As for so many of us, Christmas 2020 at the home of The White Company founder, Chrissie Rucker, was a rather surreal affair. ‘Our son Tom had had a positive Covid test, so we opened stockings in face masks and set a little separate table up for him in the corner of the dining room for Christmas lunch,’ she recalls.  

‘It was so sad. At this point, we’d all been tested but didn’t have our results yet, then we found out a few days later that five out of the six of us actually had it.’

Fast-forward 11 months, however, and the scene couldn’t be more different. Her Oxfordshire home is in full festive mode, with decorative touches on almost every surface and seasonal scents wafting through the rooms. Whatever Christmas 2021 has in store, Chrissie is ready to celebrate in her signature serene style.

As you’d expect, here the decorations entail an expertly put together mix of seasonal foliage and delicate ornaments, in a restrained palette of white, green and glass.

‘My mother once gave me a swinging Father Christmas that sings Jingle Bell Rock, so he always comes out at Christmas, and we might have red gingham stockings,’ she concedes, ‘but those are the only red things in the house. I can’t do colour; it starts to give me a panic attack.’