Sam Faiers and her young family at home for Christmas as she shares wedding plans with Paul Knightley

Samantha Faiers’ chic Surrey home couldn’t feel more festive – there’s a full gardenscape around her front door, festive greenery sweeping up the stairs and a huge Christmas tree covered with decorations she’s collected over the years. It’s her favourite time of year, she tells us, as we arrive for our exclusive OK! photo shoot.

And, although she admits she brought in the professionals for the front of the house and stairs, it’s the tree decorated by Paul, eight, Rosie, seven, and Edward, two, that she’s most proud of – despite the fact Edward’s bauble-hanging is very much focused on one area at the back! “The back of the tree is always neglected so I actually just decided to leave them all there,” she says, laughing. “I love doing the tree with the kids. Every year we add little bits to it. I love red, green and gold, like Home Alone in the 90s.”

Much of the 33-year-old’s love of all things festive comes from her own childhood, sharing a bedroom with older sister Billie and secretly opening one present from their Santa sacks at 4am, before nodding off again until a more respectable hour. Now they have their own three kids, Sam and her partner of 10 years, Paul Knightley, 36, are all about recreating the magic.

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“Mum always made Christmas very special for me and my sister,” says Sam. “We did the same things, like decorating the tree together, right up until we left home. On Christmas Eve, we’d always go and feed the reindeers, then come home and she’d make homemade sausage rolls and we’d watch Christmas movies on repeat. Our grandparents always came over and we’d have music on, play games – it was the best day.”

One of their own traditions involves Paul dressing up in “the cheapest, crappiest Santa outfit ever” to film a heavily pixelated present delivery video to show the kids on Christmas morning. Her dedication to this tradition knows no bounds.

“One year, we were in the Maldives and Paul said, ‘We still have to do it,’ so we took the suit out there and I set up the GoPro. It was 35˚C, Paul’s got the full suit on and doing the presents, absolutely melting. We still laugh about it to this day!”

Despite their home looking Home Alone-esque, it all came together rather quickly this year because Sam only landed in the UK a few days ago, after a work trip to the US and India.

They bought their house two-and-half years ago and it needed a lot of TLC. As well as a full electrical rewire and new flooring throughout, they’ve mainly focused on the downstairs, with their glamorous marble-and-wood open kitchen, Sam’s home office, the kids’ playroom and their stylish cloakroom now looking fabulous.

“Style-wise, I make most of the decisions about the decor, but Paul and I have quite similar tastes when it comes to interiors and he’s very happy with it all – apart from the two pink bathrooms we have,” says Sam. “Paul’s big job next year is the landscaping, as I’m way out of my depth on anything to do with the garden.

“Each room is slightly different – the only uniting theme is the wooden parquet flooring downstairs. I like to keep the colours light and neutral, but I also love colour and wallpaper. So in my office, the bathroom and the kids’ rooms, there are nice florals throughout. I inject colour here and there, whether it’s the green oven or the taupe-coloured wardrobe in my dressing room. For me, it’s all about having a warm, cosy home. So I love lamps and spotlights and cosy carpets for that reason. I don’t like bright lights. I like photos of the kids in the house everywhere – that’s what makes it homely."

“I’m still working on plans for our bedroom. I want to have a drop ceiling, so I can have some nice warm lighting. I want the main bedroom to feel peaceful and cosy – almost like when you go to a really nice hotel room. We’re still only about 65% done, but I love it – it’s such a lovely family home,” adds Sam. “I let the kids make a mess with their toys because I’ve learnt to embrace imperfection.”

As for how her tastes have changed over the years, Sam reckons her style has transformed. “I bought my first house aged 20 and house styles have changed so much,” she says. “I had this silver velvet sofa with purple cushions on it – I’d never have that now, but at the time I absolutely loved it. It was the most amazing purchase ever.”

These days, her sofa may no longer be silver, but Sam admits her place isn’t always “contemporary chic”. “My home Instagram page looks like perfection, but on a day-to-day basis, my house is a hot mess!” she says. “Paul [her son] kicks a ball around the house all day – he’s already broken about five baubles from the tree.

"And Edward scoots around the house, so the skirting boards are scratched to bits. All the kids care about is your time, not whether the toy room is immaculate. It’s been hard to learn not to worry about things being spilt on new carpet, but Paul and I know one day, they’re going to leave us and we’re going to miss it all.”

Sam and Paul have had to concede this year is probably the last time their eldest – also called Paul – will believe in the magic, so she’s planning to go bigger and better than ever (and, yes, Paul will be donning the Santa suit). “I’m going to do the footprints and everything because it might be the last one for Paul. Then we’ll bring him in on creating the magic next year and it’ll be special in its own way.”

Their children also have another Christmas treat coming up – the annual cousin sleepover, which gives Sam, Billie and their mum Suzie Wells a chance to celebrate before the madness begins in earnest. Sam can’t remember the last time she and Billie spent Christmas Day together because, as their families and extended families have grown, so too have the logistical challenges.

“As you get older and the families start packing out, it’s really tough. So we made a pact that every year we’ll do a Christmas sleepover, usually with me, Billie, my mum and all the kids. We do the full Christmas dinner, present exchange, Santa’s elves come, there’s Christmas music, drinks, games, everything. The kids basically have two Christmas Days. It can be hard when families are big and there’s politics over Christmas – this way it’s always special and there’s no pressure.”

Going along with her desire to take the pressure off, Sam is breaking with tradition this year by not cooking their festive dinner at home. Instead, Sam, Paul, Paul’s mum and the kids will be heading to a local restaurant.

“I love Christmas dinner, but the only thing is you find yourself in the kitchen all day and you miss a big chunk of the fun,” she says, before laughing as she remembers spending the run-up to the Christmas when she was pregnant with Edward, obsessing over gravy. “It was prepped three days before Christmas Day arrived. There’s just so much time that goes into it, then you eat the dinner and it’s all over in an hour. So I’m excited to go out.”

After six years on The Mummy Diaries with Billie, it’s understandable that the question Sam gets asked most often is whether she wants a fourth child. She says she hasn’t ruled it out.

“I’ve got my hands full but my answer is always ‘never say never’. I’m a maternal person, I love being pregnant and I love babies. I’m not going to have another one right now, but I’d maybe consider it in a few years when Edward’s in school. The toughest thing I’ve ever done was going from two to three, but then Paul and I still sometimes look at each other as if to say, ‘It’s all worth it.’ I read something the other day that said ‘the later you have babies, the longer you live’, so I’m going to keep that in mind.”

The second most-asked question – we’re guessing – is when she and Paul might marry… “I honestly don’t have any plans to get married and I’m not engaged yet,” she says. “We’re very much in love, probably more so than ever, and with everything we’re juggling, we’ve got the balance right. Don’t get me wrong, nothing’s ever perfect and trying to get out the door in the morning is carnage, but we love the roller-coaster. There’s so much meaning to life when you’ve got a family and life is chaotic, and I look ahead and realise that one day we won’t have that around. So we’ll definitely get married one day and the kids will be there to see it.”

Sam is also co-founder of one of the country’s 100 fastest-growing privately owned businesses, selling more than 20 million units of her product. She launched Revive Collagen during lockdown in 2020 with business partner John Bailey and they now sell one box every 60 seconds. Those figures are hard to put into context for those of us who don’t work in business – and Sam is happy to admit it was a total leap of faith in the beginning.

“We really put our eggs in one basket,” she says. “I didn’t have any expertise in the supplement or skincare world, so launching a liquid collagen brand for women and it being very beauty-focused was very new to both of us. Fast forward to today – did I think we’d be in 5,000 stores globally, turning over multimillions each year? No! I don’t think you can ever imagine it going that way when you start out. But I love it and I’m so proud of what we’ve done.”

Sam has come a long way since her days on TOWIE, which she stepped away from a decade ago – and it seems her past as a television star is behind her. Or so we thought. “Actually I’ve got a little something up my sleeve for next year,” she says. “But I can’t say too much because we’re in the final stages of negotiations.”

When we ask which “we” she’s referring to – maybe her and Paul? Or Billie? Or even business partner John? – Sam bursts into laughter and leaves us with, “It could be any of those people. I can’t say any more. But what I can say is it’s something we haven’t done before and I’m really excited.”