The Garlic Tree at Christmas

Season's greetings to all!

Christmas is a favourite time of year for many, myself included. And a big part of the festive period is decorating your home for the holidays. In Restaurant Story this obviously extends to the lavish decorating of our diners for Christmas, so here's a look at how I've got my restaurant, The Garlic Tree, decked out for this very special time...

As usual when I decorate for special occasions, I've not changed the layout of my place drastically, but simply swapped out a few items here and there to make for a festive feel. Take the foyer section for example. I've combined a few things from both this year and previous, with the Holiday Choir overlooking the super cute Mistletoe Kiss:

Christmas themed foyer section of The Garlic Tree

Both of those are 2012 items, with the Holiday Choir being the final goal prize. I remember the Mistletoe Kiss very well - it cost me 14 gems and was bought just before Christmas as a little treat to myself! Those two romantics are standing in front of the Holiday Fireplace, which is among the selection of old festive pieces brought back for a limited time, as was the Snowy Christmas Tree. At 10 gems I think the fireplace is a bargain, and having passed on it last year felt that now was the time to pick it up.

The Illuminated Trees wallpaper has that Christmas sparkle about it, and goes wonderfully well with the Carnival Lights wall decoration from the Carnival theme in July. I've seen quite a few restaurants making great use of the Carnival Lights. Completing my foyer section is a Drummer Drumming. Another product of the goals from 2012, he (or she) is there to beat the drum in a bid to try and speed up the customers' process of entering and leaving the restaurant. It's all about maximising profit!

Let's now take a quick trip to the kitchen:

Kitchen section of The Garlic Tree

There isn't too much to see here, except for the Gourmet Chef Santa and Snowman Chef who have been recruited over the holidays to help deal with high demand. Again these folks are from the class of 2012.

Next on the tour is the main section of my diner where the punters get their Christmas dinner:

Christmas themed main section of The Garlic Tree

I daresay there'll be a few disappointed guests this season, simply because there's snow on the tables and chairs! The Holiday Lights Tables and Holiday Lights Chairs drew my attention from the moment they were released - both cost coins and thanks to lights and snow look perfect for the Christmas period. Not only this, but the snow provides a nice match with the Gingerbread Dividers (another product of last year) and the White Christmas Tree, which was a goal prize this time around.

It has become customary for me to put something different as the centerpiece of the main section on special occasions, so I felt this tree was a good choice - it has that elegance that I like to convey in the main section of my restaurant.

My only disappointment for my main area is that I'm still using the Elegant floor tile. I'd have loved a snowy floor tile for coins much like we have in Bakery Story, but it wasn't to be. The Winter Floor is the closest we've gotten (released in January), but the gem price put an end to my interest.

Let's now take a look at a new section which isn't connected to Christmas:

Old West section of The Garlic Tree

We've had three seperate Wild West themes in 2013, with the last of those bringing some excellent goal prizes. So I decided to install some new decor including the Saloon Card Table and Saloon Bar. The Kitchen Hutch and Gran's Phonograph may not be specifically Western items, but they do fit in relatively well, while the Old Saloon wallpaper does a great job of getting across the rough and ready tone of a saloon in the Wild West.

In all honesty I don't feel like this is one of my strongest themed sections I've done, not least because I haven't spent any gems on it. Another issue is the mix of counters - the Dynamite Counters look good but unfortunately I'm still trying to run down the Panpipe Asparagus (22,000 portions left!) among others so some Fall Counters are still on show. I may look to add some more flair to it in the future.

The final section I want to share is a very important one:

Christmas themed section of The Garlic Tree

I've got an area dedicated to Christmas, which is home to Santa Claus himself. The big fella is the special Christmas Visitor and is spreading the cheer with some lucky customers. This is a brilliant goal prize in my opinion - it's so big and full of fun!

To complete this section I've utilised the Lob Cabin wallpaper and Cabin Window, with the much craved Holiday Lights hung up for good measure. You may also spot the Carolers from last year providing the in-house entertainment this festive season.

That concludes the tour of The Garlic Tree at Christmas. All that's left for me to say is that I'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

[Gem haul]