It is the star of the season, a classic at Christmastime, a decorative denizen in our living rooms, a lender of light and cheer that brings people together at this time of the year. It can be a spruce, a pine or a fir. We’re talking about the ever-popular Christmas tree. Right on time, on the first Sunday of Advent, Berlin flicked the switch on Christmas and set Pariser Platz in front of Brandenburg Gate festively aglitter with the lights from a 20-metre spruce, a truly magnificent tree. A sign, a call to action for everyone who is honing their holiday senses at this beautiful time of year.
Think all Christmas trees alike? Think again! Berlin is varied and diverse – just have a look around the local living rooms and you’ll see what we mean. Not every Christmas tree is like the next. It’s like with people and their dogs – they always match! What follows are seven multicultural and at times stereotypical designs in Berlin’s Christmas tree collection. Maybe you’ll find yourself, perhaps you’ll laugh. Who knows? You might even be inspired!
The trees in Kreuzberg are vegan…
What do you get when you cross a popular hit song from the late 70s (“The Nights in Kreuzberg are Long”) with the culinary vogue of today? Either a new hit song – or our way of introducing the vegan Christmas tree. Kreuzberg is home to the city’s best vegetarian and vegan restaurants, which also makes it a popular district for like-minded locals to live. Die Rebellion des Zimtsterns is one of the top places to go for a veggie meal and a décor inspiration for the coffee-slurping Kreuzberg girl. The Christmas tree here: a splendiferous specimen, earthed in a pot, decorated with popcorn, covered in ribbons made from jute fibres and homemade stars of lustrous satin-finished paper. With real candles, of course, made by hand at Kerzenmanufaktur Lichterglanz or sourced from Manufactum.
Russian elegance
The year draws to a luxurious close in Charlottenburg, where we sneak a peek into the high-ceiling living room of the German-Russian entrepreneur’s wife. The highlight of her art nouveau abode, the floor-to-ceiling noble fir, is up and ornamented weeks before Christmas Eve. It is decorated only with the most beautiful things in life, for example, glitter fairies and sparkling glass baubles from Inge’s Christmas Decor or Swarovski crystals. Nor does the Charlottenburg elite shy from engaging the top florists from around the corner at Graf’s Blumenkontor or Villa Harteneck to help embellish the tree. Pure luxury!
Safe and sound
Mother knows best. And the avid mummy blogger shows us how with the design of the Norway spruce in her cosy family slash living room. The do-it-yourself celebrity among the Christmas trees of Prenzlauer Berg is decked out in homemade stars cut from brown paper bags with paper angels that the kids made during the afternoon kid craft session at idee. Creativmarkt. String LED lights (instead of real candles), unbreakable plastic and wool baubles from Zara Home, a foundation crafted from home-baked whole-grain biscuits and lots of gifts. So beautiful and so safe!
Bling-bling is her thing
Out with the old, in with the plastic! The less dirt it makes, the better! The fashion-conscious drag queen in Schöneberg loves to bling up her world and sees the needle-less polyethylene Christmas tree as a real evergreen. PVC reindeer with baby-blue eyes, Alessi Christmas tree baubles and accessories from KaDeWe. On top: the “Berliner Spitze” from s.wert and a string of lights with a bright pink glow. Could a Christmas tree be any more artificial and at the same time so feminine?
So what does your tree look like? Berlin’s ladies have shown us how it’s done, but look out! The guys are following suit – and they’re no less creative than the gals.
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