Who: Matthew Rose, 32, who runs MJR Vocal Tuition and Starlights Musical Theatre, his partner Stephen Summers, 38, who runs 6.1.0 Dance Academy, plus their adorable pugs, Harry and Isaac.
What: Candy Cane Lodge, a delightfully decorated home which is in the running for BBC Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year.
Where: Fraserburgh
Here’s what Matthew had to say about his festive home being in the running for Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year on BBC One Scotland…
“It’s mind-blowing and surreal to have our property feature on BBC One Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year.
I’ve watched the programme for a few years now and I never thought our home would be chosen to feature so it’s amazing, we can’t quite believe it.
I’ve always loved Christmas.
Starring in Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year…
Ironically, Christmas decorations weren’t really a huge thing in our house when I was growing up but I would drive my family nuts as I would bring the decorations out early and throw them up in my room.
I have fond memories of visiting my grandparents’ houses and loving all their decorations.
My dad, who was a taxi driver, would also take us round all the Christmas displays in Aberdeen.
‘Christmas decor helps me channel my creativity’
I remember being mesmerised and thinking one day I would decorate my house like that, and here we are.
My partner Stephen isn’t into Christmas as much as me to be honest but I couldn’t have asked for a better partner as he’s so patient, understanding and helpful with it all.
I’m quite a creative person so Christmas decor helps me to channel that.
For us, we want our property to feel immersive, so when you walk into a room there’s a theme.
The kitchen is a winter wonderland…
For example, this year, I’ve called the living room Santa’s living room because everything is mainly red and white.
From the living room you walk through a gingerbread/candy cane lane theme until little snowmen figures slowly start appearing.
In the kitchen, we’ve created a winter wonderland scene to complement its white decor.
For the music room, we wanted it to feel quite nostalgic and to feel like my childhood Christmas, so we’ve got lots of light-up figures.
It was actually quite difficult to find the light-up figures but I managed to source some on Facebook Marketplace.
I love getting things that are secondhand.
‘We have four big Christmas trees’
Throughout our home, we also have four decorated Christmas trees among many other little non-decorated trees.
We can’t use real Christmas trees due to the dogs so we use artificial ones – most of which we got online.
One of the Christmas trees is actually a huge 12 ft tree that we used for one of our musical theatre shows.
So I shortened it to make it fit in our living room and filled it in with all the other branches to make it look full.
‘No two baubles are the same’
And when it comes to Christmas baubles, we have a rule that no two baubles can be the same.
Over the years, we’ve collected Christmas baubles from all over the world including Japan, the west coast of America, Greece and Malta.
I also collect little objects like fridge magnets and make them into baubles.
When it comes to decorations, I love going to garden centres and also little independent local shops too as you can pick up some really lovely unique pieces.
‘Cars stop to admire our decorations’
Outside our home, we’ve used big red bulbs from Home Bargains and mixed them in with lights we already have.
I’ve also made a Christmas arch around the front door using a balloon arch I bought online and added some lights.
The outdoor decor is a big job but it’s definitely worth it.
Bringing cheer to local children
One of the nicest things is that sometimes you’ll be in the living room and cars will stop outside to look at our Christmas decorations.
It makes me think about when I was in the car as a kid looking at the decorations.
The other day, a really sweet thing happened as a man was walking past with his little kid who was just a toddler.
They stopped and the kid shouted: ‘Is that Santa’s house?’
It was very sweet and makes it all worthwhile.
We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved as it has come together really nicely.
For us, it will be very surreal but exciting to see our house on TV, especially as we’re huge fans of the show.”
Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year is on BBC One Scotland on Monday December 16 at 8pm and it will also be on BBC iPlayer
Conversation