You might recall the festive post on ‘60 years of collecting Christmas decorations’ by Bishopstone resident, Geoff Stonebanks. Geoff has previously been named by ITV’s This Morning as possibly Britain’s Most Festive Man. He is a Christmas devotee extraordinaire.
Geoff received an interesting call from a local man in a nearby village, just before Christmas last year. Martin had read about Geoff’s interest in Christmas and wanted to offer him some items that he had carefully collected over many years that he no longer wanted. Needless to say, Geoff agreed to visit and see what Martin wanted to part with.
What a lovely surprise awaited him, with a wealth of beautiful mercury Christmas baubles and a small vintage tree to collect, all in very good condition. More importantly Martin did not want anything in return, just for the decorations to be appreciated and put on display again.
The most interesting piece in the whole collection however was a beautiful, vintage 1950’s BrimToy, mechanical wind-up Toy of a Fairy Queen, in excellent condition along with its original packaging too and in full working order. After some online research Geoff discovered the toy was manufactured in the late 1950’s by a British Manufacturer in Walthamstow. Brimtoy began as BMTM (British Metal and Toy Manufacturers) in 1914, with a factory in Hackney, London. BMTM continued until 1921, when the company was liquidated. From the ashes of BMTM arose Brimtoy, in 1923, continuing until 1932 when Brimtoy merged with (or more accurately, was absorbed by) Wells. Alfie Wells launched his toy company in 1919, from the Progress Works in Walthamstow, London. The well known trademark Wells O’ London was launched in 1924. When Brimtoy was acquired by Wells in 1932, Wells was the dominant partner and the factories were merged in Walthamstow, around 1938. Following the absorption of Brimtoy by Wells, the company continued to use both the Wells and Brimtoys names, as well as Wells Brimtoy. Wells Brimtoy continued to operate from Walthamstow until 1965, then moving to Holyhead (Anglesey, Wales), before being taken over (c1970) by the Central Manufacturing and Trading Group (CMT). The company continued trading as CMT Wells Kelo, in Holyhead, until the end of the 1980s.
In addition to the mercury baubles Martin offered other interesting pieces too, including the snow baby and Father Christmas pictured and some very pretty mercury table decorations too.
Checking out the snow Queen on eBay Geoff discovered identical toys selling for £99, not that he has any intention of selling this lovely little piece of Christmas.
An even more interesting feature of the donated collection was the discovery in one of the boxes of a Christmas postcard, dated 1922 (over 100 years ago), posted by little Jacques in New York to his dear little cousin, Genevieve, in Paris at Christmas 1922. “A bright and joyful Christmas is the wish I’m sending you.”
Quite an amazing find for something to have survived in such good condition all those years. The card has been carefully kept all year on display with Geoff’s other impressive collection of Christmas decorations at home.
One of Geoff’s favourite baubles in the 80 or so donated is this rather simple face of Father Christmas which really stands out on the tree.
Who knows what’s in store for Geoff and his collection in 2025, he and his Christmas decorations have appeared live on ITV’s This Morning 3 times, 2020, 2023 and 2024, featured in a C5 documentary, Incredible Christmas Trees and how to decorate them, had a film made for German nation TV back in 2022 as well as featuring live on Jeremy Vine and Sky News over the years.
Geoff was interviewed on 25th November for a feature and social media cover by Greatest Hits Radio in December and was interviewed by telephone for the Roz & Mocha Morning Breakfast show on Kiss FM in Toronto, Canada on the 28th November.
Look out for the daily posts on his social media, through December, with a different festive bauble posted as a daily advent calendar. You can see all the details of his collection, publicity and video of his 2025 decorations at http://www.geoffschristmas.co.uk
Celebrating Seaford 