Branching Out

found “fewer people are buying real trees. Our traditional customers are aging and younger consumers are adopting different or no traditions. Since 1990, the percentage of households displaying a real tree at Christmastime has, for the most part, steadily declined, while the percentage of those who purchase and display an artificial tree has steadily increased.”

The growers association is responding by capitalizing all reference to Real Trees and asking schoolchildren to wax nostalgic about their memories of a Real Tree. Seems a pitiful effort in the face of purple tinsel temptation. Once customers have taken the first step and purchased artificial trees, there is nothing keeping them from buying an orange tree, except perhaps the anguished cries of the traditionalists.

Warning: The following story is about nontraditional Christmas trees. Not green. Not real. Not Fraser fir-like and not with a scent. There are two distinct Christmas camps, the traditionalists and the heretics, so the warning seemed necessary. This trend is fueled by the heretics and makes the traditionalists wince.

Artificial Christmas trees in nontraditional colors and textures are becoming quite popular. There, it’s been said. Pink feather trees, for example, purple tinsel trees, blue flocked trees and even orange- and lime-colored trees are showing up on the holiday radar. It was a natural progression. Real trees gave way to fake, and once the balance of sales tipped to the side of the artificial (only 30 percent of displayed trees are real), it was only a matter of time before liberties were taken with the green color and pine needle texture.

These affronts to the yuletide are not in the big retail stores such as Michael’s Arts & Crafts or Garden Ridge. Those stalwarts of the artificial forests are sticking to green trees and green trees only. It’s the decorative-accessory emporiums where the unusual shades of the season lurk.

A trek through some Fort Worth, Texas, shops revealed all sorts of arty trees.

The Market is carefully branching out into the new territory of hue. There, petite tabletop trees can be found that are a few hesitant steps away from the orthodox palette. An orange- and gold-leafed tree, and some handsome jeweled red trees were seen among the evergreen Dellarobias.

At more eclectic stores, feather trees are commanding the center of the table. White marabou trees with pearl-studded branches are at the aptly named Feathers. There, purple tinsel trees come straight out of the box, with lights and decorations.

Chiffoniers has trees made of turkey feathers — the big, fat, fluffy feathers used for boas. The trees stand almost 4 feet tall and can be decorated with all manner of outrageous ornaments. Store co-owner Laura Waggoner has bedecked one of hers with cocktail ornaments. “They are so dreamy,” she says. This is the second year she has ordered these trees, and although she was hesitant the first year, her customer response was so positive that she tripled her order this year.

Pink and lime are popular colors. “Last year a man bought a pink feather tree because he was having a cosmopolitan (the pink drink) party, and he wanted everything to match,” she says.

This does seem to be the function of the funny colors: They allow for divergent decorating themes and, more often than not, they are used in addition to the traditional tree of green.

Alarms are sounding at the National Christmas Tree Association, where it reports that studies have