Make a lasting impression

This year's festive centrepiece could be your best ever with Alan Titchmarsh's essential guide to choosing, preparing and looking after your Christmas tree

- Alan Titchmarsh

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly" ...and don't forget the Christmas tree. As if you could! Even the most restrained of Christmas decorators will indulge in a modest arboreal show in December, but which of the many types of tree will you choose and how can you keep it going until Twelfth Night? The answer is by choosing carefully and positioning it wisely and at the right time. Prince Albert is most frequently cited as the originator of the tradition, but despite his love of bringing spruce trees into Queen Victoria's palaces and castles at Christmas, the custom is thought to have started in 16th-century Germany when Martin Luther decorated a tree with candles to celebrate the birth of Christ. Well before this, pagans were keen on bringing indoors branches of evergreens in the darkest months of the year to remind themselves that all was not lost and that spring would return with its abundance of new life and green shoots. Here in Britain, though, it is fair to say that Prince Albert most certainly gave the custom a shot in the arm and increased its popularity.

Fashionably late 

But don’t be too hasty in bringing yours in. If you want your tree to last, leave it for as long as possible - central heating and spruce and fir needles are not happy bedfellows and desiccation will be rapid if you choose to bring the tree indoors at the end of November.

Your Christmas tree will most likely have been cut a week or so before it makes its way to the sales outlet, be it garden centre or farm shop. Buy it and take it home as soon as you like to make sure you have one that has a good shape, but leave it outdoors for as long as you can to keep it fresh.