Ask the experts Your festive questions answered
From real trees to natural scents and greener ways to wrap, House Beautiful’s advisers share their seasonal expertise
Have fun with Christmas wrappings
I hate all the waste of wrapping paper at Christmas. Can you suggest some ecofriendly alternatives?
Almost to the moon, or 2267,800 miles – that’s the equivalent amount of paper we wrap with and throw away each Christmas here in the UK. It takes 50,000 trees to make the 8,250 tonnes of paper used. Most of it can be recycled, but try to avoid buying laminated paper with glitter or plastic elements, which can’t.
To check whether wrapping paper is recyclable, just scrunch it up – if it stays in a ball it can be thrown into the recycling bin. Just make sure tape, ribbon and bows are removed.
There are many ecofriendly alternative ways to wrap presents including using old newspapers, magazines, maps or calendars. Also consider fun, crafty ways to use up leftover scraps. When you receive a present, don’t throw your paper away – get creative! Make stylish envelopes, bunting or confetti. You could even transform plain furniture by lining storage units, bookshelves or drawers.
Or adopt the Japanese method of wrapping presents in brightly coloured fabrics known as furoshiki. It’s sustainable as the cloth can be reused, and you won’t need tape – just tie a series of knots to create a beautiful parcel.
The thing I love most about Christmas is the festive fragrances, but I don’t like scented candles or diffusers. How can I bring natural aromas into the house?
Some of the most evocative Christmas smells come from evergreen tree branches, whether in the form of a traditional tree, wreaths or decorations, pines, cedars and firs. But don’t forget other evergreens, such as rosemary, which will make really interesting aromatic wreaths.
Many of the spices we associate with Christmas, including cinnamon and cloves, come from exotic and faraway places, so you’ll probably have to buy them rather than grow them, but you can combine these shop-bought perfumes with rosemary, sage, mint
and pine cones you’ve grown or collected yourself to make a personalised potpourri.
If you want flowers to bring fragrance and colour into the house, try winter-flowering iris or winter honeysuckle. Either in containers or as cut flowers, these will fill the house with wonderful aromas.
And finally, a simple but effective way to introduce scent is to put a few teaspoons of vanilla extract or cinnamon oil in a small ovenproof dish and let it warm gently in the oven for a short while. Your whole house will soon smell heavenly.
For years we’ve had the same fake tree but as the whole family is coming to us this year for dinner for the first time, I’m thinking about having a real one. Which tree might be best for us?
Caroline Tilston says: The majority of real trees sold in the UK are Nordmann Firs. They have a great shape, a pretty good scent and hold their needles. But they are on the expensive side, so if you want a tall, impressive tree you’ll pay quite a lot for it.
Norway Spruce is the second biggest seller and they tend to be cheaper. Spruces have a lot going for them – for my money they smell more traditional, so when you walk into a room with a spruce you really know it’s Christmas. The downsides are that the needles are shorter so the whole thing can look more airy, and they’re known for dropping their needles more readily.
There’s a trend for narrower trees – these are becoming more popular as traditional-shaped ones can take up a lot of space. Slimline Fraser Firs are worth considering if you want something that will fill a corner but not the whole room. HB
For more from Caroline visit housebeautiful.co.uk