Wendy van Dijk has stopped bringing a real Christmas tree into her home during the holidays. She bought an artificial tree because one of her members turned out to be allergic to Christmas trees.
It’s almost Christmas and they have decorated everything in the Van Dijk house again. Wendy van Dijk used to always bring a real Christmas tree into the house, but they have stopped doing that. An artificial tree not only has practical advantages, she explains The Telegraphbut due to an allergy, a real tree was no longer possible.
Fake tree
Wendy actually has no choice anymore. “I now have a fake tree, because my son Sem is allergic to just about everything, including needles,” said the SBS 6 presenter. “By the way, that tree always stays up for a long time, until almost mid-January, because I find it so cozy.”
That’s an advantage of a fake tree, she says. “The tree can only be planted the day after Sinterklaas. Then it will last; I have had to buy a new one during the Christmas period because all the needles have already fallen.”
Christmas socks
This is the first year that Christmas is more important than Sinterklaas in the Van Dijk home. “Sinterklaas was always my thing. Even though the children are grown up now, we kept it up for a long time, complete with putting on shoes. But this year we have said that we are distancing ourselves from it and going all out for Christmas.”
They really go completely over the top. “My daughter Lizzy had already decided that we should put Christmas stockings under the tree or hang them on the fireplace, because yes, we keep presents in them.”
Long dinner
While Linda de Mol has already prepared an entire Christmas dinner – which has earned her fierce criticism from animal lovers – Wendy does things a little differently. “Last year we divided the meal; everyone made something, from an appetizer to a dessert.”
She concludes: “We Van Dijken are not long table eaters, we are too mobile for that, so this was good form where we could get up in between.”