Mothercare Oxford Street relaunches – with a bit of help from Father Christmas

Mothercare on Oxford Street was one of the first baby shops I ventured into when I found out I was expecting the Wee Man. As a baby novice, I remember being overwhelmed by the sheer variety of items on display!

Last night we were overwhelmed by Mothercare’s flagship Oxford Street Store again, but this time for a totally different reason – the store has been completely refurbished to allow for the utlimate in-store baby experience for parents to be and young families.

And to show it off in all it’s glory, there was a bit of a party, attended by none other than Father Christmas and his friendly elves.

Oxford Street is busy at any time of year, but especially in the run up to Christmas – so I was probably just a little bit insane to be manouvring two small children in a double pushchair down the crowded pathways. Luckily not such a problem in Mothercare though – the new layout has taken into account ease of access for parents and pushchairs, with widely spaced aisles, eye catching displays and easily accessible small-and-big-people alike friendly facilities such as the spacious toilets, baby change area and feeding space.

Careful thought has been given to positioning of products too, with popular ranges such as Little Bird by Jools Oliver (definitely a big favourite of ours), BabyK by Myleene Klass and Blooming Marvellous maternity clothing as well as the Clarks shoes concession all placed on the ground floor to allow for a quick nip-in-and-shop experience; with larger items such as pushchairs, cots and baby bouncers all nestling in a light and airy showroom on the lower ground floor.

A state of the art 9 screen video wall captures the attention of big and little shoppers with videos of the latest photo shoots, collections and promotions; and of course there are other distractions spread about for the little ones too – Bubby D very much enjoyed getting stuck into a bit of drumming on the ELC Key-Boom-Board whilst we waited for the guest of honour to appear.

And we certainly knew when he did arrive, thanks to the squeals of delight and jingling bells that erupted as Father Christmas strode to the back of the lower ground floor. After being treated to a rendition of The Night Before Christmas, the Wee Man and Bubby D were delighted to have a bit of a chat with him and tell him their Christmas wishes (a ‘brush teeth timer’ for the Wee Man and a ‘socktopus’ for Bubby D) before getting back to enjoying the face painting, bubble blowing and balloon animal fun.

While the kids were happily occupied I had a bit of time to catch up with some lovely bloggers – Ruth from Rocknrollerbaby, Alice from AnEssexWife and Emily from FamilyFourFun – as well as meeting some lovely new people too (thanks 1Grace1Faith for the water and the seat!).

We had just enough time to have a bit of a shop – the Wee Man chose a Batman top to match his painted face, and Bubby D had herself a new set of Peppa Pig pyjamas – before heading off home to the tube.

And of course, we had the opportunity to take in the Oxford Street sights along the way 🙂