A SUCCESSFUL Christmas Day meal begins with a good butcher. Luckily enough for shoppers in Mold they can count on a man with over 50 years experience when it comes to choosing that all important turkey, ham or goose.

Farmer, slaughterman and master butcher Carl Grech, of Llandegla, who first came into the trade at just nine years of age whilst working with his father, opened CJ's Butchers in the town this summer. Since then, the 61-year-old has been swamped with customers eager to experience his traditional butchery skills and unique knowledge with the forthcoming festive season ensuring his shop is the place to be got meat-lovers this December.

"Our customers aren't like customers, they're like family," says Carl, taking a quick break from behind the counter. "We treat them like they're family, they appreciate that and show it be coming back repeatedly.

"When I was a boy there were 12 butchers in Mold and a couple of them would come and visit my dad and buy his cattle, lamb and pigs for their shops. I've grown up with that tradition."

With trainee butcher Lucy Smart by his side, Carl is also embracing social media this Christmas with Lucy's pictures of some of his meat-based creations causing a stir on the likes of Facebook and Instagram.

"Everything is locally sourced and what I don't produce I get from local farmers or Jones Brothers in Stansty" he says. "All our sausages and home-cured bacon is proving to be very popular and because we have a big traceability programme we can prove to the customer where it comes from. We've also recently produced some real ale sausages using beer from Haford Brewery in Mold - we launched them at Novemberfest and after people tried them the phone didn't stop ringing.

"One evening I fell asleep on the sofa at home because we work such crazy hours here. I woke up 4am and came into the shop where I decided to split a turkey crown into two halves, string it up, dress it, drizzle it with olive oil, cover it with fresh herbs and then put a trellis of our home cures streaky bacon on it. When I finished it, I put it on the block and put cocktail sticks in it with dried cranberries. Lucy took a few pictures and put it on Facebook and it went wild - we had 117 orders in a day and a half."

The domination of large, faceless retail chains and supermarkets has already contributed to the considerable decline in butchers – there were approximately 22,000 high street butchers in the mid 1980s, with this number falling to just 6,553 in 2010. But Carl believes the tide could be turning with more and more customers making a trip to the butcher's a once a week occurrence again.

"Our orders this Christmas have rocketed," he says. "We didn't think for a moment things would be as big as they've been but thankfully customers are coming from afar to buy what we're producing for them."

With his willingness to experiment, Carl is full of tips for any nervous cooks worried about facing a stressful time in the kitchen this Christmas.

"People don't always want a turkey and more and more are going for something different," says Carl. "It's important to take the boredom out of it and spruce things up a bit. One thing we've done is a rolled and boned pork loin where I've cut a red apple and a green apple into two half-segment rings, drizzled it with oil and then covered it with fresh herbs.

"We've got geese on sale too and have had a lot of orders for them as well as ducklings, capons, chickens and ribs of beef."

With a queue outside the door when I arrive and several people popping in for a chat or some advice, it doesn't look like Carl will get much of a break in the run up to Christmas and he admits it can be very hard work.

"Everybody in this job, especially the traditional butcher, looks forward to a bit of relaxation time on the day," he adds. "I've been brought up in this industry where animals are slaughtered 24/7 and it's a big thing for a family concern like us.

"I'm in the sink at work and I'm in the sink at home because just because I do it all week here it doesn't mean I can't my hands dirty at home. If I sit down and eat with the family and friends I'll get up when they do and take the plates out and I won't just throw it in there, I'll wash it too! But if there's a glass of wine knocking around I'll pick that up as well!"

Next will hopefully see the butcher's expand into the empty shop next door with Carl also keen to use his hog roast machine.

"We want to use our skills and show the people how we use them," he adds.