LIGHT UP YOUR FESTIVITIES

It wouldn’t be Christmas without twinkling lights on the Christmas tree.

Make sure you check they are working properly before you put them on the tree, and save yourself a lot of wasted effort.

Also, make sure you put the lights on the tree before any of the other decorations, as it’s much easier positioning them on a bare tree than one that’s festooned with decorations.

There are plenty of options for string lights for the mantlepiece out there too, as well as string lights for outdoor shrubbery.

Or you can push the boat out with the lovely illuminated reindeer from Cox and Cox (www.coxandcox.co.uk). This year I have also decorated a little tree outdoors – for the birds.

It’s a fabulous festive alternative to the bird table and great fun for kids (and adults).

If you’re feeling flush, you can treat them to their very own Christmas tree, but I’ll be using a sprawling buddleia growing in a flower bed that I can see from my front room.

There is a lovely evergreen viburnum next to it, which provides a bit of shelter and safety for the smaller birds, but deciduous shrubs and trees tend to provide better perches to actually feed from.

Once you’ve chosen your tree or shrub, decorate it with swags of any hedgerow fruit you can find, or dried fruit like raisins and cranberries or even chunks of fresh oranges, coconut and apples.

Plain popcorn and unsweetened cereals like Cheerios can be threaded onto string or raffia to make tasty garlands and little crab apples will make great edible decorations to hang on branch tips.

Open pinecones can be filled with a suet and seed mix and hung on the tree and ready-made little suet balls and shapes can be hung from sturdier branches.

If in doubt what is suitable or not, there is lots of advice and suggestions online.

And if you are already dismissing the idea as a waste of money, may I politely point out that the birds may actually be more appreciative of their festive gesture than some people will be of theirs!