Meetings with seven remarkable Christmas trees

15 December 2016

Do you wish your Christmas tree had just a little more artistic credibility? You’re not alone. As various galleries and institutions unveil their spectacular festive firs for 2016, created by the world’s leading artists, ALASDAIR MacRAE presents seven examples of Christmas trees that went for something a little different.

Hungarian architectural group Hello Wood believes that Christmas should be a time for communities to come together and think of those who are less fortunate. Charity Tree, its 16-metre tall installation in Budapest’s Erzsébet Square, was made from 10,000 pieces of firewood; when the tree was dismantled in January, all the firewood was donated to needy local families to keep them warm during the wintertime.

Are you dreaming of a Green Christmas? The artist Bob and Roberta Smith certainly was when asked to create this installation for Tate Britain in 2008. At once an evocation of the ramshackle hand-made decorations of the past, and a comment on global concerns of energy production and waste, the tree is made entirely of recycled objects, and features eight bicycle generators; visitors to the gallery were invited to pedal these in order to power the Christmas lights.

Spanish artists Luzinterruptus chose to highlight the wasteful use of plastic in their Consumerist Christmas Tree, created for the 2013 Lumiere festival in Durham. It was made from about 3000 plastic bags provided by local residents, who were provided with cloth bags in exchange. The bags were then filled with even more plastic – clear packaging material generated by various local shops during the assembly period – and fitted with lights, to provide glow during those late-night shopping hours.

Let’s face it, the odds are your Christmas tree isn’t doing nearly enough to fight against fascism. Perhaps you should take inspiration from German designer John Heartfield’s provocative photomontage? The satirical artist portrayed the all-powerful swastika with feeble, barren branches in 1934, when the Nazis were trying to distance Christmas from its Jewish roots.

Kalpataru is a wish-fulfilling divine tree in Hindu mythology, and to celebrate the V&A's India Festival in 2015, Delhi-based designers Sarthak and Sahil created this colourful festive installation. The free-standing structures that form The Wishing Tree represent classic Indian motifs such as the lotus petal, and are hand-painted by artists from the southern Indian state of Kerala to reflect the concepts of nature and light, which are important aspect of traditional Diwali celebrations.

Hello Wood worked with London-based visual artists Creatmosphere to create this 11-metre-tall Christmas tree for London’s Granary Square in 2015. Built from 365 wooden sledges, one for every day of the year, the tree is named Let It Snow as a call for snow at Christmas; the artists intended to highlight the impact of climate change. Sledging on London's hills at Christmas hasn't been possible for many years due to lack of snow. Once the tree was dismantled all the sledges were given away to local people, or sold to raise money for charity.

What could be more Christmassy than a tree made of carol singers? Mona Shores High School in Muskegan, Michigan is the proud home of the tallest singing Christmas Tree in the USA, where they have been delighting audiences for over 30 years. The tree is formed from 240 singers in the Mona Shores High School Choir, with additional singers and the school’s orchestra stationed like presents around the base of the tree.