A CREATIVE Christmas fanatic has stunned the internet with her “100% homemade, 99% free” Ho Ho Home – made from old pallet wood and tester paint.
Joanna Sands has spent four years creating an entire Christmas village in the garden of her home.
The display already featured a church, nativity, and gingerbread house as well as thousands of lights.
For this year, the 38-year-old has added a Christmas bakery scene at her home in Swanley, Kent.
The mum of four reckons she has spent just £20 on the new feature and no more than £100 since she started.
Joanna admits that she and husband David, a mechanic, are Christmas-mad.
Video shared by Joanna shows all of the couple’s creations, which include the bakery, a Nativity scene, gingerbread house and church complete with stained glass windows.
As the video begins, Joanna films the bakery as “I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day” by Wizard plays in the background.
She holds the camera up to the bakery’s perspex window to reveal a trove of “baked” goods – made from salt dough and polyfiller.
She zooms out showing the bakery’s hand painted sign that reads: “Come in we’re open.”
Next up is a gingerbread house festooned in fairy lights complete with fake icing, candy canes and a gingerbread man stood outside.
The camera pans round to reveal a snowy church with bell tower and a set of carolers outside.
Finally is the nativity scene which began Joanna’s tradition, again adorned with twinkling lights.
A delighted Joanna took to Facebook to share her creations.
She posted the video with the caption: “Our home made xmas display made from free pallets and offcuts of wood and paint tester pots added the lights we had already.
“A lot of time and effort, but was worth it. Each year we add a new building this year was the bakery. 100 % home made and 99% free.”
Joanna’s post, which has clocked up more than 4,000 likes, has stunned social media users.
One woman wrote: “Oh wow, children’s paradise to see this.”
Another added: “Oh wow the little house is sooooo pretty, well done.”
One woman said: “I love that.I know what my partners doing next year with the broken pallets from work.”
And one user wrote: “This is next level Christmas crazy.”
Speaking today, Joanna said: “We started by making the nativity one year with some old pallets we had and off cuts of wood. My husband does the building part.
“We design it together and I cut the characters out of wood then paint them. We really liked it and had lots of children coming to see it, so the following year we made the gingerbread house and did same thing again.
“Every August we start building and creating. It’s all painted with any paint we can get emulsion, gloss, acrylic then yacht varnish over the top. Each year we give it all touch up and add a new thing.
“Next year we hope to add a Christmas cottage or toy shop. We have some things already like an old rocking horse and some wooden toys.
“After Christmas we take it all apart plank by plank and store it. It’s a long process as we have to fit it in between work and our kids, but they enjoy helping too.
“It’s been about £100 over the years, excluding lights which we had because we are Christmas mad!
“I’m glad people like it and its given them ideas on what they can do without spending lots or any money. I didn’t expect it to go quite as far as it has online.”
