Ho-ho-holy crap!
LONDON (AFP) – Christmas-mad Briton Andy Park has gobbled down 4,380 turkeys and 87,600 mince pies, given 21,900 presents and spent a fortune on an array of lights and decorations. The occasion? It’s Christmas for him, every single day.
Park, a 45-year-old electrician dubbed “Mr Christmas”, has been celebrating the December 25 holiday on a daily basis for the past 12 years.
His festive fetish has so-far cost an estimated 250,000 pounds (365,000 euros, 427,500 dollars).
The divorced father-of-one from Melksham in Wiltshire, southwest England, starts his day with a hearty breakfast of six mince pies and a turkey sandwich before heading off to work.
He finishes by 11:30am in order to start roasting a turkey — the traditional Christmas dish.
At 2:00pm he eats lunch and then pulls crackers, colourful paper tubes that typically adorn the Christmas table.
Crackers are meant to be pulled apart with a bang by two people, with the owner of the larger part receiving a paper hat and novelty goodie. Park, however, usually opens them — about a whopping 40 a day — on his own.
At 3:00pm he watches a video of
Queen Elizabeth II’s annual Christmas message to the Commonwealth, glass of sherry in hand.
Dinner is roast turkey with all the trimmings, including brussels sprouts, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy and mushy peas, as well as sherry and wine and a bottle of champagne.
He lays his present under the Christmas tree at 8:00pm. He gave himself a dinner jacket on Monday and a suit for Tuesday.
Park said he ignores his girlfriend, 44, and daughter, 20, when they call him a “crackpot”.
Though he estimates he’s spent a fortune celebrating Christmas every day, Park says he is suffering no signs of yuletide fatigue.
“I’ve been doing this for 12 years and I’m going to be doing it for another 12. I’ve never, ever got bored of it. I absolutely love Christmas,” he said.
He even insists on a full Christmas dinner if he goes to a restaurant or to a friend’s house for dinner.
Park reckons he has eaten one turkey a day, 20 mince pies a day, 26,280 roast potatoes (six a day), 30,660 stuffing balls (seven a day), 4,380 bottles of champagne (one daily), 4,380 bottles of sherry and 5,000 bottles of wine.
The daily Christmas feast initially made him balloon from 12.5 stone (79 kilogrammes) to 21 stone, but twice-weekly trips to the gym have brought his weight back down to 15.5 stone.
“I’ve also got through 36 ovens and 42 video recorders by watching the queen’s speech every day as well as Christmas films,” he said.
Park is hoping his love of Christmas can translate to the music charts when he releases a single on December 9.
“I want to be number one,” he said.
Fittingly entitled “It’s Christmas Every Day”, it follows his previous unsuccessful efforts like “The Christmas Man”, “Yuletide Oh Yeah”, and “Alleluia It’s Christmas”.