Bicester Village … festive fun.
It’s official, Bicester Village have decreed that it’s time to get festive. From tomorrow (Thursday 6th November) visitors can experience the full on pageant of Christmas whilst shopping their socks off. With their Step Into The Story event running from this week until the big day, when Santa hitches his reindeer to the sleigh, guests get to sample a host of entertainment and yummy festive food pop-ups to keep them in a positive vibe, whilst ploughing through the trauma of Christmas shopping.
As part of the launch day fun on November 6th, guests are going to be treated to complimentary bubbly, mince pies and mulled wine in some of the boutiques. As well as storytelling for the little peeps from 4-6pm. The village is open until 9pm, and then on November 28th till midnight for a Black Friday frenzy.
Bicester Village – get the most out of your trip.
Last time I headed to Bicester was a few weeks back with sis-in-law, just before the Step into the Story fun kicked off. Having visited a number of times before, we took full advantage of the fab facilities on offer through the Visitor Centre suite.
First up – we signed up on their webiste to become members a few days before, so that we could stay up to date with special promotions and private sales – often these give you more money off selected brands when you shop.
On arrival we headed straight for the Valet Parking chaps, who were super swift with whisking our wheels away, leaving us free to potter about the shops without having to snag a parking spot…result!
We popped into their Visitor Centre just to grab a map and make a plan…
Then a quick coffee stop at Jamie Oliver’s retro Fabulous Feasts, before we set off with gusto to nail our Christmas lists.
There is plenty of opportunity to spend at Bicester Village with savings of up to 60% from brands like Diane Von Furstenberg, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen for starters. Accessories are awesome with the likes of Anya Hindmarch and Smythson to snoop at, whilst there are also pop-ups from Emma Bridgewater and Cowshed for the festive period.
Here’s a little something I almost fell for, but stepped away at the last minute…
There are plenty of places to sit and cogitate your buying strategy – we had a little pit stop at Carluccio’s with a table outside in the sun.
Even if you fail to find the perfect gift whilst you are there, you can always pick up their genius fall back idea – a gift card for that special someone who you just can’t figure out what to get… I feel a little tripette with hubs coming on…
We ran out of steam early afternoon, so were delighted to make use of the fab valet chaps once more, before heading back in time for the afternoon school-run to pick up our cherubs, and ferret our goodies away in secret hiding places.
If you aren’t driving to Bicester, it’s just as easy to hop on the train from Marylebone. For more intel head to their website here. But I also like to peek at the Chic Outlet Shopping magazine once in a while for great steers on what’s coming up.
They are also geared up for Tax-Free shopping if you’re heading here from abroad… take a peek here for more info.
Over the festive period they will also be donating £1 for every tweet tagged #BicesterGiving and @BicesterVillage to the Oxford Children’s Hospital, so you can even feel good about all those smug ‘bargain’ tweets you send to your buddies.