Rethinking the Xmas Tree
December 7, 2008 by dr. lam
Fashioning myself a design pundit and a supercilious aesthete, I was looking for some new design inspirations on an old theme, the Christmas tree. I remember growing up with a fake Xmas tree that we unfolded every year from the attic and bent down the artificial branches with each passing year a branch snapping off, almost reminiscent of our own senescence. There was always something a bit contrived about a fake tree but, of course, something quite appealing in its flame-retardant safety, environmental recyclability, and not to mention economic frugality. And how do you fit that tree in your non-SUV anyway?
My mother said, “I’m really tired of another boring old Christmas tree. Any ideas?” I am always up for an aesthetic challenge, especially when it can be a fun exercise. We started our quest in this Christmas tree store at the nearby Shops at Willow Bend. It was anything but innovative. Standard old trees with over-embellished, filigreed ornaments that ran counter to my spare design aesthetic of “less is more.” I thought Neiman-Marcus, the epicenter of taste with a Texas twist, could be a source of inspiration. (Any great designer will own up that he or she steals ideas.) I saw a pair of very narrow, tall pine trees with echoing radial, spoke-like ornaments that flanked the escalator upon alighting on the second floor. These trees really captured my imagination, especially considering having it paired with its neighboring twin. However, I didn’t know how to acquire such a tree, or trees, nor how to attain all of these unique ornaments. The task seemed to be of Sysiphan proportions.
Marching onward to the third floor, I saw in the home design section, these naked tree limbs sprayed white and arranged in a vase with equally restrained ornaments. I thought brilliant! At this point, my mother insisted on going to this cool garden store in West Village in Uptown Dallas that she loves called, what else, Gardens to look for other ideas. Upon entering the store, my brain fixated on 3 design displays that had the same naked tree limbs with very spare ornaments. I asked if I could buy the display. Jeremy explained that “No, sorry these items are going to be moved to the front window for our holiday display.” Upon reconsidering what he needed for his display, he sold us the “Christmas tree” and related ornaments. With my design bug in a frenzy, I started to evaluate what vase would be best to fit this Charlie Brown Christmas tree (yes, the unwanted cultural legacy of this tree has been pointed out to me so let’s just get that out of the way.) I started with a small pot and pursued a course that transmogrified my tree into a Rauschenberg-like found-art piece until Jeremy cradled our tree into the pictured concrete vase that returned the design to a Zen-like simplicity. Pictured is the end product of an arduous design odyssey!
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