Alyssa Barmonde may’ve been dubbed a villain on Married At First Sight, but when it comes to Christmas she’s anything but a Grinch.
The reality star mum-of-one, 38, has been busier than a North Pole elf getting her abode Christmas ready and has shared some very handy festive hacks.
Taking to her Instagram story on Christmas Eve, Alyssa posted a very budget conscious hack that would be perfect for Christmas 2025.
In quite the environmentally conscious move, the video showed Alyssa filling the plastic tray of an empty advent calendar with some homemade chocolate.
As Rocking Around The Christmas Tree played in the background, Alyssa could be seen first spraying oil into the Christmas-themed moulds.
She then began filling one of the advent calendar moulds with her own, red-dyed chocolate mixture.
‘Pro tip-take out your advent calendar and fill with your own choc,’ Alyssa captioned the cheap and cheerful Yuletide hack.
The crafty MAFS bride also took to Instagram earlier this month to share another unusual Christmas tip.
Alyssa shared a short clip that showed her creating a bespoke platform for the popular Elf On A Shelf Christmas toy.
For those shelf-challenged fans, Alyssa crafted a quirky reindeer made out of rolls of toilet paper and paper towel.
She used for rolls of toilet paper for the legs, while the paper towel roll was used as the body.
A third toilet paper roll was used for the neck and a final roll served as the reindeer’s head, complete with hand drawn eyes and mouth and a very shiny nose.
‘Easy Elf On A Shelf idea with the stuff you already have,’ she captioned the video.
‘Don’t mind the moments of frustration and being over it already. ‘I promise I love you twirly coz you keep my CHYALD in check.’
During the second half of the season, she was portrayed negatively, with edited scenes focusing on her emotional outbursts, mistreatment Duncan and constantly using ‘I have a child’ as an excuse for her poor behaviour.
The ex-Mormon, however, insisted this portrayal was one-sided and unfair, arguing that many of her clashes with Duncan, from whom she split at the final vows, lacked proper context on screen.
Alyssa fled Australia after ‘coincidentally’ losing her job amid the fallout of her villain edit.
A source close to Alyssa told Daily Mail Australia that she was planning a trip overseas because she has been ‘unhappy since the show went to air’ and just needed to wind down.
‘She really just wants to move on and forget that she was ever on the show. It has been completely unfair. What we saw on television was not her,’ the source said.
Alyssa was also sacked from her job as an executive assistant for a Sydney company – a position she had held for seven years.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph in April 2023, Alyssa pointed out the ‘coincidence’ of being made redundant just two weeks after the MAFS finale aired.
She confessed she went through a ‘really dark… couple of months’ while the show was airing and had to stop watching after the couples’ retreat because ‘I could see what the edit was’.
Alyssa revealed she was harassed by viewers who tracked down her mobile number and business accounts, receiving ‘the most vile messages’.
She asked Channel Nine’s publicity department to give her access to her Instagram account so she could challenge the narrative of the show’s edit, but they denied the request until the season has finished airing in the UK.
‘They’re protecting the show and the narrative they’ve created, rather than letting me have my own voice,’ she claimed.
Alyssa said she felt hurt and betrayed by producers after watching the series and seeing all the problems in her relationship with Duncan blamed on her single parent status.
