Every year my Christmas tree goes up on December 1, without fail.

I love the warm fuzzy feeling I get throughout December as I admire its twinkling lights and brightly-coloured baubles.

So last night my boyfriend and I pulled the boxes of decorations out of the loft and set to work.

Tree decoration is a bit of a big deal for me - I collect Christmas baubles when I travel and always keep an eye out for unusual decorations.

So when it comes to trimming the tree, I’m quiet fussy about what goes where - and have to make sure my favourite ornaments take pride of place!

I even have different classifications of baubles - a box labelled ‘generic’, there simple to add to the colour theme; more precious baubles that all have set places on the tree; and then a few extra-special baubles - the ones I am utterly terrified of breaking and handle like precious jewels.

Generic baubles go on one colour at a time, to ensure even spacing and avoid ‘clumps’ of the same colour.

And its important to step back regularly to take in the whole tree and make sure the decorations are evenly spread and the tree doesn’t look lopsided.

Examiner reporter Samantha Gildea's finished Christmas tree
Examiner reporter Samantha Gildea's finished Christmas tree

The last decoration to go on is ALWAYS the star, before the lights can be switched on and the full festive effects of the tree enjoyed.

When explaining my tree decorating routine to my colleague, she was quite bemused and asked if I’d video myself trimming the tree so she could see my hard work for herself.

The GoPro came in handy to capture the process from start to finish, which you can watch above.

Of course, we sped it up a little!

December is here and trees will be springing up across Huddersfield - and we want to see yours!

Take a look at last year's beautiful Christmas trees

We’re looking for Huddersfield’s prettiest Christmas trees - send your pictures to samantha.gildea@trinitymirror.com and we’ll add it to our gallery.

Alternatively you can tweet pictures to us (@Examiner) or share them with us on the Examiner Facebook page.

Please include your full name and location when you send in your snaps!

And if you’ve got video of your tree-trimming, or the final festive result, send that to us too.

Traditionally, people would buy and decorate a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve - though in modern times people put up their decorations much earlier.

The general consensus is to put up your tree 12 days before Christmas, on December 13 - although it is unclear where this tradition came from.

Similarly, tradition dictates a Christmas tree should be taken down twelve days after Christmas - January 6. It’s considered bad luck if you leave your decorations up after this date.