Christmas 2012

Oh the shame! The shame of a discarded Christmas tree wedged into a garden recycling bin at the front of the house - in February. God knows what the neighbours think. Well, they must think that we've only just got round to taking the tree down, that we love Christmas so much or that we're so slothful we haven't got round to clearing the house of all that Christmassy paraphernalia, that we still have a sad poinsettia wrapped in tinsel on top of the telly and the long-vacated-of-chocolate advent calendars kicking around the floor being licked by the dogs.

So, I'd to make it quite clear that that tree out there is NOT a left-over from Christmas past - the Christmas decs are lucky if they make it through through to Twelfth Night in this house - that tree out there, waiting to be carted off to the municipal Christmas tree compost heap is from Christmas future. Yep, we've had our very first Christmas shoot of the year, breaking the previous record of Christmas in early May by a whopping three months.
Ooo, how do they know what's going to be 'in' for Christmas 2012 so early in the year I wondered - surprised and alarmed that my appetite for Christmas was whetted again so soon after the excesses of December. What happened here has to remain top-secret but Christmasworld, the trade-only fair held in the vast Frankfurt exhibition hall took place a week ago: all the colours, concepts and creations for Christmas 2012 are exhibited there and everything's been decided. Christmas 2012 is going to be all about...

 ... one of these colours, with maybe a bit of this...

and some of this...

I'm feeling Christmassy already AND IT'S SNOWING!!!