Lynn O’Rourke: ‘Maybe we were just unlucky last year and this year’s tree will be a fantastically scented, needle-friendly winner’

LAST Christmas our household succumbed to flu. Boxing Day saw us all fading fast and that was it, the festivities were over until well into the New Year.

The only thing rivalling our flagging spirits was our real Christmas tree. It appeared to be coming out in sympathy with us. The worse we felt, the more it drooped. The more it drooped, the worse we felt. By the time we were able to leave our beds, it had given up completely. Wooden reindeers and snow baubles littered the floor. There were even uneaten chocolate decorations gleefully discovered under the settee. It was a vicious fever-ridden, needle-dropping cycle not to be repeated.

So, you would have thought that little incident might have cured us of our fondness for real trees. However, we are still having the real-versus-fake debate. I’m all for going down the artificial route this year (and, obviously, for several years ahead), but do I want a real-looking artificial tree, or something that might make more of a statement? Do I want one with pine cones and a sprinkling of snow, an Alpine fir or a woodland pine, a Chamonix tree or a Salzburg?

Of course, maybe we were just unlucky last year and this year’s tree will be a fantastically scented, needle-friendly winner. I don’t know what I’m worrying about – the thing will barely be visible through the mountain of glitz and glitter my two daughters plan to adorn it with.