This festive season, Visible Fictions is thrilled to share The Bauble Bunch, a series of short Christmas stories created by Lisa Keddie. Set among the overlooked treasures of a charity shop bauble basket, these tiny tales explore where we’ve come from, where we might be going, and the stories we carry with us. In this behind-the-scenes post, Lisa shares how the series came to life — from early ideas and festive playlists to filming in charity shops and bringing googly-eyed baubles to the screen.
Having been part of various Visible Fictions online Christmas offerings over the years (Goodbye, Mince Pie being a particular highlight), I was thrilled when Dougie got in touch to ask if I had any ideas for this year. My honest answer at the time was… no. But I asked for a week. So I spent that week listening to Christmas playlists and dreaming up ideas for a heart-warming, silly story to delight VF’s audiences this season.
By the end of it, I’d landed on four ideas that could be made on an iPhone and pitched them over a very funny few hours in the back office. From that, The Bauble Bunch was born. The premise was simple: set inside the “two-for-a-pound” bauble basket in a charity shop, we’d discover how each little bauble had ended up there and where they might be going next. All with googly eyes, of course. Because what isn’t made better by googly eyes?
I started trawling charity shops for baubles that sparked stories and sat down to write. I wanted each tale to feel like a cosy bedtime story, and then, for reasons still unclear even to me, I made my job harder by deciding they should all be written in verse. Several days, and many hours spent in the company of rhymes.com, later I had seven little decoration stories. After a few rounds of notes and tweaks, the scripts were ready to go.
I got in touch with one of my favourite places, R:evolve Recycle, who run swap and thrift shops in Rutherglen and Cambuslang, and asked if I could spend a day filming there with my basket of baubles to give the films some authenticity. Thankfully, they agreed, and not one member of staff batted an eyelid as I shuffled googly-eyed decorations around the shop floor.
Throughout the process there were a few frustrations. I discovered in the edit that the shinier baubles had caught the reflection of my phone, and I trekked to Rutherglen High Street to film a magpie only to find not a single one in sight. But art is enhanced by restraint… or something like that… isn’t it?
Eventually, I pulled everything together to create seven episodes of The Bauble Bunch, stories I hope are filled with all the heart and silliness we intended.
I have absolutely loved making these little tales, and I really hope you enjoy watching them. If you do, please share them with your friends and family.
Merry Christmas!
Lisa
New episodes of The Bauble Bunch are released daily at 6pm, right through to Sunday 21 December. Head over to our social channels to meet this motley crew of decorations: TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
