The pile of Quality Street, After Eights and Thorntons has been growing at a steady rate over the last few weeks, but today it reached the threshold level where not only was ‘the pile’ a dominant feature of the lounge; it also indicated Christmas must be close – so close that we could no longer contain our festive excitement. It was time to decorate the tree. Once Ross, my brothers and I had loaded the tree with as many baubles as it could take, we took the rest of the evening off to discuss how much we were going to eat on Christmas day, leaving my mum and sister to tactfully amend our decorative faux pas.