Gwynnie's first UK Christmas

With the filming of Ted and Sylvia at Shepperton studios not wrapping until 23 December, Gwyneth Paltrow is being forced to spend her first Christmas in London. But she won't be kissing Chris Martin of Coldplay under the mistletoe of her £10,000-a-month South Kensington flat because Gwyneth has moved. Although she loved her cosy Victorian two-bedroom South Ken flat - so much that back in May she made an offer of £1.25 million to buy it - Gwynnie is no longer a Chelsea Girl.

The security-conscious 30-yearold actress is now ensconced in a much grander house in the heart of Belgravia. The Georgian house - which estate agents say would rent for around £15,000 a month - is decorated in a chintzy, City banker's wife Colefax and Fowler style, a contrast from the chrome and pine look of her old flat.

Did somebody say Belgravia? Surely not. The area has long been regarded as one of the most sterile postcodes in London, but the arrival of Gwynnie - her new neighbours include Lady Helen Windsor, Jimmy Choo CEO Tamara Mellon, Albert Finney and Tania Bryer - suggests that the once glamorous street, where in the Fifties the Countess of Mountbatten used to entertain on a lavish scale, is making a comeback.

The star now has the ultra-chic Berkeley Hotel as her local. Her mother, the actress Blythe Danner, stayed there over Thanksgiving weekend. Although her squeaky-clean boyfriend doesn't drink, the couple have been spotted in the hotel's Blue Bar. Like her friend Madonna, she prefers to "sit up at the bar with her back turned so that nobody can see her", according to a source. Paltrow has become such a good customer that the hotel is giving her a copy of The Blue Bar Album CD as a Christmas pressie.

Gwynnie has just placed an order for a truck-load of festive decorations, seasonal flowers, armloads of mistletoe and holly to be put up all over her new house - including in all three of her bathrooms - by her favourite London florist, Kally Ellis of McQueen's in Clerkenwell.

No stranger to the A-list, Kally has been flying out to LA from London to do the Vanity Fair Oscar party flowers for the past seven years. "She is going for the traditional English Christmas look, with a wreath on the door.

In my experience, it's what Americans love. She has lovely taste: big, blousy pink roses and hydrangeas; she hates the minimalist, architectural look. I'd rather not quote how much she's spending," adds Ellis, but admits the bill will be at least four figures.

BUT what about a tree? Like Madonna, Miss Paltrow will order her blue pine from Nordman in Norway from the The Flower Stand on the corner of Fulham Road and Selwood Terrace. Last year prices fluctuated wildly - topping out at £200 - according to the amount of Gucci or Prada customers were wearing.

As she doesn't eat red meat. Quintessentially, the concierge service run by Ben Elliot, is providing her with a "bronzed" organic turkey from Lidgates in Holland Park by its in-house food specialist, Tom Parker Bowles. The company has also ordered her personalised Christmas cards and bespoke stockings (£250 each) for her closest friends, who include Plum Sykes and Nicola Formby. Christmas shopping won't be a problem. Gwynnie recently bought a crystal-encrusted £15,000 mobile Virtu phone from Nokia with a hotline to an assistant who can do it for her.

Since Tamara Mellon is a friend, she will probably order a pair of knee-high boots for her fashion conscious buddy, Kate Moss. Should she actually brave the shops herself, there's

Harvie & Hudson, 100 yards from her front door, which sells men's silk pyjamas - perfect for boyfriend Chris.

Gwynnie adores good chocolate from Maison Blanc on the Fulham Road. Hand-made santas on chocolate hearts, French mini chocolate buttons and white-chocolate snowmen will all be on the Paltrow tree.

She might have a Christmas Eve tipple at the Grenadier pub just around the corner on Wilton Row, which is where Guy Ritchie held his stag night. She's a regular, and is a big fan of the pub's famous Bloody Marys.

But she had better hurry if she wants to enjoy its £45-a-head Christmas Day lunch. "If she doesn't have a reservation she won't get a table," says the manager, a little unseasonably.