Decorating expert Mr Simon Costin shares his recipe for a perfect pine centrepiece this holiday season.

As of this weekend, it is now acceptable to have a Christmas tree in your living room, if you’re the kind of person that goes for such things. But how to dress it? For some sage advice on the art of decoration, we turned to the prodigiously talented Mr Simon Costin, one of the style world’s foremost set designers. In addition to creating immersive runway shows and presentations for the likes of Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh and Maison Margiela as well as fantastical, romantic editorials with photographic talents including Messrs Tim Walker, Nick Knight and Paolo Roversi, Mr Costin is a curator and collector of ephemera related to British folklore, and the director of both the Museum of British Folklore (which he founded himself) and Cornwall’s Museum of Witchcraft and Magic.

He’s also, it turns out, rather handy when it comes to a modern folk custom, decorating Christmas trees, and has proved this much this December with the dazzling festive fir he has created for London’s Edition hotel, inspired by the 12th-century Welsh myth of Blodeuwedd, a woman who is created from flowers then transformed into an owl. Now, we’re aware that not everyone will have the means and space to carry off such a feat, but we also think most will benefit from Mr Costin’s wisdom when it comes to trees. “At the end of the day you should try to have fun and create something that reflects your personality, not something copied from a magazine,” he says. “Be bold about it, it’s only once a year.” If you’re in any doubt as how to do this, scroll down for Mr Costin’s five-step guide (as well as some extra tips and tricks).

There should always be a little forward-planning when it comes to decorating your tree, and it does no harm at all to decide on a general direction – be it a distinct story or a palette of colours or a range of materials.

It all depends on personal preference really. Should you choose to explore a story of some kind, then taking some of the main elements of that story and deciding upon the strongest way possible to visually represent it, would be no bad starting point. Colours, shapes and textures can then all be drawn from the source you are using. Is it a whimsical fairytale? Are there any key colours mentioned? Rose red and snow white for instance, or fiery colours for the Russian story of the Firebird.

The only element that is very hard not to use are lights of some kind. Be they candles or electric lights, they always help to bring the tree to life and help to make it somewhat otherworldly. There are so many choices available now, too, so take as long in choosing your lights as the decorations you choose to use. Personally, I tend towards warm LED lights to create a myriad of tiny dots of light, but when I’m feeling brave I use candles.

Here there are no hard-and-fast rules as, once again, the story or mood should dictate the choices made. Try to be adventurous though, experiment with feathers, ferns sprayed gold or different colours, handmade paper flowers or birds, playing cards, cheap toys from a £1 shop all sprayed the same colour, shells and beads mixed with dried berries for garlands, dried or silk flowers, twigs sprayed different colours, wool pompoms. The list is endless really, but whatever you use, do it with vigour and imagination.

The eye is always drawn towards the top of the tree and whatever you place there it should be in proportion with the rest of the fir. Too big and it will look top heavy, too small and it will appear apologetic. I have a very complex star woven from straw which is very beautiful, but I’ve used stuffed birds, a witch puppet, a stag mask, a knitted angel and another made of hundreds of oak leaves sewn together.

I always start with the lights so that you can push them in towards the trunk of the tree as well as around the edges. This is impossible to do with all the other decorations on. Then come the baubles. In terms of scale, larger baubles should be towards the bottom and then gradually get smaller towards the top. Saying that though, I have done trees using all one size of bauble which can look really nice. Hundreds of small baubles take forever to put on but the effect is really nice.

* I usually dress in the base with a layer of extra branches. These act as a cushion should anything made of glass fall off. 

* Offcuts can always be used for table or mantle decorations of course, or burnt on the fire for the smell. 

* Real trees always have a delicious scent but you can supplement this with cinnamon sticks and dried oranges and the like. Better still is always to have some rum punch or mulled wine on the go for added aroma. Christmas is a time to indulge the senses and we have so few holidays where they can be indulged to such an extent, so best go with it and wallow in the headiness of it all I say!