Product Design

People Are Flipping for This Christmas Tree Trend

by:
November 28, 2017
45 Comments

Thanksgiving's over, and some people are wasting no time unpacking and unwrapping their holiday decor. Driving around Dallas, Texas, this past weekend, I saw my fair share of freshly hewn firs strapped to the tops of cars.

While some may beg to differ, there’s no actual moratorium on when it’s permissible to start hanging the holly. However, this year there's a holiday decorating trend that has me—and many online—stumped.

32 Best Artificial Christmas Trees That Bring the Holiday Cheer

32 Best Artificial Christmas Trees That Bring the Holiday Cheer

I present to you, with much confusion, the upside down Christmas tree. It’s like a normal Christmas tree, but not quite—it balances on its tip and widens as it gets taller, literally flipping everything we know on its head.

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The conversation surrounding these topsy turvy trees began on Twitter (where else?) as people shared photos of them in hotel lobbies, friends' houses, malls, even the Target website. Bucking tradition is one thing, but turning it on its head is a whole other ballgame.

The meaning of all this tomfoolery remains a mystery, but one Twitter user provided a potential answer: a former writer for the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog tweeted that upside down Christmas trees' inverse shapes makes it easier to see ornaments. They don't get lost in the brush of the branch below it. Maybe they're on to something.

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Top Comment:
“I have a girlfriend that does this because she has three small children between the ages of about 3 and 8 (meaning it's easier to keep most of the ornaments out of their reach, especially when they were small), those kids get TONS of presents, so they REALLY need the space and they also have a dog and a cat to protect it from, maybe not as much now, but they raised them from very young as well. Personally, I still remember the year Mom and Dad put up crib like bars around our tree to protect it from her in-home daycare kids, only to have my then kitten climb and knock it over because those crib like bars were no deterrent for HER. I think we've also had at least one ornament broken as well thanks to one cat or another (we've had two more cats since I was a kid. I REALLY know how to get these things started. My parents were strictly DOG people at one time.) So if it works for some people for one or more of those reasons, I say go right ahead. I imagine even the trees in the hotels must fall over occasionally or have ornaments get broken as well...”
— Gennifer M.
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Would you indulge in the upside down? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Valerio Farris

Written by: Valerio Farris

Valerio is a freelance food writer, editor, researcher and cook. He grew up in his parent's Italian restaurants covered in pizza flour and drinking a Shirley Temple a day. Since, he's worked as a cheesemonger in New York City and a paella instructor in Barcelona. He now lives in Berlin, Germany where he's most likely to be found eating shawarma.

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45 Comments

Sandy G.
Sandy G. December 14, 2017
my mother-in-law had one of these a few years ago, strange. I understand the pluses but don't care for it. we couldn't give hers away!
 
T.R. J.
T.R. J. December 5, 2017
I like them. But, too expensive and too difficult to decorate a regular tree
And then try to hang it upside down.
 
Kat
Kat December 6, 2017
Ha ha ha
 
Emilia R.
Emilia R. December 3, 2017
An upside-down Christmas tree... Really? What an absurd idea.
 
marros
marros December 3, 2017
If you follow the history of the Christmas tree, you would know that this is how it was done in the past. In medieval times, people didn't have large living rooms, so to accommodate having a tree (and still have some floor space) they would hang them upside down from the ceiling.
 
Emilia R.
Emilia R. December 3, 2017
I would be curious to know where you found this information. I love reading about Medieval history, and, although not an expert, never heard anything like that. Actually, I was under the impression that Christmas trees were much more modern...
 
Deborah
Deborah December 3, 2017
Ah, no. Interesting to read the history of this in the comments though.
 
Suzanne B.
Suzanne B. December 3, 2017
I prefer my tree to be right side up.
 
llsee
llsee December 3, 2017
This is not new, only the popularity has grown recently. I knew someone who did this in 1967, when I was living in Albuquerque. He used an aluminum tree (popular in those days) and decorated it with balloons. It was quite a conversation starter in 1967.
 
Nita
Nita December 3, 2017
15 years ago there was a home here in Dayton OH where they hung their tree from the ceiling! It was beautiful.
 
Pat L.
Pat L. December 3, 2017
This custom goes back a century or 2 to Germany and is only NEW to us
Nothing wrong about it. It
 
joie
joie December 3, 2017
Don't like it. However, having said that my mother once took a very large apple tree branch, spray painted it white, rubbed with gold, hung it from the ceiling and decorated it with shiny beads and ornaments. It was beautiful. Then there was the year she took a century plant top, rubbed it with gold and placed ornaments on the beautiful fronds that came out like branches...another beautiful one.
 
Debbie S.
Debbie S. December 3, 2017
This is just wrong! On so many levels.
 
Gabriella F.
Gabriella F. December 3, 2017
I think it's horrible. Not that much bothers me, but this does - it literally makes me uneasy to look at it. Trees don't grow upside down.
 
Caroline H.
Caroline H. December 3, 2017
About 25 years ago, we had a neighbor who hung a tree upside down in his front window every year. It's an Eastern European tradition, apparently. I will say, it got everyone's attention as they drove past his house!
 
NB
NB December 3, 2017
Well, as being born and raised in Eastern Europe, I would like to clarify that I never saw the whole Christmas tree being hung upside down. Nonetheless, there was a custom to hung a top only or branches of the pine, spruce tree from a ceiling or top of a doorways, which were then decorated with pine cones, apples, garlands, candy etc. This was called Podłaźniczka. The name was derived from an old word meaning forrest or green forest. It symbolized God’s tree, paradise or heavenly orchard.
 
elaine J.
elaine J. December 3, 2017
We have a local store owner who hangs three, upside down, to better showcase the ornaments he is selling. Takes up no floor space, and makes it easy to select the ornament you wish to purchase. They are, of course, artificial trees.
 
sharyn
sharyn December 3, 2017
This trending fad is really an old trend about 10 to 15 years old. A quote from Stephen King " sooner or later, everything old is new again" . So much for ingenuity and creativity.
 
catalinalacruz
catalinalacruz December 3, 2017
Wacky. And how do you keep it watered?
 
Gennifer M.
Gennifer M. December 3, 2017
I have a girlfriend that does this because she has three small children between the ages of about 3 and 8 (meaning it's easier to keep most of the ornaments out of their reach, especially when they were small), those kids get TONS of presents, so they REALLY need the space and they also have a dog and a cat to protect it from, maybe not as much now, but they raised them from very young as well. Personally, I still remember the year Mom and Dad put up crib like bars around our tree to protect it from her in-home daycare kids, only to have my then kitten climb and knock it over because those crib like bars were no deterrent for HER. I think we've also had at least one ornament broken as well thanks to one cat or another (we've had two more cats since I was a kid. I REALLY know how to get these things started. My parents were strictly DOG people at one time.) So if it works for some people for one or more of those reasons, I say go right ahead. I imagine even the trees in the hotels must fall over occasionally or have ornaments get broken as well...
 
Amanda T.
Amanda T. December 3, 2017
Weird.
 
Billie L.
Billie L. December 3, 2017
I think this is a silly fad that will not be around long, at least I sure hope so. Designers need to leave some traditions alone!
 
Genevieve
Genevieve December 3, 2017
ugly comes to mind... but to each their own brand of happiness