The best Christmas decorations to buy locally

We are shopping local for our gifts, but what about all the other festive trimmings — like tree decorations?

In a year which has been a somewhat symphony of sorrow and sludge, I want to embrace the twinkling of lights

“ O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how lovely are thy branches…” So the refrain echoes in praise of the peaked confections we shoehorn into our living spaces each year. 

We negotiate with furniture and sulking plants, with disgruntled pets and equally disgruntled partners. We huff and we puff whilst straining to hear the muttered entreaties, buried somewhere at the base, from the poor unfortunate who garners the least coveted position of ‘straightener upper’.