You can spend over £20 on a Christmas wreath from the garden centre. But once you’ve got yourself the wire base, you can make your own year after year. Use evergreens such as holly, with contrasting red berries, or make one out of household throwaways such as toilet rolls.

You can make your own tree decorations from old CDs, or computer circuit boards, or buy them from Nigel’s Eco-Store.

Just because one bulb is broken doesn’t mean you have to throw away all the tree lights. Woolworths do a big range of replacement bulbs. It does take a bit of patience and application to work your way through to find the faulty one though – just take one you know is working, and replace each bulb in the fault section with it until the section lights up.

Avoid buying the latest trend in decorations – buy ones that will stand the test of time. If you don’t use them one year, either store them safely until next time, or give them to someone who wants them on Freecycle.

Check out Freecycle for unwanted decorations before you buy new.

If you’re buying paper decorations, make sure they are made from recycled paper. Or make your own paper ornaments.