Deck The Decks

With space on board at a premium, festive frills are trimmed down

Christmas decorations can be a bone of contention on a narrowboat. Frankly, they can be the cause of discord in bricks and mortar dwelling where there is comparatively acres of space for storage. But while aboard, it is difficult to allocate precious space to store items only used for a very short period of time. I decided I’d have a go at making something that would take up little space while on display, and then could be repurposed after.

Personally, I love a tree at Christmas. But I will concede having the usual tree onboard is not exactly conducive to narrowboat life. Looking around my cabin I can see nowhere that even the tiniest of trees could fit. A few years ago in our house, we had a similar problem. We had downsized and simply did not have space to accommodate a tree. We ended up buying a wall-mounted half tree that hung flat, several feet above the ground. Having given it some thought, I decided a wall-mounted solution could work onboard too. In fact, what I ended up producing hung from the top plank of our cratch and was anchored against our drop-down boatman’s table. Space-wise, it worked a treat, taking up no room but lighting up our cabin with festive merriment.