Wicker, velvet, holly and gold. This year, Christmas slows down, glows warmer and feels like home, without the price tag of a Swiss chalet.
There’s a particular kind of Christmas many of us are quietly longing for this year. It isn’t about the latest colour trend or a tree that looks like it belongs in a department store window. It’s about the Christmas we remember: the crackle of the fire, the smell of pine, the good plates coming out of the cupboard, and a home that feels like a warm embrace the moment you step in from the cold.
Home Bargains seems to have read the room. Among its 2026 festive themes, Alpine Woods is a cosy, rustic look drawing on snowy chalets and woodland textures, pinecones, bark finishes, warm neutrals and handcrafted-style ornaments. It’s traditional in the best sense: rich, tactile and nostalgic. And because this is Home Bargains, you can dress an entire room for less than a single designer bauble.
The Alpine Woods look
The palette is deep forest green, berry red and burnished gold, softened with natural wicker, flocked textures and plush velvet. Nothing is too shiny or too perfect. This is a collection that wants to be touched, and it works just as well in a modern flat as it does in a period cottage, because the warmth comes from texture and colour rather than from the architecture.
The key is layering. Rather than buying one statement piece, build the look gradually: a few natural elements, a few velvet bows, a little gold to catch the firelight, and plenty of greenery to tie it together.
Dressing the tree
Start with bows and bells, the heart of any traditional tree. The 3 piece hanging bells with foliage and bows (£3.99) cascade beautifully down the branches, each gold bell tied with a sprig of greenery and a burgundy velvet bow. For something bolder, the hanging gold bell with velvet top bow is just £1.99. Its star cut-outs catch the light as it turns, so dot a few through the tree where the fairy lights will make them glow.
Then, at the base, the Alpine Woods Christmas Stripe Tree Skirt (£6.99) finishes the scene. Its red and cream ticking stripe framed with a plush red velvet border looks like something from a country house Christmas.
If you prefer an even more natural look, a wicker Christmas tree skirt also sits in the Festive Feeling range, and it’s a beautiful way to bring that woven, handmade texture right to the foot of the tree.
For the full showstopper, the staircase scene shows how far the collection can go. A 7ft premium tree (£69.99) is dressed in flocked baubles and a large double bow, with red willow and berry picks tucked through the branches. It stands in a wicker tree skirt (£9.99) in place of a fabric one. A faux pine garland winds up the banister, a hydrangea wreath hangs above, and gold metal reindeer and a large cow bell with bow stand guard at the foot of the stairs. It’s generous and layered, and it’s still a fraction of what you’d pay on the high street.
Wicker and natural textures
Wicker is having a genuine moment this Christmas, and for good reason. It brings an earthy, honest warmth that plastic simply can’t replicate. The Alpine Woods rattan hanging decorations, a bauble, a snowman and a little parcel, are just £1.99 each. Each one is topped with a sprig of pine and hung on a burgundy velvet ribbon, and they look far more expensive than they are.
For a statement piece, the Alpine Woods ski sledge (£9.99) is pure chalet charm. Lean it against a wall and hang a small wreath and a velvet bow from the slats, as above, or prop it by the front door to welcome guests. Add pinecones, sprigs of fresh or faux holly and a string of warm white lights, and you have a display that feels foraged rather than bought.
The rattan pieces everyone’s hunting for
If you’ve scrolled TikTok at all this autumn, you’ll have seen them. Two pieces from the Alpine Woods collection have become the must-haves of the season, and they’re selling out almost as soon as they reach the shelves.
The first is the Alpine Woods Rattan House Shaped Basket With Bow, at £6.99. It’s a little woven cottage in deep, dark rattan, complete with a pitched roof, tiny cut-out windows, a carry handle and an oversized burgundy velvet bow. Shoppers have been snapping it up as a ready-made Christmas Eve box. Tuck in new pyjamas, a festive film, hot chocolate and a good book, and you have a tradition in a basket. It’s just as lovely filled with pinecones and fairy lights on the hearth, or set under the tree with a wrapped gift inside. Once the decorations come down, slip off the bow and it becomes everyday storage for the rest of the year.
The second is the one that has shoppers doing laps of the Christmas aisle: the Alpine Woods Rattan Christmas Sleigh, at £9.99. With its curved rattan body, scrolled runners and a generous red velvet bow on the side, it looks like it has come straight off a Victorian Christmas card. Set it by the fireplace, line it with a tartan throw and pile it with parcels wrapped in brown paper and red ribbon. Or place it at the centre of the Christmas table, filled with clementines, walnuts and sprigs of holly. Similar handmade sleighs can cost a small fortune elsewhere, and that’s exactly why this one keeps disappearing.
Together they capture everything the Alpine Woods collection does so well: natural texture, rich velvet, and that warm, nostalgic feeling of a Christmas from another time.
A word of advice from those who’ve already been hunting: stock arrives in stages and varies from store to store. If either piece is on your list, check the Home Bargains app or website regularly and ask in store about delivery days. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
Setting a traditional table
Christmas dinner is where the Alpine Woods collection really comes into its own. The holly-covered plates are a gorgeous throwback to the festive china many of us remember from our grandparents’ homes: the plates that only came out once a year and made every meal feel like an occasion.
The dinner plates are £2.99, with side plates and bowls at £1.99 each, so you can set a full table for less than the cost of one designer place setting. Each is rimmed with a wreath of foliage and red berries. Layer them on the foliage placemats (£1.99), add red napkins tied with a scrap of tartan ribbon, and scatter pine cones and gold bells down the centre of the table. Candles in varying heights complete the picture. Suddenly, even a simple Boxing Day buffet of cold cuts and pickles feels like a feast.
By the fireside
No traditional Christmas is complete without a touch of nursery nostalgia, and the large rocking horse decoration (£49.99) is the collection’s heirloom-style centrepiece. It’s cream with a red rocker, a gold saddle bell and a painted garland on its saddle, and it’s the kind of piece children will remember sitting beneath the tree for years to come. Surround it with parcels wrapped in checked and striped paper. Then hang the faux velvet bow stockings (£2.99) from the mantel, with a matching sack (£4.99) for the overflow.
Bringing the warmth
The beauty of a traditional Christmas is that it isn’t really about the things at all. It’s about how a home feels when people gather in it. The Alpine Woods collection simply gives you the setting: a room that glows, a table that welcomes, and a tree that invites everyone to gather round.
So this year, dim the big light. Switch on the fairy lights. Set out the holly plates, hang the velvet bows and fill the stockings. Bring the warmth, and let Christmas feel like Christmas again.
Finishing touches
It’s the small things that pull a room together. A velvet stripe bow tree topper (£3.99) or, for real drama, the giant velvet stripe bow (£19.99) cascading down the tree. A 40cm pine table tree (£2.99) in a hessian sack for a windowsill or side table. The rattan style large nutcracker (£39.99) and rattan snowman (£6.99) bring the woven texture through. There are glitter baubles with velvet bows at £1.29, a large gold bell with bow at £7.99, and the sweet Alpine Woods Friends hanging decorations from £1.49. The warmth even reaches the bathroom, with a holly wreath bathmat (£5.99) and matching hand towel (£2.99).
Where to buy
The Alpine Woods collection is available in Home Bargains stores nationwide and online at Home Bargains. Prices start from 69p. It’s worth shopping early: Home Bargains doesn’t launch its whole Christmas range on a single national date, stock can arrive in stages, and individual stores may differ, so popular pieces may sell out before December.
Prices correct at the time of writing and may vary between stores and online. Product availability is subject to change.
