The Making of The Booths Christmas Book

Written on November 2nd, 2017

Most of us are just beginning to think about Christmas; which centerpiece will feature at the feast this year, stocking up on chocolates, wines and spirits in anticipation of the big day. Picking up little gifts here and there and planning what to get for loved ones. But here at Booths Christmas isn’t just for Christmas, it’s all year round.

Many of you wait in anticipation of our beautiful Christmas book, and this year we’ve decided to give you a little insight into how it comes to life. As January begins and many of you are turning over a new and healthy leaf, we’re already hard at work on the next Christmas.

It all starts with gathering customer feedback and reviewing how you all felt about the Christmas just past; we want to make sure the range of festive foods we bring to you the following year are even better than the year before.

December We start the conversation about what we’d do differently, and delve into our customer research to make sure we’re keeping the customer firmly at the heart of our plans.

January-March Both our buyers and Booths brand teams are already busy organising their Christmas range of products with suppliers, and making their decisions on what the range will be, based on the work done during December.

Design concepts for the book begin, the customer at the centre of the design journey. Our design team carefully considers how customers need to use the book to get the most from it, as well as considering design trends such as colour, style and layouts so that the final book is as beautiful, useful and as edible looking as can be. Keeping all of this in mind, initial sketches are created to begin the concept.

Bell’s of Lazonby product development, Melting Middle Pudding tasting, Our Own Brand Team with their tasting trolleys (they develop our amazing range of Booths own products), Sharing sausage roll tasting

April The Christmas range decisions have all been made, and we get into the fun part – the tasting panels. These are held to decide which products will star in the book. It’s a hard job to be locked in a room tasting puddings, turkey and cheese all day! These decisions are made based on popular items from previous years, requests from customers previously, trends in the marketplace and obviously ensuring everything is unique, local or exciting.

May Once the list of products is agreed; the design direction and flow of the book is agreed, then each and every delicious image is planned in immaculate detail, from the lighting to the knives and forks. The logistics of sourcing all of the Christmas products to photograph also begins – no easy feat! The copywriter is briefed.

June – August The all-important cover is developed from concept with our illustrator partner, and the exciting decisions are made on foiling, colours and materials. The photo shoot is then carried out across a number of weeks during the summer – so we’re all enjoying mince pies and turkey with all the trimmings during the glorious British Summer weather. Whilst the photo shoot is happening we’re also busy developing recipes and interviewing our suppliers and colleagues for their editorials.

Eddy guarding the wines on set, Eddy overseeing the set construction, Sticky chocolate fingers cutie pie (take a look at very end of your book), A festive spread on set

Once we have the photography and copy all wrapped up, the book goes into the hands of our expert artwork team under the guidance of our designer, to produce the final design and layout ready for print. Then all of team Booths HQ are roped in to proof, proof and proof again!

Selfie with Mr Edwin & our designer Laura, Shooting on location at the farm, Shooting at HQ with Nina

September It’s finally time for the book to go off to print, with our designer accompanying it to give it final checks as it comes off press.

Our designer Laura signs off on press, The book being printed

November The book lands in store for you all to enjoy!

Click here to view the online version, or tap the button below to take a browse in the online shop.