I like the bird decorations because we had them when I was small; four or five little feathered birds with wire feet and glued-on eyes and beaks which as years went by became increasingly decrepit, lost legs and tail feathers but nonetheless were dearly loved. Grown up, I looked for similar every Christmas in vain until the first year that instead of just staring longingly through Selfridges' windows I went inside, and discovered that, like lots of scary places, there are loads of things you can buy for less than £5 there, including these little birds. The green canary is identical to one of the bird decorations we had when I was a child.