “We’ve already made a start on Christmas 2026.” She added, “It takes a long time to join all the separate strands of design and production together.” Upon completion, the items are arranged in custom-designed displays within the company’s showroom, accessible for viewing by customers and clients throughout the year. This location has previously drawn notable visitors, including singer and actor Cher, who made a shopping visit in 1997. The designer clarified, “We had become one of the main Christmas suppliers to Liberty London about 10 years earlier and I believe Cher had first seen our Christmas designs there on a trip to England.” She further expressed, “We were over the moon when she placed an order.” Ms. Graham, who has dedicated her career to conceiving novel decoration concepts, stated that her “personal preferences are a reflection of how I was raised” when it pertains to her own residence. She elaborated, “I like a lot of natural elements, greenery and good old-fashioned Scandi influences such as nutcracker ornaments and plenty of wooden decorations.” Her upbringing also shapes the celebration of Christmas Day, with her family central to the festivities. She explained, “We tend to stick to the same family traditions of a big meal on Christmas Eve, which is a throwback to being raised in Germany, with a few presents then too.” She added, “It’s marvellous really because it means that we get to do it all again the next day too.” Nevertheless, should she desire additional festive cheer at any other point, her own business premises remain an option. “A tiny part of south London is Christmas all year round.”