A mum claims she may have to upsize her family's three-bedroomed house to accommodate her daughters' Kevin the Carrot collection - as they have 'turned their room orange' with more than 100 carrot toys. Alicia Adnett, 12, and Lexie Adnett, 11, have been collecting their 120-strong range of Aldi's Kevin the Carrot toys since they were first released in 2017.
Mum Carina Laverick, 37, makes sure they don't miss out on the merchandise when they go on sale by adding it to her shopping basket online while dad Stuart, 42, waits in line at the store at 6am. The sisters each have 60 of the cuddly toys crammed into their bedroom including Kevin the Carrot, Katie the Carrot, the Carrot kids along with other characters and books.
And their parents splashed out £135 this year for the new range of football-themed characters - leaving Carina quipping they are 'going to need a bigger house'.
Hospital administrator Carina and sheet metal worker Stuart say they've spent around £500 on the hoard over the years and Carina joked that they may need to buy a bigger house to store them all. Carina, from Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, said: "We got them the first year they were released by Aldi. They really liked the Aldi advert and their primary school did Elf on the Shelf with a carrot.
"There was just Kevin and Katie and they wanted a set each so we've got double. Every year we've gone back and they've got every teddy that's been released in store. They've got about 60 each. We spent £135 this year and about £500 altogether. The first year it was hardly anything because there were only two teddies so it was about £8 per kid.
"They've got carrots, parsnips, tomatoes and this year they're football themed so they got all the footballers each. Stuart is dedicated, he goes down to Aldi at about 6am for them. They get excited, he tries to rush back before they go to school but if not, he phones them to tell them he's got them, they love it then he goes to pick them up from school with them.
"We get panicky but he goes early enough, I put them in my basket online as well just to make sure. They keep them in their bedrooms. They keep that years collection on their bed and keep the others in storage boxes under their bed.
"The first couple of years they could have the teddies on the bed because there wasn't that many but as it's got bigger and bigger, they don't fit even though they have double beds. I tweeted Aldi that I was going to need a bigger house. They sent us a free Christmas teddy one year. They take up quite a bit of room. Their rooms are just orange. I've told them that once they move out the teddies are going with them."
Carina shared an image of Alicia and Lexie proudly showing off their huge heap of toys on Twitter where trolls blasted her for spending so much money on them but says she'll help her daughter's grow their stash for as long as they want. One commentor wrote: "Unbelievable! Many people with no food! Many children with no toys nor clothes, all day, every Christmas!
"Nine billion people waiting to spend loads of money on simple carrot. All went crazy? What if instead you give needed people some help? Gain true friend? Make them happy? Christmas is love!"
Carina said: "Some people said I shouldn't spend money on that when people are starving. People love it, people ask where I got the books because they haven't seen them before and they're trying to find them on eBay I ask them every year if they want to and I'll let them until they want to stop."
