Jingle sells: Ice rinks and golden baubles on the wishlist as Christmas decorators report best year yet

Live reindeer, ice rinks and 22 carat-gold Christmas tree baubles – these are the extravagances on offer as wealthy homeowners increasingly turn to interior designers to decorate their houses this festive season.

For a growing number of the rich and famous, gone are the days of struggling to put up the tree with the children.

Instead, they are hiring decorators to do it for them – often for tens of thousands of pounds.

"I’m getting an enquiry approximately once every two minutes," said Ged Comerford, a director at The Christmas Decorators.

"Back in our first year in 2005 we had turnover of £37,000 on our residential decorating business – this year it’s set to hit £2m, which would be our best turnover yet."

The designers themselves believe that social media is fuelling the surge in demand for ‘uber-decoration’, as affluent Instagram users seek to dazzle their friends, neighbours and followers with a jaw-dropping Christmas display.

Anne Wall, who runs a company called My Interior Design School, said: "A decade ago you would have your florists that you go to for a wreath and a tree. They would bring it in and take it away. Now, because of Instagram, people are wanting much more and styling much earlier. They need to be the first ones to upload the photos of their Christmas decorations.

"If you’ve got a lot of Instagram followers you’ve got to have the best thing, and people now want live reindeer, sledges, even ice rinks. For some of the top end celebs, they don’t know where they’re going be [for Christmas] so they get all their houses done, whether they’re in Verbier or London."

Designers say the trend is also an effect of some people becoming more and more cash rich and time poor. "When you’re not cleaning your own pool or feeding your own pony, you’re not going to put up your own Christmas lights," Comerford added.

Some requests from homeowners are verging on the outlandish, he said. "We’ve Santas turning up in sleighs with reindeers and even 22 carat gold baubles…But while lots of these people are football players and famous singers, they don’t have to be rich and famous, it’s just the type of lifestyle that people increasingly want."

Helene Webb, who started her festive decoration company Cardinal Christmas after the financial crash a decade ago, agrees.

"It’s not just the rockstars and billionaires any more, we are seeing lots of clients who have a big home where they bring us in to make it look fabulous," she observed.

"That said, customers range from footballers and foreign buyers to older ladies that can’t manage a 12ft tree by themselves….Once I was even phoned by a Russian oligarch on Christmas Eve who wanted us to decorate his castle.

"In the industry people are spending spend £3,000-£4000 at the lower end and right up to £15,000-£20,000."

One interior designer serving many of London’s high end rich and famous even told Morning Wire that last year that they had served a famous music manager and media personality who spent roughly £35,000 on decorating their home.

Trevor Abrahmsohn, who sells luxury properties in North London, said that his wealthy clients were turning to greater festive extravagances in search of solace: "The more miserable people are getting with current politics and economics, the more they’re wanting to immerse themselves in the surreal world of luxury entertainment."

He added: "In one house I sold there is even a snow room now, with snow falling down from the ceiling. Some of these people also have huge ballrooms which they are getting people to decorate out as a winter paradise with 15ft trees. These people play and work at the high end, and their pre-xmas parties are becoming an institution as much as anything else, both for corporate and domestic functions."