Do you have any favourite items?

So many things. I’m a bit of a hoarder really. I suppose the ones that feel most magical to me are the Christmas tree and accompanying carriage lights that i saved from being junked two decades ago, and that have been part of my life since about 1980, early childhood. I’ve given them sanctuary in every home I’ve had since. They are irreplaceable to me. The tree slots together in many pieces like a jigsaw and the coloured lights glow softly and warmly in a way many modern Christmas lights don’t. In a quiet room with it the only source of illumination there’s a very special kind of sacred hush to its careworn but dignified silhouette. Among an eclectic bunch of decorations and old bits of tinsel, there’s even one or two fragile glass baubles as old or older than I am. And an extra special decoration too: objectively very, very  tacky, but thanks to the power of nostalgia one of the most beautiful objects in my life, a gold foil star, trimmed with tinsel, foregrounded with an affixed Angel (in reality a little cone of foil with a Sindy-sized doll’s head fused  at the top and two fragile wings. At the back, an old pipe-cleaner of goodness knows what vintage serves as a way to secure this hybrid confection to the top, where it catches the subtle light most beautifully. Trash made somehow almost holy by the magic of memory, the irrational alchemy of unconditional love, and the transformative power of a Christmas Eve hush. I’ll never throw any of it away, and I hope the whole beautifully melancholic continuum that it collectively embodies (the ghosts of forty-something  Christmases, the stoic witnessing, ‘recording’  of reliable presences then sudden absences that linear time brings inevitability -sometimes much sooner than hoped- to its faux-immortal cycle)  will still keep me company through however many Christmases remain to me. If any. 

When you say 'carriage lights', do you mean tree lights that resemble Victorian lanterns? Your description of the tree, lights, and decorations conjures up a delightfully cosy image.

On the topic of 'trash', my mother has a plastic Christmas ornament that I remember her buying from Woolworths when I was a young child. It's Father Christmas on a sleigh full of presents, and really has seen better days. However, I have given her strict instructions that she is not to throw it away. I don't know if this will make sense, but I think there's something quite appealing about the fact that it now looks so cheap and tacky.

It 100% makes sense! Even just it being Woolworths somehow feels like throwing it away would be like sacrilege. A relic of an irrecoverable past. But still part of your present. And all the years in between.  The lights are alternating Victorian lanterns and Cinderella carriages, in blue, yellow, purple/pink, and green. I’ll put a picture on here soon (if spared) as it’s nearly that time. I love them so much. Some of the wee wheels and things on the carriages are a bit broken or missing now but most are holding up pretty well. 

It 100% makes sense! Even just it being Woolworths somehow feels like throwing it away would be like sacrilege. A relic of an irrecoverable past. But still part of your present. And all the years in between.  The lights are alternating Victorian lanterns and Cinderella carriages, in blue, yellow, purple/pink, and green. I’ll put a picture on here soon (if spared) as it’s nearly that time. I love them so much. Some of the wee wheels and things on the carriages are a bit broken or missing now but most are holding up pretty well. 

Hello, old friends