Daily christmas costs man half million dollar in 12 years

Christmas fanatic aims to top festive charts

A MAN who has spent £250,000 ($430,000 US) celebrating Christmas daily for 12 years is releasing a single.

The new song by hit-hungry crooner Andy Park, aka Mr Christmas, is fittingly called It’s Christmas Every Day. [Christmas Every Day - the book]

Since “becoming Mr Christmas” in 1993, the 45-year-old electrician has eaten 109,500 sprouts. He devours 25 of them with a full roast-turkey dinner daily before watching a recording of the Queen’s speech, sherry in hand.

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years and I’m going to be doing it for another 12. I’ve never, ever got bored of it. I absolutely love Christmas,” he said.

But despite his year-round festive joy, his number one Christmas wish remains sadly unfulfilled.

“I would love to sing just one song with Des O’Connor, but so far Santa hasn’t delivered on this one,” said Mr Park, of Melksham, Wiltshire.

He continued: “It’s Christmas Every Day is BBC Radio 2 style. It’s very professional: the video features Mike Reid and the producer was Andy Whitmore, who has worked with Peter Andre. I want to be number one.”

So deep is his love for Christmas that, over 12 years, he reckons he has consumed 4,380 turkeys (one a day), 87,600 mince pies (20 a day), 2,190 pints of gravy (half a pint a day), 26,280 roast potatoes (six a day), 30,660 stuffing balls, 219,000 mushy peas, 4,380 bottles of champagne, 4,380 bottles of sherry and 5,000 bottles of wine.

He has given 21,900 presents, mainly to himself, and spent £12,000 ($20,000 US) on lights and effects. “I’ve spent about £250,000 celebrating Christmas for the past 12 years,” he said. “I’ve also got through 36 ovens and 42 video recorders by watching the Queen’s speech as well as Christmas films.” His daily routine consists of breakfast - six mince pies and a turkey sandwich - then doing his work as an electrician until about 11.30am when he returns home to cook his roast.

Lunch is at 2pm. Crackers - 40 a day (175,200 over 12 years) - are then pulled, usually on his own. A video of the Queen’s speech is played at 3pm. And at 8pm he lays his presents under the Christmas tree.

Yesterday, he gave himself a dinner jacket. Today he is getting a suit, he said. His girlfriend, Janet Lancaster, 44, and his daughter, Caz, 20, call him a “crackpot”, he said. “If I go to a restaurant or a friend’s for dinner, even abroad, I insist on a full Christmas dinner,” he said. [Southern Living Our Best Christmas Recipes]