Why we are seeking comfort in a retro Christmas - Catherine Scott

We have put up our tree earlier than normal this year, although not as early as many. It is as if putting up the tree and getting out the decorations is signalling the end of what has been a hideous year.

While 2021 isn’t going to be easy, the virus is still out there, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit continues and we can only guess at the long term physical and mental aftermath of the pandemic, there is definitely a feeling of hope.

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons our tree is a bit different from other years. We have gone full retro with coloured fairy lights as opposed to the gently glowing white ones.

It was my husband who said he wanted a change, but maybe it is harking back to the comfort of our childhood, where coloured fairy lights were all you could get and the more garish the better, the tree festooned with tinsel and clashing baubles,

In more recent years Christmas trees have become a much more subtle affair, many colour co-ordinated.

We have normally gone for a halfway house – glowing white lights with a mismatch of baubles collected down the generations. But there is nothing subtle about our tree this year, much to the teenagers’ embarrassment. Although for the first time in years the girls wanted to decorate the tree. It was as if they too found some comfort in unwrapping the familiar baubles – many collected throughout their childhood. The only slight fly in the ointment was when they announced they really didn’t like the angel that I bought when they were tiny.

I bought it replace the one I’d had as a child which really had seen better days having lost both arms and legs and her eyes had gone rather crossed, despite my mum’s best efforts to spruce her up with new netting and tinsel halo. Maybe I’ll go in the loft and see if I can find her, then they really will be embarrassed.

But we’re not the only ones who are finding solace in Christmas. Have you noticed that everyone seems to be bringing out a Christmas record? From Dolly Parton and Beverley Knight to Liam Gallagher and Robby Williams. Just so long as Mr Blobby doesn’t reappear – that really would put the tin hat on 2020.