The Vancouver Olympic Winter Games will take place from 12 to 28 February 2010.

The Games will be staged across two venues within the British Columbia region, with ice events and two skiing events to be based in the Vancouver area, while the Alpine, Nordic, Sliding and Paralympic disciplines will all take place in Whistler, approximately 120 kilometres north of Vancouver. Whistler will also play host to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, which will happen from 12 to 21 March. The venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium.

British Olympics Association

The British Winter Olympics Reindeer

Metropolitan Kirill Celebrates Russian Orthodox Christmas

According to the Julian calendar, Christmas fell today, January 7th 2009 and Orthodox Christians in Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Georgia, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, and the Ukraine celebrated with a strict fast, holy supper, Grand Liturgy and by burning dried oak branches (Russia).

In Egypt, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, held a somber mass led by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria Tuesday at the Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. Pope Shenouda expressed solidarity with the people of Gaza; “Our Mother Mary was Palestinian, and so was Jesus and his disciples. We pray for our brothers and sisters of all faiths in Palestine and particularly in Gaza,” he said in a televised address.

Pope Benedict XVI sent his greetings to the Eastern Churches who, “following the Julian calendar will celebrate Holy Christmas tomorrow. May the memory of the birth of the Saviour rekindle in their hearts more and more the joy of being loved by God.”

In the Western church, Epiphany is usually celebrated as the time the Wise Men or Magi arrived to present gifts to the young Jesus (Matt. 2:1-12).

In some cultures, especially Hispanic and Latin American culture, January 6th is observed as Three Kings Day, or simply the Day of the Kings (Span: la Fiesta de Reyes, el Dia de los Tres Reyes, or el Dia de los Reyes Magos; Dutch: Driekoningendag). Even though December 25th is celebrated as Christmas in these cultures, January 6th is often the day for giving gifts. In some places it is traditional to give Christmas gifts for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Since Eastern Orthodox traditions use a different religious calendar, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th and observe Epiphany or Theophany on January 19th.

By the 16th century, some European and Scandinavian cultures had combined the Twelve Days of Christmas with (sometimes pagan) festivals celebrating the changing of the year. These were usually associated with driving away evil spirits for the start of the new year.

The Twelfth Night is January 5th, the last day of the Christmas Season before Epiphany (January 6th). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening of January 5th is still counted as the Twelfth Night, the beginning of the Twelfth day of Christmas the following day. Twelfth Night often included feasting along with the removal of Christmas decorations.

French and English celebrations of Twelfth Night included a King’s Cake, remembering the visit of the Three Magi, and ale or wine (a King’s Cake is part of the observance of Mardi Gras in French Catholic culture of the Southern USA). In some cultures, the King’s Cake was part of the celebration of the day of Epiphany.

The Gifts

The Twelve Days of Christmas carol details gifts given on each day over the festive season these are:

• 1st day: A partridge in a pear tree
• 2nd day: Two turtle doves
• 3rd day: Three French hens
• 4th day: Four colly birds
• 5th day: Five gold rings
• 6th day: Six geese a-laying
• 7th day: Seven swans a-swimming
• 8th day: Eight maids a-milking
• 9th day: Nine drummer drumming
• 10th day: Ten pipers piping
• 11th day: Eleven ladies dancing
• 12th day: Twelve lords a-leaping

Colly birds are blackbirds (early English “colly” meant black). Gold ringed pheasants are the gold rings referred to.

Christmas Mobile Phone

Christmas Text Messages

What better way to spread Christmas cheer than with a bulk text? The Christmas text message has only been around as long as mobile phone users started to realise that SMS (does anyone still use “SMS” anymore???) messaging was a quick way to send short messages. Digital drops of happiness.

Round Robin Christmas Letters

Every year, at least one member of our family, or sometimes even a long-lost friend will send out a Round Robin Christmas letter. These letters will generally consist of details of how the nuclear family of the sender has been doing this year. Often, it is the only contact we have had with the person(s) within the letter, but still, every year, its amazing to learn of just how well this persons life has gone, yet again, for the Round Robin Christmas letter is a place to highlight achievement.

Christmas Emails and E-cards

Before the internet was invented, there was no-where for us to Elf Ourselves, and even Christmas cards had to be troublingly and painstakingly placed into actual envelopes and posted. No more! Now we can send out Christmas emails and e-cards, leaving no excuse for not bestowing festive greetings to even the most tenuous of contacts.

This was the first time Television became part of Christmas. Fact.

Christmas TV

Once, there was a time when families would spend all of Christmas doing things like eating, drinking and being merry. Then, in the mid-afternoon, they would all gather round and watch the fire until Grandad fell asleep and everyone else gently drifted off too.

Once a TV was introduced to the living rooms across the western world, Christmas made much more sense. At last, people had something to look at during this period of quiet time when conversation had run dry: that thing is Christmas Television.

Office Christmas Parties

Long ago – in the time of Jesus, Mary and all the characters of the Bible – people didn’t go to work in offices. Nowadays, thankfully, we do, for this means that every year we can gather together for Christmas drinks, and often even a meal too, with the people we spend our working lives with. Office Christmas Parties are great: we get to see the big bosses in their normal clothes, and be ever so slightly offended by those who have over imbibed sufficiently to lose a little too much inhibition. Really great office parties give us enough to talk about while counting down the days until we get to stop working for Christmas proper.

Facebook Christmas

Can you think of a better way to share Christmas cheer than by poking people we used to know at school? The Facebook Christmas is a growing tradition which involves posting links to the most Christmassy things we’ve discovered around the WWW and updating our statuses to display festive cheer. Photos of Christmas antics are a must, and if they involve either yellow snow, drunkenness, or a combination of the two, will also be festooned with hilarious comments too!

Over-the-top Christmas Lights!

Over-The-Top Christmas Decorations

Everyone has a house near them which single-handedly contributes several years worth of Third World carbon credits to the atmosphere by going just a little bit too far with their Christmas decorations, and covering their house with an incredible number of decorative lighting arrangements.

Everyone sneers a little, yet, funnily enough, we’ve all paid a special trip to the house in question “just to see how ridiculous this year’s lights are, of course” but actually, deep down, we all love this Christmas opulence more than a little.

Secret Santa

Secret Santa, or Chris Kringle, is where we put everyone’s names into a hat and only buy one or two presents for the people we pull out, in secret. This is a modern-day tradition designed to get over the huge present buying extravaganza which Christmas might otherwise have become. It often goes hand-in-hand with the office Christmas party or in other circumstances where buying a gift for everyone would just be plain impossible, for example, in a family the size of mine.

Turning on the Christmas Lights

In the long ago forgotten past, before things like electricity, towns and cities would be mean places in November, full of people who didn’t know Christmas was ‘just around the corner’. All of that ended in 1976 when the Lord Mayor of the World, President Gerald Ford, declared that “every town and city worth its salt should light some municipal Christmas lights thus marking the beginning of the joyful journey toward Crimbo (sic)” – since that time, every year, we have had town Christmas lights being switched on around the world by somebody famous.

Christmas Websites

Some people like Christmas so much, that they actually create websites on the internet all about this Christmassy stuff. Just like… Er… This one.

Merry Christmas!

Our family Christmas was one of those occasions which I’m sure the majority of those present hated but couldn’t escape, as after all those years it was no longer a tradition, but a happening played out to a script. The actors may have been a year older, some may, unfortunately, have died in the course of the year, new ones appeared as new grandchildren or great-grandchildren came along, but the script always remained the same.

The director was Antonio, my brother-in-law, and he had 27 or more video-tapes to prove it. The film starts with the various guests welcomed by the video-camera. At each ring of the doorbell, someone dashes to open the front door, and Antonio zooms in on the guests who enter, arms piled with gifts, festive smiles fixed on their lips, the women muffled in luxurious fur-coats.

Said furs are reverently taken by my mother-in-law and laid lovingly on her bed. Federico, our nephew, once commented, “If you go into Nonna’s bedroom on Christmas Day, it’s horrific. There are piles of dead animals on her bed. It looks like a mink farm!”.

Marjorie Proops

The guests have been more or less the same over the years, but there is a hard-core of two people in particular which never varies. One is Agnese, the neighbour from downstairs, friend of the family and retired schoolteacher. She waltzes in dressed in black with sequins and gold lamè to give something of the atmosphere and festive season, tossing her platinum blond curls and peering at everyone through her Marjorie Proops-type spectacles with wings of strass, which look as if they are about to make her take off.

The other is Luciano, a distant relative and self-defined “professional guest” – as he’s never cooked or paid for a dinner in his life. He makes his entrance amid guffaws of hearty laughter (his own), dressed elegantly casual in an old moth-eaten but designer-made pullover, with a silk kerchief (always the same one) at his throat. Ever since I’ve known him, he’s had a bald pate, rather like a monk’s tonsure, which has gradually spread over the years, leaving him with a semi-circular frill of white hair hanging down over his shirt collar. The portrait is completed by his white, drooping moustaches, and an inane grin set on his lips. He has the role of the jester, the heart and soul of the party, and from the moment he enters, he leaps round (in spite of his almost 80 years) being desperately happy, telling the same dirty jokes and reciting the usual poems in Roman dialect.

At this point someone says: “What about Aunt Laura and Cousin Wanda?” (Another fixed duo).
Paolo’s mother shakes her head in irritation:
“It’s always the same! They’ve no idea of time! Wanda never gets up before midday.”
The consequent wait begins as people wander round nibbling peanuts and forcing themselves to keep up their smiles (after an afternoon there, you risk lock-jaw). At last the doorbell rings, the tension dissolves and false smiles are spontaneously renewed as Aunt Laura and Cousin Wanda make their entrance.

“Sorry we’re late!” twitters Wanda as Antonio dashes to take up his position,”but we were playing cards until 5 o’clock this morning!” They are quickly divested of their dead mink, so presents can be distributed and unwrapped in an atmosphere of exaggerated, forced happiness, with the same comments and laughter (and the same presents!) in the same places, year after year.

Then there is lunch. The turkey usually has to be heralded in at least three times before Antonio is satisfied with his camera angle or the warmth of the applause and oohs and aahs. When the vegetables are served, if there are peas (and there invariably are) Luciano leaps up and says:
“Who has prepared the pea?” (‘Pea’ in Italian is a eupheuism for the male organ and he uses the singular deliberately to create a double entendre). Amid the red faces and titters of the older women and guffaws of the older men, he goes on:
“Elisabetta! (my mother-in-law) did you prepare the pea? I want my pea prepared by Elisabetta!”

Once the table is cleared there’s Bingo, or tombola, the traditional festive game in Italy. Antonio plays it with great gusto, showing the same enthusiasm every year, calling the numbers: “All the sixes – sixty-six! Zia Lina’s legs – seventy-seven!” as if it were the first time. He then extracts and calls five numbers in quick succession, and there’s general panic and protest as the old ladies and smaller children can’t follow him, and total confusion ensues with Luciano’s voice to be heard above all, declaring that he marks off his numbers in the French way.

The best bit is when, in the course of the long, drawn-out afternoon, Antonio suddenly jumps up, sets out the chairs and gets us all sitting round in religious silence as the video of last Christmas is screened, so that we can see how we have changed. If you are really lucky, you get a viewing not only of last Christmas, but also of Epiphany and Easter, and their grandson’s first pee in his potty thrown in to boot.

Once the three hours of home video have been sat through, the games begin. Antonio puts on some music and he and Teresa give a demonstration of ballroom dancing; we are then bullied into Karaoke (rigorously filmed); Agnese stands up and sings old songs of the ‘40s and ‘50s, in a ‘40s and ‘50s voice, and Luciano invariably recites – given the festive season – “The Annunciation”, a sonnet by Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli, a Roman dialect poet of the 1800s, to remind us of the religious significance of the occasion. He flusters and fumbles his way through the poem, most of which he has forgotten, until he gets to the punch-line, and he never forgets that (and neither do we):
“And Mary to the Archangel said:
‘This is absurd!
‘How can I be with child,
When I have never known a Bird?’ ”
( ‘Bird’ is – yes! you’ve guessed! a eupheuism for the male organ. Come to think of it, most things in Italian are eupheuisms for the male organ!) Luciano bursts into peals of ribald laughter, drowning the sniggers and titters of the rest of the company. After five hours of this, we make our escape with various excuses, and Christmas is over for another year.

• ADILI: Adili have a handy ethical gift guide (click here) which includes products ranging from ethically mined gold earrings to organic beauty products. They have Fairtrade items as well as own brand products. Adili gives you all the information you need to make the right choice in your shopping basket. They’re also offering 15% off from 01/12/2008 – 07/12/2008. Just enter the promotional code: Earlybird1
• Ethical Superstore offers access to all the major fair trade and green brands including Cafedirect, Traidcraft, People Tree, Green & Blacks, Divine, Ecover, Freeplay, EcoZone, Solio and many more. All products must adhere to one of the following; Fair Trade, Organic, Eco Friendly, committed to health and wellness promotion or education and awareness building. They do some great Christmas decorations and gifts.
• Gossipium do clothing, bedding and accessories using Organic and Fair trade certified cotton. Their range includes organic bed linen and baby gift sets. The company works personally with cotton growers in India and design their own products. We have a great discount code to offer shoppers too: 10% discount applied when this code is used on checkout: A7DJRQ
• The British Heart Foundation has a great online Christmas shop with gift ideas for him, for her and for Home & Garden. Some, but not all, of it follows a heart theme and proceeds go towards fighting heart disease. There’s also 10% off physical products in the BHF online shop witht his vouchers code: BHF8AF (valid until 31/12/2008).
• The Urban Garden has a great range of recycled and eco-friendly gardening products from beehives to composters.
• Green People offers handmade health and beauty products that are 100% natural and certified organic. They also aid charities with related health and environmental concerns and have a great Christmas gift selection.
• Natural Collection have a huge range of products online including a Christmas Fayre, Christmas sale and Christmas gifts section. They say of themselves: “We are the UK’s leading non-food ecological retailer and are proud to be the official catalogue for Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Trees for Life, Out of This World, The Vegetarian Society, Compassion in World Farming and the World Society for the Protection of Animals.”

Paper Snowflakes

Paper snowflakes are really good fun for children to make and easy too. You can vary the designs with different cuts, different paper or by colouring the snowflakes in. Put them on the window or against black card to create a homely snow scene.

1. Just get a square piece of white paper and fold it in half and half again.
2. Snip out small sections – these will cut through the paper four times.
3. Unfold the paper and see what you have.
4. Try again until you like what you see.

Note

The only thing that can go wrong is if you cut too much out and the paper falls apart.

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  Super Deluxe Santa Outfit £215

  At Angel’s Fancy Dress they have “Bah Humbug” hats, Christmas tree outfits (perfect for those wacky primary school nativity plays), eyebrow whiteners for Santa, elf boots, donkeys, reindeers, gingerbread men, lady Santas and much more. Our personal favourite is the “White Russian” oufit at only £24.99 it’s a bargain sexy Winter outfit. Click here to see all of the Christmas outfits.

• Joker’s Masquerade has some great Christmas outfits including child nativity play costumes, Santa suits and pets outfits! Click here to see their seasonal items.
• E-fancy dress have some great historical outfits – especially useful for pantomimes and dressing up as Elton John / Marie Antoinette.Click here to see the historical outfits.
• Partybox have party masks for masquerades, wigs, face paint, a children’s Christmas play category, kids and adult Christmas fancy dress outfits. Click here to have a look.

John Lewis Reversible Tree

The Tree Itself

• Choiceful have a large range of fibreoptic and faux Christmas trees. Some are ready decorated, some are not. You can get a 5ft Christmas tree with “realistic foliage” for under a tenner. Just click here.
• PrezziePlus have a small range of mini Christmas trees including “grow your own” and USB desktop trees. Just click here.
• Pine cone Christmas trees 1.8m or 2.4m from Eddie’s essentials. Also, LED light trees and lighted twigs. Click here for more information.
• Marks & Spencer have a range of ready decorated trees from £25. Click here to find out more. They’re also part of the M&S Christmas 3 for 2 offer, so you can get some money off your basket.
• £19.99 for an 80cm fibre optic Christmas tree or a 6ft pine Christmas tree from Robert Dyas. Click here to see.
• John Lewis have a god choice of tree, including the upside-down reversible trees that have been causing a storm this season – one at only £30. They also do a red felt Christmas tree. Click here for more details.

Always start with the lights, followed by the tinsel and finally the decorations.

Decorations

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  NotOnTheHighstreet

  British Heart Foundation heart-shaped tree decorations from £1.50. Click here for more details.

• NotOnTheHighstreet have a vast array of Christmas tree decorations. Some of which are very quirky and original. Click here to find out more.
• Baubles and tinsel individual tree decorations from M&S start at £1 and include all of your usual red, gold and silver accoutrements. Click here for more information. The best decoration is a hanging Santa tin which contains loads of chocolate Santa Clauses
• Much cheaper for baubles is Robert Dyas – £1.49 for an assorted pack of baubles. However, the delivery is £4.95 so you’ll probably want to get a few other things at the same time. Click here to have a look.
• Indoor Christmas lights from Robert Dyas. Prices start at £7.49. Click here for more information.
• Lights4Fun have all the indoor Christmas lights that you could possibly want, including some very beautiful star lights (£13.95) for the Christmas tree and battery powered lights for stand alone objects. Click here for more info.
• Heal’s have some very bright baubles and many alternative tree decorations such as cars, birds, owl and a singing Santa! Click here to have a look.
• John Lewis have handy multipacks of very beautiful tree ornaments and useful things like tree skirts. Click here for more information.
• Fairtrade bird decorations £5.62. Click here for more.

Star / Fairy / Angel

• British Heart Foundation tree-top angel £12.99. Click here for more details.
• Heal’s do a metal and diamante star tree topper for £12. Click here to learn more.
• John Lewis have a range of angels and snowflakes. Click here for more information.

Christmas Card Holders

The Table

NotOnTheHighstreet have a special selection of products specifically for the Christmas table including; place settings, candles and indoor sparklers in the shape of hearts (£3). Click here for more information.

• John Lewis do table runners, Christmas themed plates, platters and placemats, plus much more. Click here for more details.
• The British Heart Foundation: snowman and holly & ivy napkins for £3.25. Just click here.

Candles & Candleholders

• Gift box tealight holders and bauble candles from The British Heart Foundation £2.95 click here for more details.
• Candles with berry crown rings and sequins from John Lewis. Click here to look.

Crackers

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  Black and White Crackers from John Lewis

  Luxury Christmas crackers from BHS. £12. Each cracker has a hat, joke and gift. Click here to find out more.

• Luxury Christmas crackers from Robert Dyas, pack of 12. Click here to see more.
• M&S have a lot of luxury crackers which are well present – prices start at £5. Click here for more.
• Heal’s have musical crackers, old-fashioned crackers and celebrity game crackers. More entertaining than your usual assortment. Click here to have a look.
• John Lewis aren’t the most expensive crackers, but you only get six in a pack. They are, however, very beautiful. Just check out the black and white design by clicking here.

Windows, Windowsills and Mantlepieces

Nativity

• British Heart Foundation: Wooden nativity scene with tealight holder £12.50. Just click here.
• Wire framed nativity scene from NotOnTheHighstreet £18.

Lights

• Heal’s have a small but original range of indoor lights for Christmas including frosted “white berry” lights. Click here for more information.
• John Lewis have plenty of indoor and battery powered lights from £4. Click here to see.

Snowflakes

• Tealight holding hanging snowflake for £10 or plain hanging snowflakes 3 for £9.95 from NotOnTheHighstreet. Click here for more details.

The Urban Garden

Candleholders

• Metal star decoration with clear glass votive from the Urban Garden £13.50. Also available in Christmas tree and heart-shaped design. Click here for more info.

Garlands

• Garlands from NotOnTheHighstreet start at £4.99 and include bunting, union jack paper chains, chilli garlands, eco-friendly designs and frangipani light displays. Click here for more info.

Stockings and Christmas Sacks

• A massive range of modern-design stockings and Christmas sacks in leather, wool, cotton from £4 at NotOnTheHighstreet. Click here to find out more.
• Save yourself the bother of wrapping up with these bumper Christmas sacks (very large) at only £4.99 from Yellow Moon. A proportion of sales to Yellow Moon are automatically diverted to charity. Click here for more info.
• Faux fur, felt and leopard print stockings from £15 at Heal’s. They also do silver festive-themed hooks for stockings. Click here to see.
• John Lewis have stockings and sacks including faux fur, black and gold coloured stockings from £5. Click here for more information.

Other Indoor Decorations

• Lifesize snow animals from Heal’s; deer, penguin, polar bear. Click here to learn more.
• Cinnamon bundles from John Lewis £4. Click here for more information.
• Heart-shaped fairtrade cardholder £6.71 from Natural Collection. Click here to find out more.

Outdoors

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  The Urban Garden

  Star-shaped Christmas bird feeder £1.30 from The Urban Garden.

• A stunning array of outdoor lighting available from Eddie’s Essentials. Including light displays, LED trees, animals and gutter hooks. Click here for more information.
• Outdoor LEDs, timers and decorating clips from Robert Dyas. Click here to have a look.
• Lights4Fun do the most comprehensive range of outdoor Christmas lights – they even do commercial street decorations online so you can buy for your business too! Click here to see.
• Heal’s have a small but exclusive range of outdoor lighting for Christmas, which includes an LED reindeer for £1200. Click here to find out more.
• John Lewis have plenty of outdoor lights from £4. Click here to see.

How to make a Christmas Wreath:

You will need:

• A wreath ring – either from a florist or a coat hanger
• Stiff wire (florist wire is best)
• Vegetation

The best vegetation is holly, conifer and anything else you can find out and about in the garden which has a wintry feel. Dark green and frosty colours do best. Don’t pick from other people’s gardens or public land. Suggested plants from the BBC:

Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Golden King’: for holly leaves with a golden splash of colour. An added bonus is that the leaves are free of spines.

Ilex ‘Silver Queen’: holly for green foliage with a silver edge. This is a male plant though, so it won’t produce any berries.

Hedera helix: the traditional English ivy. If you don’t have any in your garden, ask your friends. It grows in abundance and it should be easy to find a few leafy branches.

Hedera colchica ‘Sulphur Heart’: Persian ivy with large, variegated leaves.

Ilex aquifolium, common holly: traditional red berries.

Viburnum opulus: orangey-red berries.

Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii ‘Mother of Pearl’, snowberry: has a whitish-pink berry that will make your wreath look as if it has flecks of snow on it.

Ilex opaca, holly: this holly has attractive yellow berries.

Skimmia japonica subsp. Reevesiana: a good alternative to Rose hips: for a dramatic touch.

Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’ : this is a male plant, and so doesn’t produce berries, but it does produce attractive purplish clusters of flower buds around Christmas time.

Jasminum nudiflorum, winter jasmine: small yellow flowers that grow in abundance at Christmas time.

Hamamelis mollis, Chinese witch hazel: these unusual-looking flowers will give your wreath an individualised and quirky appearance.

Mahonia x media ‘Charity’, lily of the valley bush: large, scented yellow flowers.

Eucalyptus gunnii: attractive blue-green scented, round leaves.

Picea abies, Norway spruce: branches from this traditional Christmas tree will give your wreath a very festive feel.

Rosehips

Chillies

Place the wreath ring flat on the table and attach the pieces of foliage to the ring using the wire. You can pack florists’ moss into the ring instead, fixing it with wire and then you only have to push the foliage in instead of wiring it.

The more foliage that you attach, the less that each piece will slide around. Use the inner and outer rings as separate rounds. On each round, make sure that the stems of the foliage point the same way. The two “rounds” can point the same or opposite way.

The more you add, the better it looks. Save the best, or most colourful pieces, until last so that they sit on top of the rest of the foliage. Pine cones, battery powered wreath lights (£25) and baubles make good features. You can then hang the wreath on your front door or give it away as a Christmas present.

For a longer lasting wreath, use twigs and then lay it down on newspaper, spray in gold or silver, then leave to dry.

If you would rather buy one…

John Lewis do a golden wreath for £25. Their cheapest wreath is £10. The Urban Garden do three ultra-modern arty wreaths – totally minimalist and very Swedish. The cheapest of them is £8.99. By far the best wreath collection we have seen here at Christmas.vg, is the range by NotOnTheHighstreet – they do a red hot chilli wreath for £10, a gold pine cone wreath for £25 and a Fairtrade option for £25. There are at least thirty original and innovative designs. For a traditional wreath, try Marks and Spencer – they have a wreath for £39.50.

If you would rather have one delivered…

Flying Flowers will deliver a £25 wreath. It’s straight-forward and traditional and they can send a bouquet on your behalf in no less than 12 countries worldwide, from Europe to Australia, New Zealand, America and South Africa. Post-a-rose deliver a traditional Christmas wreath at a price of £22.85 and postal delivery is free (courier £5.50)