Most gardens will provide a surprising amount of raw material for decking the halls with boughs of holly - and other hardy evergreens - this season. Common ivy, a wall-breaker and snail hotel for 11 months of the year, comes into its own now. It has two growth habits: with the support of a wall, tree or other surface it snakes along in linear fashion and when it reaches the top of its host, it branches out into a miniature tree-shape, complete with clumps of berries.
Use the snaky bits for dressing up picture rails, picture frames, door ways and mantels or for twining around objects. In its tree manifestation, ivy will keep fresh in water for weeks. It makes an individual (but charming) auxiliary Christmas tree for porch or hallway decorated with red ribbons and the odd judicious spray of gold or silver paint (from hobby shops) on its berries.
Bring in the following festive growth from the garden also, and if appropriate, dress with red, gold or silver ribbons: holly, skimmia, bay, Euonymus `Emerald `n' Gold', Euonymus `Silver Queen', cotoneaster, pyracantha, flowering quince. And don't forget the ornamental heads of Allium christophii, mophead hydrangea, nigella, opium poppies and agapanthus.