‘Jauchzet, frohlocket!’ to quote a certain oratorio by JS Bach. London’s Christmas trees have finally arrived. Hard to believe but it has only been over the past hundred years that this festive feature has taken root as the unquestioned supreme of seasonal decoration. Once considered a niche tradition of the Protestant north and rooted in paganism, one particularly adhered to by the aristocracy (whence, via Prince Albert, it came to fashion in the UK), it was viewed with sneering suspicion by many of a Catholic persuasion. It was only after 1982, when the Polish pope John Paul II inaugurated the Vatican’s first Christmas tree, that it could be considered triumphant. Now the tree is universal and indeed has gone through a series of increasingly imaginative transformations. So, without further delay, here are London’s most creative iterations this year.
To my mind, the Ralph Lauren store on Bond Street, with its patriotic flags and noble proportions, appears as a kind of ersatz US Embassy. So it is no wonder that it would put on a Christmas display of ambassadorial splendour. The look is classic, with traditional glass baubles, wreaths and tartan bows. Led by a five-metre-tall Nordmann fir outside its ceremonial entrance, in true American more-is-more style, the store is decked with not one but 33 trees (if I count correctly), hung with a total of 93,000 LED lights. And all of this elegance has been assembled for a good cause: for the tenth year, Ralph Lauren is partnering with the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, to which visitors are invited to donate.
With their zestful zeal the design duo Campbell-Rey don’t like to make life easy for themselves. They set out to accomplish a star-strewn night sky worthy of the celestial domain of the Queen of the Night, as designed for the 1816 staging of Motzart’s Zauberflöte by the German arch-classicist Karl Friedrich Schinkel, only condensed down to a still sizable seven-metre tree at the London Edition. While some of the Murano-glass baubles they commissioned were too heavy even for these impressive branches, hand-painted spheres imitative of lapis, malachite and onyx more than make up for their effect. Given that Unicef is the hotel’s charity partner, it is an aptly grand tribute to the innocent awe of Christmas.
Since opening in 2003, the Mayfair restaurant Sketch has established itself as the centre of design-led dining. For Christmas, of course, the already high stakes are raised again. Its ‘tree in name only’ must surely be one of the more experimental of this year’s offerings, a twisting forest of gilded branches from which, like sprouting leaves, spring all manner of surrealist symbols. As well as eyes, padlocks and hands, doves feature prominently – a tribute, perhaps, to the New Year’s card tradition of Yves Saint Laurent, who was himself so heavily inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli. Doves as a sign of peace perpetuated his work and here at Sketch extend an olive branch to all seeking something unique and unexpected from their Christmas trees.
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Evidence that today a Christmas tree can be whatever you want it to be, Louis Vuitton proposed a monolithic monogrammed trunk as the centrepiece for Claridge’s celebrations this year. In a nod to a shared history of travel, this vast ‘Malle Vestiaire’, or wardrobe trunk, which surrounds a tree-like pyramid stack of mirrored cases, is covered with Claridge’s hotel stickers evocative of those collected by Gaston-Louis Vuitton, grandson of the brand’s founder. Indeed, the two companies’ shared history goes back further, for Louis Vuitton himself would pack Empress Eugenie’s trousseau for her annual decamp to the great hotel over the winter. Thus, this magnificent sculptural tree reflects a travel and hospitality legacy and level of luxury that it is encouraging to see continued.
Returning to a more classical conception of the genre, the Connaught asked Rachel Whiteread to design its tree, the eighth contemporary artist the hotel has handed such a commission. She has covered the tree, in the centre of Mayfair’s Carlos Place, in circles of light representing unity and togetherness. They are strangely reminiscent of the wafers that decorated the Tree of Paradise, a prop from the Medieval German morality play enacting the life of Adam and Eve traditionally performed on Christmas Eve. These wafers symbolising the Eucharist and gave rise to the tradition of covering trees in biscuits.
