the only winning move is not to play

It's still far too early for sprouts and seasonal music and lights and any other form of decoration but when we visited my parents in September my mum gave Nicky some cones from the large local supply to give to her mum to take to the Brownies she assists with as the raw materials for making diverse hideousnesses of winter decoration; apparently drowning them in very slightly bleachy water forces them to close which would explain why they were sitting on a towel on the worktop this evening.