On the 21st day of December, our Meery Christmas Advent Calendar speaks to us of the beautiful Christmas Tree!

The Christmas Tree is arguably the centrepiece of the decorations. It takes pride of place within the living room, and gets adorned with some amazing baubles and other festive trinkets. In my home, we have a number of themed tree decorations, such as Star Wars baubles, and Marvel ones as well. These sit alongside more traditional ideas, and there are quite naturally multi-coloured lights dotted around it as well.

We have had our current tree for many years, and to give it its due, it is absolutely fine. I feel there are benefits to a fake, reusable tree, and I speak via the experience of my parents, who have at times had a real tree. Whilst real trees certainly smell lovely, they shed pines at quite an alarming rate, and said pines are often found many, many weeks after Christmas. The authenticity of a real tree cannot be beaten, but who wants to be clearing up pines for what feels like forever?

The advantage of a real tree is that you can dispose of it in a clean, environmentally healthy manner, perhaps even going as far as to plant it somewhere, whereas an artificial tree, by the time you are ready to ditch it, is not so great for the planet. In order to minimise the environmental damage (and also to save money!), we have, as I said, used our current tree quite a few times, and if it ain’t broke, there’s no reason to fix it. The tree decorations… well, they are somewhat more fragile, so they tend to change over time. They also have an annoying habit of going missing, but then again, that provides me with an excuse to get new ones!

What can I say, I like nice baubles.