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. Spruce cones are long and hang down from the tree. The scales are smooth and overlapping, flexible and soft. 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

Once you’ve selected your live tree, you’ll need to take care of it immediately to keep it alive. Tchukki Andersen, a staff arborist for the Tree Care Industry Association, suggests wrapping it in a plastic tarp to protect it on the journey home. If you bought a pre-cut tree, when you get it home, use a handsaw or chainsaw to make a fresh cut to remove about an inch or so of wood from the bottom of the trunk. Millions of families around the UK celebrated Christmas with a beautiful Fir or Spruce tree in their home, but when the decorations are taken down, it’s important that we dispose of trees sustainably. Drop your tree off at a recycling centre where it can be turned into chippings for paths or turned into soilIf money is an issue, Ross Duncton at Columbia Threadneedle Investments suggests speaking to friends and family members so as to “manage expectations with gift-giving to take some pressure off the purse strings this year”. No one will want you to get into financial difficulty to fund the festive period, he says.

For a delicately flavoured roast, place two or three decent sized branches under the joint as it roasts to impart flavour to the lamb. There are a few simple steps to help keep your Christmas tree alive for longer, and ensure your tannenbaum doesn’t become a tannen-bummer. (A tannenbaum, by the way, is a fir tree.)You will need: Dried pine cones, lard or suet, seeds, nuts, raisins, grated cheese, a bowl, string, scissors. Record food price inflation means many households will be spending less money on Christmas meals this year. Photograph: The Irish Image Collection/Getty Images/Design Pics RF When setting up your Christmas tree, remember to keep it well away from heat sources, including heat registers, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves, space heaters, and south-facing windows, as these will accelerate the drying process. A Christmas pudding. Try to work out the food quantities you need to buy. Photograph: esp_imaging/Getty Images

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. 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. 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. 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.

How to eat (and drink) your Christmas tree

At Christmas time, many of us get carried away, with cheese, biscuits, chocolate, alcohol and vegetables the foods people often buy too much of. If you are broke but still hosting this year, why not discuss sharing the shopping costs or ask guests to contribute something to the meal. Jane Berry, who runs the Shoestring Cottage money-saving blog, suggests heading to charity shops and getting creative yourself. “You will find a good selection of secondhand decorations in charity shops,” she says. “They bring them out about now and they tend to be very cheap.” 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. Real Christmas trees are recyclable and can be shredded into chippings, which are then used in parks or woodland areas. Alternatively you can replant them, meaning you can enjoy your tree for years to come.