Christmas trees top this month’s shopping list and, thankfully, three-quarters of us still prefer a freshly cut or potted one. When selecting a tree, the first rule is to check if a tree is fresh and therefore won’t drop its needles every time you sneeze. Some needles start turning brown and falling a month after cutting. Even if a tree’s needles do look fresh, gently lift it a few inches and drop it. If needles drop, look for another tree.

The nordmann fir is by far the UK's most popular tree, with the Norway spruce in second place. But a clutch of other species are snapping at their heels, so, why not branch out and try one? Your choice will depend on the colour of the needles, how readily they drop and the available space.

A fresh, light green tree is always popular and you’ll get that with the lodgepole pine. After Christmas, you could always follow the example of some Native Americans and strip the branches off the trunk and use the stem to support a wigwam in the garden.

Several of the more unusual trees have bluish rather than fresh green needles. One of my favourites is the aptly named noble fir. This fine specimen from the Pacific north-west of America has been grown on this side of the Atlantic since 1830 and, although it develops much more slowly than most conifers, eventually reaches 30 metres. As a bonus, it’s probably the most strongly scented of the lot.

The needles of Scots pine are also bluish-green. This relic of the Caledonian Forest makes an excellent choice if you fancy the more broadly spaced branches of a pine. I reckon pines are more elegant and statuesque than the more densely packed branches of some spruce and fir trees.

If a deeper blue is for you, look no further than the Colorado blue spruce. With its broad, horizontal branches forming a series of tiers ascending the trunk, it shares the architectural elegance of the Scots pine.

While pines and firs keep their needles fairly stubbornly, you do need to treat spruce more carefully, keeping potted specimens well watered. And, if you have a cut spruce, be sure to keep it in some kind of water container.

Finding room for a Christmas tree is one of the biggest challenges. With shorter side branches, firs are generally more slender-growing than other conifers, so fit snugly in a corner. The Fraser fir, from the Blue Ridge mountains, is becoming very popular here. Its dense, shiny green foliage provides all the pleasure of a typical, small-scale Christmas tree.

Another attractive possibility is the Serbian spruce, a tiny population of which survived the last Ice Age. It was formally identified in 1875 and since then has steadily climbed the popularity scale throughout central Europe, where it’s now the favourite Christmas tree. This spruce is a slim, elegant tree with rich, dark green foliage, and should be a serious contender in this country too.

If you can’t accommodate a tree or want a wee bit of extra cheer around the place, you could buy a special twig or small branch, often fitted with small LEDs. These decorations come in endless shapes and sizes and may be made from small, artificial conifer or real birch branches.

They’re not always cheap, so an alternative is to cut a shapely birch, alder or cornus branch from the garden. Spray it white or silver, attach it to a small wooden base or stick it in a sand-filled jar, and finish it off with a set of lights.