The Christmas tree which survived the Blitz in Sheffield and is still going strong

The tree has only required minor surgery over the years (photo: Dean Atkins)

Its owner believes it is the same make as another Christmas tree, which The Star revealed this month is believed to be Britain's oldest, having been bought 97 years ago.

Rene Jackson, who got in touch after reading about the other tree, believes their indestructibility proves the old adage 'they don't make them like they used to'.

Rene Jackson with her tree, which she has had for 90 years (photo: Dean Atkins)

The 92-year-old, of Stannington, says she was just two when her mother Alice Francis bought the tree, which was later handed down to her as the oldest of five children.

It remarkably withstood the destruction wreaked by a bomb which hit a neighbouring hairdressers in December 1940, blowing out all the windows at her family home on Oakland Road, in Malin Bridge, destroying furniture and leaving the home covered in a thick layer of soot.

She believes the diminutive artificial tree is the same model as that which we reported had been bought from Woolworths in 1920 by Elizabeth Naylor and remains in the family.

"It looks like the same tree to me, which is remarkable. I guess it shows things were better made in those days," said the former teacher, who worked at Hillsborough Infant School.

Phoebe Plaistow, 13, with what is believed to be Britain's oldest Christmas tree, at her grandmother Kay Ashton's home in Mosborough (photo: Ross Parry)

"I remember sitting on the cellar steps with my mum when we were blitzed. When we went upstairs everything was destroyed, including all the decorations, but the tree was intact.

"The tree's looking very well now. I had to make a replacement branch using a stick and some green paper but other than that it's not required any repairs."

Mrs Jackson did buy a larger tree some years ago but kept the two-footer, which she now uses as her main tree since she finds it easier to decorate.

She likes to think of all the memories the tree holds of festive celebrations in years gone by, and she hopes to hand it down to her daughter Catherine Jackson.

The owner of this Christmas angel decoration says she has had it for nearly 50 years

The sturdy trees aren't the only festive decorations to have stood the test of time, it seems.

One reader, aged 53, shared a photo of an angel bauble given to her when she was just four or five years old which she still hangs on her tree every year, despite the decoration, in her words, 'looking a little worn' these days.