Whether you call it shabby chic or retro cool, it’s all to do with making your own Christmas decorations, getting out the paper and crayons, safety scissors and glue and getting the kids involved. If you’re stuck for Christmas decorations ideas just think back to your own childhood or ask your parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties about the sort of festival baubles they had when they were young.

The very easiest tree decorations to make are mini-presents - simply wrap up match boxes in wrapping paper or paint them with child-safety paints and hang them on the tree with string or a pretty ribbon. And table top decorations don’t come much simpler than curling a piece of cardboard into a cone shape, colouring it and gluing bits of cotton wool onto it so that it looks like a snow-covered tree.

Pine cones sprayed silver and dipped in glitter used to be a common sight on trees in the 1970s, as did those paper chains (if you don’t want to buy a stack of coloured paper just cut up old magazines or wrapping paper.) The same approach to recycling can be applied to wrapping paper itself. Last year I wrapped a fashion-mad friend’s presents in pages torn from glossy magazines such as Vogue, and she loved not just the images but the personalised touch too.

In fact, personalised Christmas decorations are as popular as vintage ones, as everyone likes to feel that they’re special. Think about customising the baubles you already have in your box of decorations by carefully writing the name of family members on each one using a gold or silver fine-nibbed marker pen. Or revive the skills you learnt in school embroidery classes by cross-stitching names and favourite motifs onto fabric, stitching the fabric together to form a square, stuffing it with lavender or another fragrant pot-pourri of your choice, attaching ribbon or thread to it and hanging it on the Christmas tree.

Another way to provide a non-artificial scent in your home is to take a mandarin orange and spike it with cloves. Just remember not to hide them away though, as many a 1970s post-Christmas tidy-up was spoiled by discovering mouldy oranges left forgotten about behind plant pots. Or maybe that was just in my house!