When it gets to late November, suddenly everything in the supermarket comes exclusively in the shape of Christmas trees or stars. And sometimes the resemblance is shaky to say the least.
So one family from Bolton were left understandably deflated when they found the merry Christmas tree-shaped pizza they had ordered from a local takeaway looked nothing like the festive delight advertised.
Natalie Boyes ordered a takeaway for her three kids on Friday, December 13, as a special festive treat from the Little Italy takeaway in Bolton, Greater Manchester. The family had ordered in food from Little Italy before, and fancied giving the Christmas tree pizzas a try.
However, after ‘excitedly’ opening the box, any festive feeling evaporated as the hungry family looked down upon what appeared to be a decidedly un-Christmassy mushroom-shaped pizza.
The distinct lack of resemblance to a tree – or indeed anything besides a mushroom – left the family baffled and disappointed, prompting Natalie to ring up and complain.
Fortunately, Natalie was able to see the funny side, recalling:
I couldn’t help but laugh. It was quite ridiculous. Me and my husband [Chris] opened the box and were like ‘what the hell is it?’
I’d finished work on Friday and I was thinking ‘what are we going to have for tea?’ I just decided to order a pizza. We’ve ordered from there plenty of times before but never a Christmas tree pizza.
I’d seen this Christmas tree pizza and I thought the kids would really like that so ordered it for them. And when it arrived I was all excited ready to show the kids.
Not only did it not look anything like a Christmas tree, but it was supposed to be have peppers, olives, mushrooms, sweetcorn and meatballs on it.
I called them and the guy didn’t speak very much English but I said ‘this doesn’t look anything like a Christmas tree – it’s more like a mushroom’.
Natalie continued:
He was just saying ‘no, no, no mushroom – just pepperoni’. I was like ‘no, I’m saying, it looks like a mushroom. It’s meant to be a Christmas tree?’ He was saying ‘no, it’s just pepperoni.’ He said ‘okay, I’ll send another’.
Little did the family know this was only the beginning of the saga. As Natalie, husband Chris and their three kids Eden, eight, Seth, six, and Heidi, five, eagerly awaited their replacement dinner, they had no idea they were about to receive yet another puzzling meal.
After a short wait, the doorbell rang once again. But when Chris returned, Natalie clocked that he was ‘smirking’ after having looked in the box to check out the state of Christmas tree pizza 2.0.
Yet again the family had been handed a mushroom shaped pizza. However, this time it was topped with peppers and – of course – mushrooms.
According to Natalie:
We waited for this other one thinking it’d be in the shape of a Christmas tree with all the toppings, but he’d obviously thought I was saying it’s meant to have mushroom on it – not the fact it looked like a mushroom.
When the next one arrived I said to my husband, ‘will you go to the door and get that?’ As he came back in he was smirking because he’d already looked in the box. He said ‘have a look’.
I opened the box and it had mushrooms and peppers on, but it was still the same shape. He obviously couldn’t understand I was complaining about the fact it didn’t look like a Christmas tree. My oldest daughter Eden was like ‘oh Seth, we’ve got another mushroom’.
Natalie reckons the takeaway hadn’t fully understood her complaint, mistakenly thinking she was demanding more mushrooms rather than commenting on the unexpected shape of the pie.
A Little Italy spokesperson has issued the following apology in regards to the mix-up:
This was a misunderstanding and I can only apologise to the customer.
Hopefully the oddly shaped pizza was tasty enough to make up for it.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.