'I closed my Shropshire all-year-round Christmas café weeks before December 25'

A woman who celebrated Christmas every day closed down her all-year-round festive café just weeks before December 25 after seeing business costs spiral and the decline of the high street.

Kim Warren, 42, had opened up a Yuletide café as an extension to her Little Christmas Shop which she also runs in Ironbridge, Shropshire. But despite being awarded a Pride In Our High Street award for her business she took the difficult decision to close the popular shop after six years.

Kim, who announced the difficult decision to close the business in October, said: "The high street is changing and it's very hard out there. When you add up utility bills, rent and insurances it costs a lot of money. It's difficult to survive on the high street, I think I might have been OK as I had a lot of good customers, but I wanted to get out before it could get any worse. 

"I really love Christmas - you have to in order to run an all year round Christmas shop - but it consumed my life every day. And given the nature of the business we weren't actually able to enjoy a proper Christmas with family as we were too busy working. 

"We lost a couple of family members this year and it has made us realise what is important to us. We've downsized our house and we're going to upgrade our van and go travelling around Europe now. I'm really happy now. 

"When we opened people said we wouldn't last five minutes so I'm proud of what we achieved."

Kim to continue to sell Christmas products online

However, there is some good news for fans of the shop as Kim is keeping part of her business active online.

She said: "I've decided to move all online and enjoy more of a work life balance. I'm still doing Christmas fairs but I'm not celebrating Christmas every day anymore.

"The food side of the business really took over our time too, I preferred the retail side, which is what we're focusing on now online selling Christmas products."

The all-year-round Christmas store had become well known across the country for its festive food, coffee, and Christmas treats available throughout the year. Kim had sold mince pies, Christmas pudding, fruit cakes and turkey and cranberry sandwiches with all the trimmings whatever the season or weather. And ironically the only day of the year she would close was December 25.

Despite having festive tunes blaring all day long she previously told how she and her staff never get bored of them as they all "absolutely love" Christmas.

She said: "Why not have Christmas all year. Everyone loves Christmas and it’s something different and I thought gap in the market and it worked."