Christmas: Choosing the tree

If you have a real tree, choosing ‘the one’ and is always a bit of a Christmas milestone

It’s the same every year, but then that’s the point: selecting the tree is one of the Yuletide rituals that we inherit, faithfully re-enact, then pass on, safe in the knowledge that while all around us changes, Christmas is as it ever was.

No matter whether you’re after a spruce, pine or fir, digging it up yourself or buying it at the garden centre, there’s that special moment when you’ve got it untangled from its cobwebby wrapping, chopped the top off because it was too tall for the room, and positioned it in the stand, all ready for embellishment.

There you are, surrounded by boxes of baubles from the loft. You’ve tested the lights still work; now Christmas can begin. It’s time to make magic in the corner of your living room.

How to choose a real tree

David Ware is from Edible Culture, a ‘peat, pesticide and single-use-plasticfree’ nursery in Kent that specialises in loal Christmas trees. Here, he offers his best advice for choosing a real tree…

• Always ask if your tree is locally sourced; it will show your supplier that you care.

• Consider your type of tree. Firs are known for holding onto their needles, and their stronger smell.

• Generally, spruces require a little bit more attention in that they need more water. The blue spruce is a delightful exception to this rule and is known for keeping its needles. It gets its name from its beautiful blue-grey hue (an effect created by the wax on its needles).

• Ask for the tree to be removed from its net to check it’s well balanced.

• Try to find a bare-rooted tree (one taken from the ground while still growing, roots intact), then you can pot it up yourself in peat-free compost. Once home, put it in a bucket of water straightaway in a sheltered spot, before potting up.

• Bring your tree into the house as late as possible. We always wait until Christmas Eve.

• However your tree was supplied, to help it last longer keep the compost moist by standing the pot on a saucer of water and topping it up regularly.

• Place the tree away from radiators.

• Ask if your supplier offers recycling facilities. If not, find out if and when your local authority collects. Some councils run schemes that turn your tree into chippings, which you can then use as mulch.

We interviewed David Ware in issue 90 of The Simple Things. You can order back issues from our online store.

More Christmas traditions…

From our December issue…

Science | decorate a Christmas tree using maths

Is decorating a tree best done using science or plain good sense? Pick a method below and give it a go

Some people’s trees always just look stunning, don’t they? Don’t get us wrong, we’re big fans of a wonky tree ourselves, but we do sometimes wonder what their secret is. So we’ve done a bit of analysis to discover whether a Christmas tree is best decorated using hard science (or some tricky maths at least) or a good dollop of Simple Things style common sense.  Do give one a go and let us know how you got on.

Decorating a tree using mathematics

How much tinsel is too much? What quantity of baubles is enough? And is that angel too much? Take a deep breath. Maths students at Sheffield University Maths Society (SUMS - ho ho ho) have got all the answers. And they’ve shown their workings, too. 

Using 'treegonometry' they have calculated that a 152cm (5ft) Christmas tree would require 31 baubles, 776cm of tinsel and 478cm of lights with a 15cm star or angel on the top.

Length of tinsel = 13 x 𝛑/8 x (tree height in cm)

Number of baubles = √17/20 x (tree height in cm)

Height of star in cm =  Tree height in cm ÷ 10

If you’re no Pythagorus you can find a calculator here courtesy of Sheffield University to do the above sums for you. Just enter the height of your tree. 

Decorating a tree using common sense

Wondering whether a mono-colour tree would look stylish or ‘cold’? Or whether you need to put every last trinket on (even the ones the children made years ago and looked awful before they were stuck in the attic for a decade)? Fear not. We’ve got it all worked out, and not a sum in sight. 

Which baubles to put where? Easy. Breakables at the bottom so they have less far to fall, along with larger baubles. Work upwards in size order so you have the more delicate ones at the top and they won’t pull the more spindly branches down. For edibles such as chocolates, gingerbread biscuits and the like, take the height of your dog/child, triple it, and hang only above that height. 

How to design a colour scheme. Look at everything you have. Do you have basically one or two colours? If yes, decorate using only those. If no, mix it all up and go for a ‘lived in’ look.

In a knot with your lights? First make sure your tree is within reach of a plug socket. Pull the tree out to wrap the lights around it and push it back to the wall or corner afterwards to make putting the lights around it easier. Keep the lights rolled, unravelling only as you go. For a more professional look, start in the middle of the tree and take the lights out to the end of one branch and back to the middle, continue in the same way around the branches of the tree until you get high up enough that they can just be draped around. 

How to hide ‘homemade but horrible’ decorations. Put them round the back. Or if your tree is in a window, bury them in the bottom third round the side of the tree. 

Star or angel? Both, of course! It’s Christmas - you can’t have too many trinkets!

The very beautiful tree pictured above was decorated by Caroline Rowland, who has enough style running through her veins to be able to eschew both common sense and science. It’s just one of the trees we featured in our My Place feature starting on page 124.

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More Christmas decoration ideas…

More from our December issue…

My simple thing: Christmas lights

Sitting with just the Christmas tree lights on - @katecpettifer's simple thing

Usually just before bed, I’ll take a moment to turn off the living room lights so that only the Christmas tree remains lit. Savouring the glow of multicoloured bulbs, reflected in nearby baubles, transports me back to childhood when I did exactly the same thing. A welcome moment of calm that’s still magical.

This was first published in our December issue 2014. Please share your festive simple thing with us below and find lots more quiet moments of magic in our current December issue on sale in the shops now or click the clicky link below…. Merry Christmas!

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Nest | Soak in a spruce needle bath

Don’t throw away your Christmas tree clippings. Spruce needles are an invigorating natural remedy, great for clearing the head. If you feel a cold coming on or are simply exhausted, have a bath with this spruce tree essence and let the scent of a forest work its magic

You will need:

3 fresh twigs from a spruce tree, washed
1 litre water

1 Cut the spruce twigs into small pieces, place them in a saucepan and add the water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
2 Now remove the pan from the heat, cover with a cloth, and let the solution of twigs infuse for another 10 minutes while you run your bath.
3 Strain and add the solution to your bath. Relax in the bath for 20 minutes, breathing in deeply and taking in all the wonderful forest scents.
4 Go to bed immediately and rest!

From Vinegar Socks, Traditional Home Remedies for Modern Living by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer

More from the January issue:

More natural remedies:

 

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View the sampler here.

Christmas | Know your festive lights

There are certain things in your home that are like good friends: they always cheer you up. This month we feel the love for festive lights 

The advent of LED bulbs has meant that fairy lights now come in various permutations, last for ages and are low voltage. Powered by transformers, they can connect up to 1,280 bulbs. Most can twinkle, flash, fade, chase or just be still.

String: a single length of cable, usually clear or green, with a variety of uses, from tree
decoration to trailing along mantelpieces and scattering among trees.
Most are 8m in length with about 80 LEDs. Cost: £19.99.

Icicle: a fringe of different lengths of lights best positioned over windows or from eaves. Most come in 2m lengths but each set is connectable and can be extended to a total length of 20m.
Cost: £17.99 for 2m.

Curtain: a 2m line of vertical strands, each 1m long, that look good hanging from a banister or lining a wall for a full-on twinkly grotto effect. Low voltage, so they don’t get warm and can safely hang alongside fabric. Indoors only. Cost: £27 for 2x1m curtain.

Net: a mesh of fairy lights that can be draped or hung, or used to net furniture or foliage. Cost: £34.99 for a 2x2m net.

All from lights4fun.co.uk    

Turn to page 140 of December's The Simple Things for more from The Comfort of Things festive feature.

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View the sampler here

More from the December issue:

More Christmas posts:

Christmas: Share your favourite decorations with The Simple Things

It's one of the best bits of Christmas... Getting the box of decorations out of storage for another year and opening it up. The first glimpse of those favourite baubles, the ones that take pride of place year after year, always make us smile. Even though we like to add to our collection every year, the continuity of the heirloom decorations is reassuringly peaceful - a tonic before the madness of the Christmas rush sets in. 

The Simple Things team would love to see which decoration embodies Christmas for you so, before you take down your tree, take a high res snap and send it to us. 

Email: thesimplethings@icebergpress.co.uk

Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: @simplethingsmag

Christmas: Gingerbread tree decorations

Edible tree baubles with built-in festive fragrance, as well as heaps of homemade charm

Makes 20
180g dark brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
100g unsalted butter
350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
11⁄2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

For the icing
White icing pen or ready-to-use decorating icing (transferred to an icing syringe) – both available from Lakeland or Hobbycraft

1 Melt the sugar, syrup and butter together in a pan. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
2 Tip the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, cinnamon and beaten egg into a large bowl. Add the syrup mixture and stir to combine. Gently knead in the bowl to form a soft, streak-free dough. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 mins.
3 Remove from the fridge and set aside to soften for about 5 mins. Preheat the oven to 200C/Fan 180C/400F and line two baking trays with baking parchment.
4 Dust a work surface with flour, roll out the dough to around 1⁄2 cm thick, cut out your shapes and place on the lined baking trays. Keep re-working the dough until you have used it all. If you’re hanging the biscuits, make holes for the string – a skewer or chopstick works well.
6 Bake for 8–10 minutes, until a darker brown. While still hot and on the baking sheet, sharpen up the holes with your chosen instrument, before transferring to racks to cool.
7 Once completely cool, decorate the biscuits with white icing, then loop through some string for hanging.

More scents of Christmas on page 24 of December’s The Simple Things, including Orange pot pourri, Filo mince pies, Pine drawer sachets, Chestnut and mushroom pate and Herb smudge wands.

More from the December issue:

More Christmas posts:

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View the sampler here.

Christmas: Make papercut star decorations for your tree

If paper chains feel passe and you're a bit bored with your baubles, try a DIY papercut tree decoration for a feelgood festive craft

The appeal of papercutting is the simple satisfaction of creating something from nothing. Starting literally with a blank sheet of paper, a drawing can become an intricate work of art. And like many other creative pursuits, it’s a meditative process, requiring your full attention.

Papercut artist Poppy Chancellor says, “We all need time to be artistic. It’s good for your brain and soul. There is something very soothing in this art of taking your time. When you patiently follow the lines with the knife, you will start to see elegant artistry emerge from a single sheet of paper. The hours slip away and all those daily worries start to dim. You don’t need much skill to cut along a suggested line but practice and patience are essential. Anyone with a scalpel and a steady hand can give it a try.”

If you’ve tried cutting a few designs, the next step is to draw your own, either by hand or digitally (just remember to flip your image once you are done and trace or print this mirror image on to the back of your chosen paper). Start by following paper artists and other creatives on social media to feed your mind. Share your own creations online and ask for feedback.

From Roman statues to Greyhound buses, there seems no subject too obscure or too tricky for papercutting. But some things are easier than others; Poppy’s drawn us a beginner’s papercut star tree decoration*, for example – well, it is Christmas!

This beautiful 3D Christmas scene is practically a paper sculpture and not a project for beginners. But see where having a go at our paper star template could take you (find it in the December issue of The Simple Things). You can also download her paper snowflake design. We’d love to see pics of them hung on your tree @simplethingsmag

Our template design features in Poppy’s book Cut it Out! 30 Designs to Cut Out and Keep (Virgin Books). 

More from the December issue:

More projects to make:

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Recipe: Edible baubles

Giving the odd couples on Strictly Come Dancing’s Christmas special a run for their money is this recipe’s unlikely pairing: fruit cakes and Polo mints. 

These mini mincemeat-laced sponges are marzipaned and iced to rival the classiest of tree decorations. But will they hang? The real question is whether anything this tasty will even make it onto the tree... 

Edible baubles

Makes 24

For the fairy cakes:

140g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp salt
175g unsalted butter, soft, diced
175g muscavado sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
60g ground almonds
150g mincemeat

To ice and decorate: 

4 tbsp apricot jam
500g marzipan
Icing sugar, to dust
1 tbsp sherry or cooled, boiled water
750g white sugarpaste
Packet of Polo mints
60g bag white royal icing, no.1 nozzle
30-50g red sugarpaste
60g bag red royal icing, no.1 nozzle

You will need:

24 red paper cases
6.5cm round cutter
7cm round cutter
Selection of tiny cutters
Lengths of 5mm-wide ribbon

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/ 350F. Line two fairy cake tins with paper cases. Sift first 5 ingredients into a bowl; add butter, sugar, eggs and nuts. Beat with an electric whisk. Fold in mincemeat. Divide batter between cases and bake for 15–18 mins, or until springy. Leave cakes tins for 2 mins, then cool on a rack. 
2. Warm the jam slightly, push it through a sieve, then brush it lightly over each cake. 
3. Roll marzipan out to 4–5mm thick on a worktop dusted with icing sugar. Using the smaller cutter, stamp out discs of marzipan to top each cake. Brush lightly with sherry or water. Use larger cutter to create white sugarpaste discs (the same size as the top of the cases) and smooth over the cake edges. Press a mint into each to make a ring, attaching with royal icing if needed. Leave overnight.
4. To decorate, roll out to 2–3mm thick on a board dusted with icing sugar. To make buttons, cut out tiny rounds, indent the edge with a smaller cutter and make two holes with a cocktail stick. Attach all the sugarpaste decorations with royal icing. Pipe details with the white and red royal icing. Thread the mints with ribbon.

Tip: Sugarpaste decorations can be made in advance and stored in a box (not in an airtight container or the fridge).

RECIPE AND IMAGE TAKEN FROM SEASONAL BAKING BY FIONA CAIRNS (WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, £25). PHOTOGRAPHY DAN JONES

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