The DIY SOS presenter talks going OTT with his own home this Christmas, growing up in simpler times, and how he keeps his big blended family happy
20:00, 04 Dec 2025Updated 22:02, 04 Dec 2025
Nick… and his 16ft inflatable Christmas bear
Nick Knowles loves Christmas… and he wants the neighbours to know about it. “We’ve had decorations up since early November. We live on a normal street in a normal sort of house…and I’ve got a sixteen foot inflatable Christmas teddy bear in the front garden,” says DIY SOS presenter Nick, 63, who lives in Berkshire with his new wife Katie Dadzie, 35. The pair married this June in a lavish six-figure wedding ceremony at Braxted Park, Essex. They have six children between them, Nick has three sons and a daughter from three previous relationships; Katie has two daughters.
“The kids all love it,” says Nick – but the same can’t be said for some of the locals. “I’ve gone crazy. There’s lights all over the house, I’ve done an archway around the door. We’ve got lights all the way along the eaves. It looks more like an American Christmas house than a British Christmas house, lit up like a traffic light. And you get several different reactions to it…
“We get grinchy older people saying, ‘I think it’s a bit showy, don’t you?’ I’ve also had a bunch of blokes pull up and say, ‘Thanks a lot pal, now my wife’s seen this I’m going to have to do it too’. But it’s bringing most people a lot of joy. Some children have even been walking a different way home from school just so they can see it. We had a bus pull up to the house too. I don’t live anywhere near a bus stop.”
Nick Knowles and Katie Dadzie on the red carpet at the Daily Mirror 2025 Pride of Britain Awards(Image: Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)
Born on a council estate in Southall in London, Nick has always loved Christmas. “There wasn’t a lot of money about, but my dad worked so hard. I think that’s probably why I work like a nutcase all the time, I never stop. My dad worked for the civil service, but he’d also work in a pub in the evenings to earn extra money and then the post office used to take on extra people to sort mail at Christmas, and he’d do that too. He was working three jobs – sometimes three in the same day – to make sure we all had Christmas presents and Christmas dinner.”
There were no 16ft Christmas bears, says Nick, who was recently unveiled as an ambassador for Smart Energy GB. “It was a very simple time. Would you believe it, my grandad used to believe if you put conkers on the windowsill it would ward off spiders? At Christmas we made our own decorations, chains out of crepe paper. We once made something horrendous out of coat hangers that we saw on Blue Peter too, that my mum probably consigned to the bin quite quickly.”
Nick continues: “She’d make the Christmas cake in summer so it had time to mature. And then there would be a few sixpences hidden in it on Christmas Day for us to find. I’ve tried telling my own kids about the excitement of finding a sixpence in a Christmas pudding… let’s just say they don’t get it. They’d be hoping for a £20 note.”
Nick took to the Strictly dance floor with Luba Mushtuk last year(Image: BBC)
One Christmas, the DIY decorations spelled disaster for Nick and family. He has three sisters and a brother. “We pinned our homemade paper chains all the way around the living room using drawing pins, and this one Christmas we had terrible TV reception. We’d circled loads of things to watch in the Radio Times. Do you remember how exciting that Christmas issue was? Fing out what the big films were that year. Anyway, when we went to watch any of the things we’d chosen, they were fuzzy and jittery, and we couldn’t work out why. It was so disappointing. It wasn’t until we took the decorations down that we realised that we put a drawing pin through the aerial cord.”
Nick was a contestant on the 2018 series of I’m A Celebrity, finishing in sixth place. He also competed on Strictly Come Dancing in the 2024 series, partnered with Luba Mushtuk. His time on the show was cut short due to a knee injury. But which was harder? “Gosh – I’m A Celeb was difficult because of the boredom and the lack of food. You know, I’m six foot two and a fifty inch chest – I like my food. So that was the main difficulty there. And with Strictly, it was the fitness that got me. …I’m six foot two and a fifty inch chest – I’m not really built for dancing.”
He’s never watched himself on either. “I was there. So for me, it’s really a case of sort of done that, onto the next thing, what am I doing next? I’m always more interested in what I’m doing next rather than what I’ve done in the past,” says Nick. “John Barrowman told me that he sat down with his entire family and watched the whole series, but I’ve never seen a single bit.”
It was the boredom that was hard for Nick during his I’m A Celeb stint
If Celebrity Traitors called, however, he might. Although he wishes I could have been on the show with rugby star and finalist, Joe Marler, 35. Nick says: “Now that was funny. I was really pleased to see everybody fall in love with Joe, ’cause I’ve known him for a long time and he’s an absolutely top guy.”
However, there’s no rest for the wicked as coming up for Nick is a DIY SOS Christmas special, along with a book about Roman archeology – Nick’s hobby. He even holds up a Roman helmet as we chat. But up first, will be a big blended Knowles family Christmas.
“Christmas will be at home on the sofa, falling asleep surrounded by the family,” says Nick. “We’re a blended family so the children are between the various different parents. But we all get together and make sure we all have a lovely time. I’m a lot like most men. As long as your wife is happy and the kids are happy, then that’s a happy Christmas. We’ll just try not to argue too much over Trivial Pursuit.”
*Nick is working with Smart Energy GB to highlight how smart meters can help you access energy reward schemes.