But there is now pressure to lavish time and money on your home, carrying out a domestic makeover that indicates your knowledge of the latest furnishing colours and looks.

None of them involve neon Santas, even those that are used ironically. Deep blue is big. Bronze is also very Christmas 2006. But neutrals (interior decor speak for browns and beiges) refuse to disappear.

Fortunately, the high street provides all the wherewithal for this December makeover. But be aware that even if your transformation has been relatively inexpensive, this will still not stop some friends deploring this new sign of the commercialisation of Christmas.

Bhs, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer now offer seasonal home furnishing collections, each vying to gain a larger size of the £12 billion-a-year homewares market. The ranges include staple items, but also cheaper and more disposable pieces. So great has been the popularity of the M&S £1,799 chenille Monte Carlo corner-group sofa, which features in its lush home catalogue, that anyone buying now will not have the piece delivered before Christmas. The rest of the collection should still be available, so long as you order before December 10.

If you cannot have the sofa, you can still have the stuff that adorns it in the M&S Christmas catalogue, a mini upmarket home magazine whose expensive photography underlines the resolve of M&S to expand all parts of its home division. The group is “stretching the price architecture”. The success of the Autograph damask-pattern bedlinen set, where a 400-thread count pillowcase costs £65, is an indication of that strategy.

Sally Bendelow, head of home, beauty and gifts at M&S, cites midnight-blue cushions as one of the easiest ways to give your home a seasonal update. You can choose between the sequined silk cushion (£35) and the ruched version (£25). A midnight-blue feathered wreath (£25) would be even more evidence of your awareness of the importance of indigo: quite literally, it will be a blue, blue Christmas. Alternatively, you can take a long winter’s nap under the beaded and quilted Indulgence bedcover (£125-£145), also in midnight blue.

Kelly Hoppen, the interior designer who has done two new ranges for Bhs — one glamorous, the other classical — also recommends cushions as a simple way to give your home a seasonal uplift. She says: “I would try using three cushions together on a sofa or a chair, giving a wonderful layer of contrasting fabrics. For example, I would group together the brown satin Fortuny pleat-effect cushion with the large button, the brown velvet cushion with the Indian appliqué pattern and the small Indian Paisley cushion.” Bhs cushions range in price from £15 to £35.

Other items from the Hoppen collection require a larger investment in a seasonal makeover. To bring a feeling of luxury into the bedroom she suggests the Art Deco-style hexagonal mirror (£250) and the crystal glass table lamp (£100). Those may seem high prices for Bhs, but Hoppen’s celebrity clientele pays a great deal more for her East-meets-West look.

John Lewis allows you to finance a Christmas revamp more sparingly with a bronze hydrangea wreath (£25), a square Tesica cushion, decorated with three-dimensional roses (£30 in red, chocolate and teal), or a bronze tree (£50).

Paula Nickolds, head of furniture at John Lewis, says that 75 per cent of the store’s own-brand furniture can be delivered within seven days; anyone who wants to have new pieces in place by Christmas Day must order by December 16. The best-selling dining ranges are the Dordogne (the oval table costs £1,200), favoured by those who like the Arts and Crafts style, and the Sixties-influenced Austin in white glass and walnut veneer (extending table £695).

Naomi Cleaver, our Inner Dilemma interiors specialist, suggests a DIY makeover. “Dark Christmas days and nights make the most of glitter and sparkle but instead of tinsel on the tree, try displays of silvered glass balls; thrift store candle sticks with coloured candles will look magically glamorous too.”

www.bhs.co.uk, 0845 1960000

www.marksandspencer.com, 08456 031603

www.johnlewis.com, 08456 049049

timesonline.co.uk/houseclinic

Times recommends

• Interior design: It's time to end our craze for open-plan living
• How to make cool bedrooms for kids
• Inside Zaha Hadid's East London apartment