Mono Monday: FESTIVE

I guess in our house there's no better signifier of the festive season than our Christmas tree.

We have our own tradition each year here in the valley; the weekend before Christmas we head up our neighbours hill and cut a small Kanuka tree to use as our centrepiece. 

The great thing about using a native tree is that not only does it link us to our locality, but it also is something that has been self sown. It's link to nature, a celebration of the seasons. I guess you could say it's closer to a traditional Yule log than a dirty old pine tree or plastic fantastic made in the PRC...

Each year we also treat ourselves to some new decorations, usually wooden ones, like this santa here. We've also had a bit of a departure though this year, as we have moved away from our usual garland lights to also adding a multitude of colour LEDs. Let's just say it lights up the living room very well indeed....