MY MULBERRY HOUSE GUIDE TO CREATING THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS

It does take a while, but once you get into the rhythm of it, it's surprisingly therapeutic. It also makes taking them off much easier because you're following each strand back along the branches rather than discovering an enormous tangled mass in January. New kittens, admittedly, don't make any part of this process easier.

Once the lights are on, I layer and layer. I don't think a Christmas tree needs to be too coordinated, and you certainly don't need hundreds of expensive baubles to fill a large tree. Ribbon is one of my favourite tricks. I use it in abundance, tying bows throughout the branches to add colour, texture and volume, then mix in our collection of old and new decorations. I've also got my eye on Crocus's beautiful fruit decorations this year, which will be perfect amongst all those ribbon

I love putting them into old bowls, terracotta pots, vintage tureens or anything I already have rather than necessarily using traditional planters. Moss around the top instantly makes them feel more finished, and then I mix them with plenty of candles so you have those wonderful fresh greens glowing in the candlelight.

At a time when the garden can feel rather brown and bare, bulbs bring life back into the house. They're also one of those rare Christmas decorations that actually get better after Christmas. Once the tree has gone and everything suddenly feels a little empty, the bulbs are just beginning to flower and carry you into January.

I also have my beautiful Crocus doorway planter, which I fill with seasonal colour, ivy and ferns. I love having something genuinely living on the door amongst all the Christmas decorations, and it can evolve throughout the winter rather than needing to come down on Twelfth Night.

For special occasions, I'll add tall candles to the arrangement, or tiny battery-operated twinkling lights. If you know the in-laws are arriving to stay for Christmas, or friends are coming for drinks, it's rather lovely to think about their experience from the moment they reach the front door. Christmas decorating doesn't have to begin in the sitting room.

This winter we've brought it right inside the house and put it in the fancy room. I've filled it with candles, shells and greenery, and it completely brings what was previously an empty corner of the room to life. The foliage and flowers are reflected in the glass, candlelight bounces around it, and the shells add a little bit of fun. I will, admittedly, add a shell almost anywhere given the opportunity.

There are so many other ways you could use one indoors, too. In a kitchen, I'd fill it with pots of herbs and bulbs, but at Christmas I think it would make the most fabulous drinks cabinet. Beautiful cut-glass champagne coupes, a silver bottle cooler, bottles of champagne and perhaps a few candles and trails of ivy amongst them. What a way to start Christmas Day.

Then I add greenery wherever I can. I love long trails of ivy because you don't have to do very much with them; their natural shape does all the work for you. We have evergreen ferns in the garden that I cut and bring indoors, and eucalyptus is another favourite because it smells wonderful, lasts brilliantly and still looks beautiful as it begins to dry.

I'll put foliage over fireplaces, around mirrors and pictures, above windows, along shelves and down the centre of tables. You don't necessarily need to make elaborate garlands. Sometimes one enormous, wonderfully unruly piece of greenery in the right place is far more effective.