Team Bookends does Christmas decorations

Colour schemes, no animal figurines, coordinated to the surrounding décor – how do you decorate for Christmas? Team Bookends reveals all.

My family are extremely regimented on the Christmas decorations – we have two trees and they are colour-coded to fit with the décor of the room they’re in. If I had it my way the house would be turned into a grotto with a hodge-podge of different colours everywhere, but alas that’s not the case. I may get a tree for my flat this year, although I fear the decorations will have to be handmade snowflakes! Hannah

We don’t go overboard in our house – a few bits of tinsel and greenery on the tops of pictures etc, but I do love to have a nice big, REAL tree. Quite a bit of furniture is cleared or moved to make way for it. My children now handle quite a lot of the decorating of the tree (perhaps with a bit, actually a lot, of rearranging by me afterwards) and our decorations are a mixture of homemade and bought ornaments arranged pretty haphazardly. What’s really nice is that my husband I got married at Christmas time and our place settings were labels attached to baubles. Every year a few friends send me pictures of their baubles from our wedding on their own trees which I love to see. Alice

I grew up in a family where the tree could only be decorated with red or gold ornaments, and they had to be classy. Nothing too over-the-top or ornate, and we couldn’t have animal figurines. Now I love finding baubles with weird shapes in a colour scheme of blues, purples and silvers – and I remain anti-animal. My tree is fake – I bought a real tree once, and I was finding pine needles for months after – I feel sorry for the people who now live in that house (my cleaning skills left a lot to be desired!) Aimee

I’d love to say I have a huge influence on how I decorate the house at Christmas but it’s definitely my mum’s decision. There’s always a theme – usually a variation of red and gold. We’ll send Dad up into the attic in the first couple of weeks of December to get the decorations which includes a sparkly reindeer that I named ‘Sparky’ (very original) aged 10. Then Mum and I get all the decs out, I usually put the Gavin and Stacey Christmas Special on and make a start. I am the official ‘fairy light holder’, which normally involves following my mum around the tree as she puts the lights up so they don’t get in a tangle. Once mum is happy with the lights it’s on to the baubles before Dad comes in with the hoover to get any of the needles that have dropped off. Then we’ll sit back and admire the twinkling tree in the window. . .  okay, now I’m ready for Christmas! Helena

Less is more! But without taking things too seriously. A few fairy lights around the place with some artfully placed Christmas cards does the trick for me. Nothing too garish – but Charles Dickens I am not.  There will be no clove pricked oranges and dried cranberry door reefs (mostly because my front door is within a giant concrete new-build block) and no Kings choir cherubs trilling in the background.  I do like a Christmas tree but it needs to sit quite close to the door so that as soon as Jan 1^st comes, it can move swiftly out. Vicky