I've deleted my desktop folder

Around December last year I deleted my desktop folder and emptied my trash can. My time machine won't work so I've tried to create a new folder and name it desktop then change the permissions as a previous answer instructed but it doesn't seem to be working and I still can't drag files onto my desktop. Around the same time I also deleted my downloads folder and someone replaced that for me without too many problems but I'm having some trouble editing it now.