Let your children make paper chains. These are inexpensive to buy, and as a bonus keep them entertained for a while. When mine were little, they also enjoyed making snowmen from old toilet roll tubes and cotton wool, so let them loose with a few Christmas craft supplies.”

Alice Guy, a personal finance expert at Interactive Investor, suggests people should “resist the temptation to trade up” if they are trying to keep a lid on costs.Look for an organisation or charity that offers a ‘treecyling’ service where it could be used to build effective flood barriers in communities around the UK

Rub the squeezed lime around the rim of the glass and sprinkle with salt, or put salt on a plate and put the glass into it rim side down. As the country winds down from the festive period, millions of households and businesses will be looking to take down their Christmas decorations – and in total dispose of eight million Christmas trees. Add the salmon fillets and pour the rest of the spruce mix on top and turn the fish to ensure it is coated with the mixture. If, however, you have an artificial tree, then make sure to look at ways of keeping them for future Christmases so they don’t end up in landfill where they can take centuries to decompose. With food price inflation at its highest level since 1977, this is one area where careful budgeting is required to keep costs down and avoid unnecessary waste, so before you do anything, Helen Carey, a chef tutor at the Waitrose Cookery School, suggests taking some time to plan.According to the British Christmas Tree Growers Association, between six and eight million real Christmas trees are sold in the UK every year; A typical six to seven foot high Christmas tree is between 10 and 12 years old; Nordmann Firs are the most popular in homes, making up 80% of those sold, with Norway Spruce making up 10-15% If you’re one of the nearly 30 million households who will be getting a live Christmas tree this year, it’s important to keep the tree fresh throughout the entire holiday season. A fresh tree not only smells nicer than a dry, brittle tree, but it’ll also drop fewer needles, remain greener longer, and pose much less of a fire hazard. Take into consideration how many people you are cooking for and how many meals you will be expected to prepare,” she says. “And factor in that some of those meals will be perfect made from the leftovers of your main Christmas meal.”

Yew and cedar trees can be confused with the edible trees, but must not be eaten as they are poisonous. Yew doesn’t have the citrusy smell in its needles that fir has. Yew needles are matte green underneath and do not carry the hallmark white lines like fir needles and eating even a small handful of yew leaves can be fatal. Spruce cones are long and hang down from the tree. The scales are smooth and overlapping, flexible and soft.

Sky-high energy bills have meant a renewed focus on home usage but making your home look festive with fairy lights won’t add much to your bills. You should avoid decorations that use older lights with halogen and incandescent bulbs because they use a lot more energy but outdoor lights are often made using cheap-to-run LED lights. A household with a string of 200 LED lights using 6W power could expect to increase their bills by 27p if used for six hours a day for 22 days over the whole festive period, based on current electricity prices, according to Uswitch calculations. Battery-powered lights are another good option, especially if you already have a stash of batteries at home. You can always turn off other lights in the room and enjoy the glow.

Replant your potted Christmas tree in a garden to give it a new lease of life. You could also add bird feeders to provide shelter for wildlife Blend the salt, sugar and spruce tips in a blender until the spruce is chopped up and mixed nicely with the salt and sugar. Pour half the mixture into a bowl or bag.Fir trees often have a classic Christmas tree shape: their branches are dense and slightly upturned. The needles are short, soft, flat, and have a rounded edge and they connect to the stem by suction cup-like attachments.