Deck the Smalls

What a festive delight – this must be the best dressed house I’ve seen this Christmas.

It is home to start-up founders Darius and Emily Darwell, who launched Sipful, a ‘canned wine and cocktail’ business backed by Virgin StartUp, from their spare room in Ingleton, Yorkshire.

Virgin StartUp

It’s wonderful to see Virgin StartUp decking their house in Christmas lights from top to toe as part of its national Deck the Smalls campaign to shine a light on start-up businesses this Christmas.

The lights extravaganza includes:

• 12 thousand twinkling light bulbs,

• 11 festive baubles,

• 10 dazzling stars,

• nine cracking snowmen,

• eight candy canes,

• seven jingle bells,

• six sparkling snowflakes,

• five orange slices,

• four Christmas trees,

• three cocktail glasses,

• two disco balls,

• and a giant can of Sipful cocktail.

The bespoke neon lights have been designed by a fellow Virgin StartUp supported business, Light Up North. The light display is powered thanks to low impact LED lights and a battery powered generator which is charged using solar power.

After the festive makeover, Ingleton definitely looks more like Jingleton!

Virgin StartUp

After such a turbulent two years for small businesses it’s great to read the research commissioned by Virgin StartUp that revealed that nearly 40 million Brits have shopped with start-ups this festive season spending on average a quarter of their Christmas budget – a whopping £5.8 billion in total – on festive gifts and food from small businesses.

Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the UK economy – the people driving growth, innovation and bringing about change. I’ve always believed there are many great ideas out there that just need a little help getting off the ground. It’s why we started our not-for-profit entrepreneurial hub, Virgin StartUp, which provides new businesses with loans, mentorship, and support to help them thrive. I’m proud that Virgin StartUp has supported more than 4,500 start-ups to launch and scale.

Virgin StartUp

Emily summed up the sentiment rather nicely when she said: “While these lights look brilliant – we hope it creates a talking point around supporting all start-up businesses this Christmas.”

Head over to Virgin StartUp to see how it could help you launch a business or read the Virgin StartUp gift guide for some shopping inspiration.