Lisa Maree

Has anyone successfully shipped Christmas decorations featuring twiggy pineconey bits and not had them destroyed by MAF or should I just accept they have to go in the charity shop pile??

Damson

I have no doubt at all that the reply will come back as no I'm afraid. Pine cones I understand they are very strict about. The question is, if they do take action against an item(s) I believe you have to pay, so is it worth it? We won't be risking it and will be weeding stuff out in January when we put it all back in the loft. One less job to worry about later in the year!

Kotare

If you put Xmas decorations on the form it rings their bells, so they open that up and then..... Eg if you bring xmas lights list as led lights otherwise dump it as their nspection costs etc are high.

escapedtonz

Give em away. It's not worth the hassle.

SSky

I've told this story many times.
We were unaware but whilst having a cup of tea at the neighbours our shippers packed the bottom half of our welsh dresser into the container (it was not supposed to go) It was full of Xmas decorations, including pine cones, a couple of half full tins of paint and some dirty washing lol. The top half of the welsh dresser was still screwed to the inside of our garage wall where we left it when we moved out.
It all arrived safe an sound in NZ :-/ but no, you shouldn't bring pine cones with you, MAF gets a bit grumpy over stuff like that.

Lisa Maree

Thanks everyone, I was hoping this was some kind of urban myth and MAF were rational and understanding of commercially produced pineconery... never to mind... looks like I'll have to part ways with my lovely faux Christmas tree too as it has fake pinecones on it ((sob))

Damson

Aw. Still your loss is a charity shop/school/old folks home's gain.

scrubbedexpat094

If they are fake pine cones then it shouldn't be a problem. I have some Christmas decorations with fake pine cones that never raised an eyebrow from customs coming through the post.

Justcol

believe me you'll get here and wonder what happened to xmas
it seems to disappear in the heat of summer never to be seem again

SSky

I wonder that every Xmas, it just feels wrong in the heat of summer. June and July here are the times I get a strong urge to get the fairy lights out and snuggle down with a Baileys and a Christmas movie.

SSky

I remember one year buying an Xmas tree and a sun parasol in the same shopping trip and feeling very flat about it all. I'd like to not bother with an Xmas tree anymore as it feels so wrong but my boys won't let me.

escapedtonz

Yeah, all the excitement has gone out of Christmas being that it's now in the sun. It does seem wrong to have a Christmas tree and decorations up in summer. There's hardly any time to have the fairy lights on. Gone are the days of driving the kids around the streets looking at people's Christmas displays cos by the time the sun goes down it's way past bed time. Also no snuggling up on the sofa with mince pies and Bailey's watching Christmas movies cos it's too damn warm
But hey, it's a small price to pay for not living in the UK

RobDon

We just cut our pine cones off and still brought the Christmas tree. It was opened and inspected but no problems at all.

mickey_d

Ours was opened and inspected, all fine as we knew it was. We never bothered checking when it arrived, but come December we found half of them were missing!!

Snap Shot

I remember buying a fake Christmas Tree and a couple of garden chairs from the same shop at the same time and thinking 'only in New Zealand !'

I'll always remember how hot it was as I loaded them into the boot of my car.

Christmas does seem flat in the Summer. I dread it coming as Christmas in the summer is another Christmas wasted.

However, a bbq and Pimms on Christmas Eve seems to take the edge off it somehow !

I take the view that it's daylight in Britain for most of the day on Christmas Day anyway. So, bright sunshine on tinsel and the tree lights twinkling in daylight is not unheard of in Britain.

Our movers advised us that the real pine cones had to be removed from the fake Christmas Tree prior to packing before leaving Britain.

That was before they found mouse droppings in the Fridge/Freezer in the garage so we couldn't pack it so I took it to the local dump on move day. Such fun !