A mum has been left with a "bush" for Christmas this year - after she claims her ex threw out the 6ft tree and decorations.
Ashlea Austin, 28, turned the house "upside down" when she went to put up her tree with her eight-year-old son Noah on 5 December this year.
Now, she suspects her ex chucked them in the bin when he was in charge of putting them away, shortly before they broke up.
Left with a "bush" for this year's festivities, waitress Ashlea is embracing what she's got to work with.
Filming a video narrating the events that led up to the Christmas bush, Ashlea said: "This year Noah and I went to put up the decorations together and have a nice family day. We were expecting it to take hours and it took 15 minutes to put up this little bush.
"I was really shocked and felt stupid because I should have known better and checked what was left probably last year just to be on the safe side.
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"I turned the spare bedroom upside down looking for the decorations. It was an absolute pigsty by the time I was done with it - stuff was everywhere"
Despite being left with very little to work with, Ashlea decided to leave the bush on display "because we find it so funny."
"My mum was laughing with me and saying that maybe we should make that Noah's Christmas tree in his bedroom because he absolutely loves it."
She plans to buy a proper Christmas tree while keeping the Christmas bush for future years too - so there's something festive for Noah's bedroom and the living room.
Ashlea claims that back in 2019 it was her ex-partner who put the Christmas decorations down while she was at work. However she was away from home last Christmas and so didn't notice they were missing until this year.
She said: "I put all my Christmas stuff in big crates in the spare bedroom but obviously I hadn't thought to open and look in them, but half of them were empty and I thought 'oh God, that's a bit strange'.
"And my Christmas tree box was a lot lighter than I expected.
"I put up what I could and looked at it and was like 'wow'. I went back into the bedroom to go through more of the crates and looked through all my boxes. I couldn't find anything.
"He's obviously thrown away all my Christmas lights and decorations, or God knows what he's done with them, but everything that was on that tree was what was left of all my Christmas decorations."
She added: "I reckon he's had trouble trying to get it all down. I can imagine him untangling all the lights and getting stressed out with it and he's probably just chucked it all in a black bag and gone 'no, get out of my way' and got rid of it.
"I reckon that's probably what happened. He was peed off trying to get it all down and then just got rid of it."
Ashlea's ex declined to comment.
