How to decorate your home for Christmas How much you spend and how many rooms you decorate is entirely up to you and your family.
There are some people who decorate their homes within an inch of their lives each year and create amazing displays for people to come and gaze at.
They often do this for charity, and a cynical person might think that they'd be better off giving the money the spend on the increased electricity bill to the charity instead.
However some areas tour sheets are available to guide you round the very best displays at Christmas time.
If you want to decorate one room then normally it's the lounge so that you can enjoy the decorations more when you're relaxing.
Also with leaving curtains open in the evenings neighbours will see your Christmas lights on the tree and start to enjoy the season too.
What's a good day to put the decorations up? Again it depends on so many things.
For most people a weekend in the middle of December is as early as it needs to be, but some put the tree up at the start of the month to ensure they're fully in the Christmas mood by the 25th.
Many fancy items are available such as nets of lights, fibre optic trees and chains of lights to be hung inside and on the tree.
This can make life simple as the lights are very pretty with some having many different settings so you can have different effects.
You can also buy fully dressed Christmas trees too - and for some people these are ideal - very quick and instant effort free way of enjoying Christmas.
For many people though dressing the tree is a family event and something done with pleasure as the decorations are lovingly unpacked and hung on the branches of the tree.
Another very simply decoration technique is to hang cards from strings on the walls.
This needs you to have several cards to hang before you start otherwise it looks very sad and lonely! Strings of cards add a lovely seasonal touch to the home and also make plenty of room for cards if you've not got much shelf space.
Always be fire safe though and check that any electrical items like lights are properly working and that cords are not frayed.
If in doubt don't use them without getting them checked out properly, or thrown away and buy some new ones.
Take care if you have lit candles around the home at Christmas too.
They should never be left unattended.
Check your smoke alarm works properly too - you should be checking it throughout the year, but it's good to be extra safe at Christmas.
There are some people who decorate their homes within an inch of their lives each year and create amazing displays for people to come and gaze at.
They often do this for charity, and a cynical person might think that they'd be better off giving the money the spend on the increased electricity bill to the charity instead.
However some areas tour sheets are available to guide you round the very best displays at Christmas time.
If you want to decorate one room then normally it's the lounge so that you can enjoy the decorations more when you're relaxing.
Also with leaving curtains open in the evenings neighbours will see your Christmas lights on the tree and start to enjoy the season too.
What's a good day to put the decorations up? Again it depends on so many things.
For most people a weekend in the middle of December is as early as it needs to be, but some put the tree up at the start of the month to ensure they're fully in the Christmas mood by the 25th.
Many fancy items are available such as nets of lights, fibre optic trees and chains of lights to be hung inside and on the tree.
This can make life simple as the lights are very pretty with some having many different settings so you can have different effects.
You can also buy fully dressed Christmas trees too - and for some people these are ideal - very quick and instant effort free way of enjoying Christmas.
For many people though dressing the tree is a family event and something done with pleasure as the decorations are lovingly unpacked and hung on the branches of the tree.
Another very simply decoration technique is to hang cards from strings on the walls.
This needs you to have several cards to hang before you start otherwise it looks very sad and lonely! Strings of cards add a lovely seasonal touch to the home and also make plenty of room for cards if you've not got much shelf space.
Always be fire safe though and check that any electrical items like lights are properly working and that cords are not frayed.
If in doubt don't use them without getting them checked out properly, or thrown away and buy some new ones.
Take care if you have lit candles around the home at Christmas too.
They should never be left unattended.
Check your smoke alarm works properly too - you should be checking it throughout the year, but it's good to be extra safe at Christmas.