Every year I make Christmas decorations to hang on or around my Christmas Tree. I now have so many that my tree is creaking under the strain. I started with just a couple of projects and, one year at a time I now have no room left on the tree.

Only the red tinsel is not knitted, crocheted, or hand made. Almost every pattern is from one Jean Greenhowe book or another. My favourite and the one that contains all of the Nativity scene except the donkey is “Jean Greenhowe’s Christmas Special Booklet”, the donkey is in Jean Greenhowe’s Christmas Treasures”. These patterns are very reliable, if you follow the instructions your result will be the same as the illustration.

The one mistake I notice that many people make is to use the wrong needle size. The design is for UK double knit (Australian 8 ply, US worsted weight) yarn, I use an Australian 4mm (UK/Canada 8, US 6) needle when making garments. If you use this size for these projects they will be saggy, out of shape, and the stuffing will be seen through the stitches. Always use an Australian 3mm (UK/Canada 11, US 2 or 3) needle and it will make a firmer fabric that will hold its shape and hide the stuffing.