I normally don’t do much in the way of Christmas decorations. In part this is because I left all my decs behind when I left London, and it seemed too much faff to replace them, in part it’s in reaction to year’s of my mum’s Santa’s grotto approach to the season, where every inch of space was covered in tinsel, I was constantly smacking my head off streamers dangling from the ceiling, and going to the toilet in the middle of the night risked setting off the cacophony of motion-activated singing Santas she used to have secreted around the place. (I tell you, you don’t know fear till your still-tipsy trip to the bathroom for a sneaky late night pee triggers flashing lights and a tinny voiced rendition of Santa Claus is Coming to Town.) It certainly gave me a taste for minimalism. Besides, I have fairy lights up all year, so it’s not like I am completely Grinch-like.

Still, I was delighted to receive this gorgeous mini tree from Bloom & Wild from my friend F yesterday. Completely self-contained – it comes with battery operated lights, paper and bauble decs, the gold ‘tub’ and soil, and can be replanted afterwards – it is idiot-proof even enough to survive my cack-handedness, and brightens the place up nicely, hopefully distracting from the fact I’ve already emptied the advent calendars…