As the festive season draws to a close, households across the UK face the annual ritual of packing away their Christmas adornments. For one family in the Berkshire village of Inkpen, this task on Twelfth Night is a deeply personal and poignant affair, intertwining memory, tradition, and a connection to the natural world.
The Meaning Behind the Baubles
The writer confesses a reluctance to let the festive period end, cherishing the timeless, mischievous spirit of Christmastide that exists outside ordinary days. The ambiguity of Twelfth Night itself – whether it falls on January 5th or 6th – adds to the charm, allowing for personal traditions to override strict superstition.
The centrepiece is a colourful tree, sourced not from a generic lot but from Willis Farm, high on the downs, chosen for its sustainable cultivation and consideration for wildlife. Each decoration tells a story. Some are cherished relics from childhood, while others, like a wooden goose and a beaver nestled in a walnut shell, were bought in a Christmas shop in Banff, Alberta, during a break from ranching in 1989.
The collection is a menagerie of sentiment: silver acorns, golden apples, and an array of animal figures including a sleeping fawn, a bejewelled owl, and a badger in a dressing gown smoking a pipe. Handmade clay ornaments from the writer's children, crafted at the local school, sit alongside these, creating a tapestry of place, memory, irreverence, and reverence.
Sustainable Farewells and Garden Rituals
The dismantling process is a careful, almost ceremonial act. Brittle mistletoe is disentangled from the ceiling light; its berries will be frozen and later pressed into the leaf scars on apple boughs come spring, in hope of new growth. The remains of a wind-tossed wreath are crumbled and redistributed across the garden.
This year saw old decorations find new life. A swag of tinsel, which had graced the banister of their previous 1950s cottage for two decades, now creates a grotto in their bungalow's kitchen arch, adorned with fir, holly, ivy, and hawthorn berries.
A Blaze of Glory for the Greenery
The final act is a dramatic and beautiful send-off. Sprigs are extracted from a felted mouse choir staged on the mantelpiece. Then, all the foraged greenery – the holly, the ivy, the fir – is fed into the lit fire's chimney. The writer dashes outside to watch the sparks rise into the night sky like gold stars against silver, a fittingly glorious finale. The sustainably sourced tree, once cut up, will eventually follow.
This intimate country diary entry captures the universal tug between holding onto festive joy and acknowledging the turn of the seasons, all while celebrating family history and a profound respect for the environment.
