Like it or not, the festive season has arrived and this weekend is set to be one of the most popular for decking the halls.

From sizing to themes, curating a Christmas tree you'll enjoy looking at for the next month can be hard to get right.

Journalist Niamh Maher joined The Home Show to talk about some of the most common mistakes made when decorating the season's centre piece.

A Sustainable Christmas

Ms Maher is urging people to reuse decorations from yesteryear to try and create a more sustainable display.

"I am really enjoying the fact that I've kept my decorations", she said.

"When I opened them this year I was pleasantly surprised by what I had had."

Choosing to buy more sustainable materials will also help reduce the environmental impact of the pieces you do have.

"Wooden decorations, paper garlands, reusable crackers are all available now", she said.

"We do need to think about the sustainable element of how we decorate, especially now in 2022 there's absolutely no excuse for it."

Size matters

"The wrong size Christmas tree is one of those pitfalls that a lot of people fall into", Ms Maher warned.

"It's very tempting to choose the biggest, the fluffiest tree that you can find, but realistically you have to think about the space that that tree is going to be going into."

She advises leaving a foot of space between your ceiling and the top of the tree, "to allow for branches".

"A lot of people will go: 'I need a seven foot tree because I have because I have a seven-and-a-half foot room'."

But according to Ms Maher, that could only cause problems.

Décor

When choosing the colour scheme and "vibe" of your tree, Ms Maher advises to avoid "tat".

She prefers to avoid tinsel at all costs because it's difficult to break down and is bad for the environment.

"But I do think if you are decorating your tree, it's good to have a theme", she said.

"There's a lot of Scandi-inspired trees out there at the moment with beautiful white icicles."

"There's a lot of kind of art deco, Great Gatsby themed trees at the moment, which are really beautiful."

Whichever theme you pick, Ms Maher advises using baubles not as the main show, but as a base for the rest of your more characterful pieces.

"I'm not a big fan of the whole 'hotel in your home' vibe, because I do like a real tree and it's very hard to get it perfect when you have a real tree."

Listen back to the full conversation here

Main image shows a person decorating a Christmas tree. Picture by: Cultura Creative RF/Alamy