A festive Christmas at Hillier

Hillier Garden Centres is getting ready for a busy festive season, with a packed programme of Christmas events, seasonal experiences and retail offerings planned across its portfolio. 

The Christmas programme will officially get underway with three special evening events, designed to give customers the opportunity to enjoy festive displays and Christmas shopping after hours. The first, the Christmas Launch Night on 3 November, will mark the start of the season, followed by dedicated Festive Food and Christmas Shopping evenings at select centres, throughout November and December. 

Christmas trees will arrive at the centres towards the end of November, with thousands of UK-grown trees available for customers to choose from, alongside exclusive discounts available for Hillier Gardening Club members. 

Food and drink will take centre stage this year, with the Hillier restaurants serving a seasonal festive menu throughout the Christmas period. Customers can enjoy festive two-course lunches or a Christmas afternoon tea, providing an opportunity to turn Christmas shopping into a full, festive day out. 

The Hillier programme of Christmas workshops and experiences will also return, including its wreath-making workshops. The workshops have already proved highly popular, with some sessions selling out ahead of the festive season, demonstrating continued demand for hands-on Christmas experiences led by Hillier experts. 

Following its success last year, Breakfast with Santa will also return, offering families the chance to enjoy a festive breakfast and meet the man himself. 

Carl Milton, Retail Director at Hillier, who brings a wealth of retail experience, said: “Christmas is such an important and exciting time in the garden centre calendar, and we’re looking forward to bringing a really strong programme of events and experiences to our customers this year. 

“We hope visitors will be impressed by the breadth of our Christmas offering and the passion of our teams to creating memorable experiences in all our centres. From our evening events and Christmas trees through to our restaurants, workshops and family experiences, we've created a programme designed to give customers plenty of reasons to visit Hillier and return throughout the festive season. 

“We know that customers are looking for more when Christmas shopping, and our aim is to make Hillier a destination where they can enjoy the full festive experience.” 

With its combination of Christmas retail, events, food and family experiences, Hillier is expecting another strong festive season across its garden centre portfolio. 

For further information about Hillier and its Christmas events, visit www.hillier.co.uk. 

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Editors notes

“To inspire the creation of green living spaces for now and the future” Hillier is one of the leading names in the horticultural industry, with 160 years of growing and retail experience.

Founded in 1864 by Edwin Hillier, the company remains a family-run nursery with the fifth generation now actively involved in the family business as it continues to grow.

Not only is Hillier the largest producer of semi-mature trees in Europe and grower of over one million plants at its Hampshire nursery, but it also employs over 750 staff across its nursery, amenity trees and 22 garden centre divisions and is a flourishing multi-million pound company. It proudly holds the world record for the most consecutive gold medals awards at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with 74 wins.

As one of the leading growers in the UK, Hillier is involved in many peat-free initiatives, including the RHS Peat-Free Fellowship, the largest peat-free collaborative research project globally. The company was amongst the first nurseries to become 100% peat-free across both its production nursery and retail garden centres, and all Hillier plants are grown in peat-free compost.

Recent successes for the company include the launch of its online shop, the substantial redevelopment of Hillier Garden Centre Newbury and the acquisition of the Rosebourne Garden Centre Group in November 2022, as well as sponsorship of BBC Gardeners’ World Live and BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, and the incredibly popular free ‘Hillier Gardening Club’ loyalty program which now has over half a million members.

Renowned for being a leading breeder of plants in the UK at its 100% peat-free nursery in Hampshire, each year Hillier introduces amazing new varieties. Many of these have become essentials in British gardens and the company continues with the tradition of innovation and the introduction of new garden plants in the present day.