This is not the post I’d planned – that one needs a photo from the weekend and I can’t find the lead to download from the camera!
I’ve said before on a few occasions that I really love trees; that includes the lovely decorative ones seen in the UK at this time of year.
Here’s one waiting to be put on display in my house!
Many people will have memories of decorating their homes for festive occasions, and one I really remember from childhood is decorating the Christmas tree.
We made hanging ornaments for them at playschool and primary school – cutting egg-boxes into little bell-shapes and covering them with foil for example. My parent’s tree, as we grew up, was a mishmash of lovely glamorous baubles and things we’d made as children that my mum couldn’t bear to throw away. And there was always lametta. Not the horrid angel hair stuff that knots up but lovely long shiny strands in a multitude of colours that caught the sparkle from the fairy lights we’d draped across the tree.
I realised this year that you can tell a lot about a home from decorations. For example, those baubles celebrating ‘baby’s first christmas’, or ones shaped like princess shoes, or crosses and angels. Each of these says something about the household – that there’s a baby there, or a woman/girl, or people who like to reflect upon the religious elements of the season.
When you write, you lay a trail of clues for your reader to pick up. Decorations are a great way to do this, and if you look around you’ll see how much variation there can be. You’ll soon see that you can tell a story without even mentioning the characters themselves.
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 