Naomi Jones on the story behind The Great Christmas Tree Race

For some people Christmas begins during advent, or when they have their first mince pie. For me, it’s when we decorate the tree.

As a child my mum always held out until at least the 20^th December, but my own kids and my husband James can never wait that long! We always go to pick a tree together and then decorate it on the 1^st December.

Once the cardboard box of decorations is down from the loft and there’s Christmas music playing in the background, it’s time to begin...

My boys unwrap the decorations in a frenzy that reminds me of Christmas day, whereas I like to take a moment to remember where each one came from. There are the wooden reindeer decorations James and I bought the first Christmas we lived together in London and the handful of shiny baubles that survived the kittens we adopted the following winter; their favourite game was to launch themselves at our sparkling tree from the back of the sofa.

I have a slightly chipped wooden soldier and angel decoration from my own childhood and we’ve bought more each year as our children have grown. Some have been gifts – handmade ones from our neighbours here in Cornwall and lots of homemade creations from our boys.

Every year we get at least one new decoration for the tree and the story they tell is what inspired The Great Christmas Tree Race. I began to imagine what it would be like if the decorations could talk. Would the old bauble want to tell long, drawn out stories? Maybe Snowflake might feel a bit anxious and Reindeer could be a thrill seeker.

As their personalities became clearer, I began to wonder what would happen if a new, handmade decoration called Sparkle showed up wanting to go at the top of the tree. How would Star who was used to being, well the star, feel about that?

The Great Christmas Tree Race is a fun, festive adventure that follows the decorations as they all race to the top of the tree. It’s illustrated by my husband James and firmly rooted in our family’s love of Christmas (we even snuck in one of our cats.)

The run up to Christmas always feels magical, especially with children. I love baking with my boys and making decorations together. We’ve created decorations from painted pinecones, paper cut into snowflakes and toilet rolls covered in plastic free glitter, which we turned into our very own Sparkle.

Other than decorating the tree, one of my favourite things to do each December is read my kids festive stories. So it feels incredibly special to think that The Great Christmas Tree Race will be shared by other families all about the world this year.

James and I both hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it and would like to wish you all a very happy, sparkly Christmas.

Written by Naomi Jones.