This is the year that we were going to buy a new tree, something to replace the one we have had for years and which sheds its fake leaves every time we put it up and take it down but here I am slotting the branches into the coloured slots on the tinsel covered trunk. This is also the year that we said we wouldn’t put up that many decorations, the year that we would try and be a bit more tasteful but here I am surrounded by boxes of baubles and lights, Santas and snowmen that I have dragged down from the loft even though it seems like five minutes since I put them back up.
There is a box for every room, for every nook and cranny and before long there will not be a surface that is not covered in red and green and gold, there will not be a wall that is not garlanded with faux holly or pictures of festive scenes with snow and robins and there will not be an opportunity missed to hang some knick-knack or do-dat from every lamp shade, door handle or finial.
This is the season to be tacky and no matter how much we promise ourselves that this year is going to be different it creeps up on us and builds and builds until the house is a temple to Christmas, until the outside lights can be seen from space and until where we live is the complete antithesis of how we wish it to be for the other eleven months or so.
Every year follows the same pattern and starts off small, a red wax candle on the mantel piece or perhaps some green fold-out paper fir trees but this is the thin end of the wedge. They are soon to be followed by naïve tin plate toys redolent of times gone by, felt reindeers and ice crystals (do we have felt at any other time of year?) and tartan table runners before the full-blown dressing of the house finally gets underway, ready for the big day.
It’s a great time of year when the world goes a little crazy and for once happiness breaks out and good appears to be on the ascendency. It makes you glad that you have seen off yet another year and the start of the new one is just around the corner. It fills us all with hope and the belief that things are not as bad as they are and it is an opportunity to let your hair down. You either love it or you tolerate it and I fall firmly in the first camp.
Perhaps next year is the year that we will buy a new tree.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 
Yes the world goes a little crazy, at least the western world does, especialy the shops, they are terrible.
Its nice to see all the Christmas Trees in windows, schools and even shops. While fancy flashy lights is quite a modern Christmas tradition I think its a nice one. I used to enjoy making decorations, although its been quite a few years since I made crepe paper folding chains.
Strangely though I dont like a traditional Christmas Tree in my flat, they just dont suit it, but if I could find a really modern rope-light christmas tree that would be perfect.
Enjoy your decorating.
All sorted now thanks and teh house looks lovely. Hope you find your tree.