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Whether you want to take a few selfies for social media or just capture some special memories of the holidays, Carmen Croxall has you covered.
The 36-year-old from Devon in the UK has created a Christmas SelfieLand featuring 20 selfie stations filled with colourful props and decorations.
READ MORE| This UK woman is the ultimate Christmas prepper – she's already cooked her festive feast!
Her festive photo-op spot includes a Willy Wonka-style chocolate factory, a giant gingerbread house and a candy corner.
There's also a snowy Narnia-style enchanted forest, a toy town filled with giant nutcrackers, a towering Christmas tree made from toys and a North Pole post office.
Carmen has always loved the holidays. She made headlines last year when she transformed her home into a giant gingerbread house but this year she’s taken it one step further.
“People used my house to take photos so much last year – at one point there were six cars queued up outside with their windows down and phones out,” she says.
“As so many people came to visit it last year, I was inspired to build a Christmas SelfieLand at my warehouse down the road with 20 Christmas-themed photo opportunities. I felt like there was a massive demand for it."
Carmen spent £25 000 (R575 000) to set up her Christmas SelfieLand, which took her team of 40 people about 14 weeks to complete.
Christmas is not the only thing this crafty mom-of-two gets excited about.
She celebrates every season by decorating the front of her house.
In February, she created a five-meter tall display for Valentine’s Day.
“It was just a big tumbling, cascade of giant love heart sweets. I wasn’t going to do a Valentine’s Day display but so many people asked so I thought I might," she says.
For Easter, she spent £900 (R20 700) to make her rented home appear as though it was made of chocolate. It took her five weeks to make massive chocolate bricks, 12 huge daffodils, a picket fence and an Easter bunny.
"A giant chocolate bunny was a definite and some giant Easter eggs, but I got stuck for more ideas as adding more sweets made it feel too much like the gingerbread house."
Carmen used fibreboard to create giant love heart sweets for Valentine's Day and the 200 chocolate squares that covered her home for Easter.
Although her decorations have gained attention, not everyone is impressed.
"Last year, my neighbour's landlord – not even mine – drove past when I was up a ladder and shouted at me, saying he didn't like it and that he owned the house next door.”
She also received some negative comments online, including one that said she had ruined her house.
“As it is rented, people on TikTok said I was disrespectful to my landlord, but I did ask his permission, and he saw it in person when he came to do the annual gas safety check.”
Carmen isn't letting naysayers stop her from bringing a little joy to the world and plans to go even bigger and better with next year's Christmas display.
SOURCES: THEMIRROR.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, INSTAGRAM.COM, THESUN.CO.UK, METRO.CO.UK, DEVONLIVE.COM
