BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Podcast · Immediate Media

Festive traditions, with Frances Tophill

December 18, 2025·36 min·3 clips

Frances reveals her German family's Advent stripper tradition, where you open a string of presents each morning leading up to Christmas.

This episode explores festive gardening traditions and winter rituals with Gardener's World presenter Frances Tophill. Host Oliver Parsons welcomes Tophill to discuss bringing seasonal cheer to the darker months through plants and customs. The conversation centers on personal traditions, practical projects, and the horticultural significance of the Christmas period. Frances Tophill describes her family's German Christmas traditions, including an Advent calendar string of presents called an "Advent stripper" and lighting candles on an Advent Kranz. She explains a gardening adage that Christmas Day is the last day to plant bulbs and the first day to prune roses. Tophill recounts making elaborate festive decorations for a meditation retreat center, planning different botanical themes for each room. She details using juniper as a base for garlands due to its sprawling blue-green branches and recommends foraging climbers like ivy or honeysuckle for wreath frameworks. Tophill discusses the dilemma of choosing a real versus artificial Christmas tree and her efforts to keep potted trees alive after the holidays. She shares a story of decorating a tree with adults with learning disabilities, emphasizing creative joy over aesthetics. The conversation covers festive plants like poinsettias and amaryllis, which Tophill approaches cautiously due to their indoor lifespan. She suggests making homemade gifts like sloe gin, rosehip syrup, or hop-filled sleep pillows, which require preparation months in advance. Post-Christmas gardening jobs include beginning the winter cutback of dormant plants like roses, wisteria, and apple trees. Tophill connects the timing of Christmas to the winter solstice, historically marking the return of longer days for agricultural societies. She finds the scent of specific plants, like juniper or warmed hops, integral to the festive atmosphere. Tophill reveals her personal conflict as a tree advocate who annually buys a cut Christmas tree, striving to source locally. She advocates for decorating with foraged evergreens and berries like holly, butcher's broom, or the dusky-pink fruits of *Cornus kousa*. A surprising tip involves pickling green walnuts in late June for a gourmet homemade gift. Tophill notes that houseplants can be moved into more prominent winter positions and often benefit from summering outdoors. She emphasizes that the "perfect" Christmas involves a walk outdoors to counteract stir-craziness, especially in her mother's countryside-adjacent home. The tone is warm, conversational, and nostalgic, reflecting a shared enthusiasm for seasonal rhythms. The style is educational yet personal, blending practical gardening advice with anecdotal storytelling. Listeners who enjoy cozy, festive preparation and DIY natural decor will find this episode brimming with inspiration. Those seeking highly technical gardening instruction or debates on commercial holiday practices might find the focus too broad or tradition-oriented.

As heard by us

A gentle Christmas garden chat that turns small winter jobs into seasonal ritual.

The episode treats festive gardening as both practical work and seasonal ritual: making natural wreaths, feeding the birds, sowing onions, and bringing a little foliage indoors.

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Why you'd press play

For a calm Christmas listen with winter garden jobs and a few seasonal rituals.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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