Some Christmas decorating tips from your decorator

I love Christmas. My wife’s name is Holly, after all.

But I lose sleep at the thought of all the lovely paintwork my men have done being wrecked by sellotape and blu-tack. So, if you’ll allow me, I have some suggestions on how to hang things without wrecking the lovely job my men did. They have feelings too.

Painted walls are particularly prone to damage from sticky tape, so if at all possible hide your sellotape from helpful children until after Christmas. Blu-Tack is just as bad – it leaves oily marks which don’t come out.

Varnished wood is usually strong enough to take sticky tape, but even so masking tape or poster hanging tape is a much better bet than sellotape.
If you’re lucky enough to have friends who can afford postage stamps, Christmas cards look nice hanging from strips of ribbon, either vertically or horizontally.

Drawing pins can do more damage than woodworm, but if things need to be hung then the tops of picture rails or door frames are usually out of sight.

I was curious to see if there were any highly original trends emerging for decorations this year – like the black Christmas trees a few years ago, or  upside down trees hung from the ceiling, but so far it seem traditional decorations are winning. Popular colours this year seem to be black and gold, white and gold, and green and silver.

I wish you a happy christmas and hope to renew our acquaintance in the new year.

Geoff Parvin