Deck the halls......

I'm girding my loins to make a start on putting up our Christmas tree, just as soon as PP ascends the ladder to the small loft to get all the various boxes of decorations down.

It's always a nail-biting time as there is one box of really ancient, incredibly fragile glass decorations which belonged to my great grandmother, so they are over 100 years old.  Each year I dread hearing the tell-tale tinkling sound of broken glass, indicating that they have finally disintegrated.

Fingers crossed it's not THIS year.

We now have an artificial tree, which solves the perennial problem I used to have when we had a real one, of always feeling sorry for the stunted, lop-sided tree hidden right at the back of the pile, with half its needles gone before we even got it home.

I'm a real traditionalist and disdain each year's fad for 'must have' colours.  Judging by the offerings in Tesco, this year it's pink and turquoise.

Pink and turquoise..... I ask you!?

Still, I suppose that's better than last year's black and purple. But only marginally.

No.  Our tree will be decked out in traditional red and gold.

White lights.  No flickering, chasing, pulsing,  or epilepsy-inducing flashing either.

Just......ON.

And under no circumstances, absolutely NO TINSEL.  Or that horrid lametta stuff.

*shudder*

Also, this year, I've decided not to decorate the stairs.  In previous years I've wound garlands of greenery through and up the banisters, with twinkly white lights, which took the best part of half a day to achieve.  Last Christmas the lights finally gave up the ghost and with the prospect of hopefully moving to a house with a different staircase configuration I'm not inclined to replace them. 

So I'm hoping that just the lounge (tree and fireplace) will take around 3-4 hours to decorate.  I might just have a glass of sparkling wine to help me get into the festive spirit.... 

Fa la la la la, tra la fa la.......