A Christmas story from Helen
For forty Christmases the bottom of my tree was a bath towel and an extension lead. These are the first two tree skirts I have ever written a letter about.
Six things I noticed after seeing them at my sister's home last November
Helen Thompson · Newcastle, UK · 5 min read
Let me tell you who is talking before I tell you anything else. I am Helen, I am 67, and I live in Newcastle with my husband Frank and our Labrador. This year the whole family is coming to us for Christmas, my daughter, the grandchildren and my sister Ann, and the tree goes up on the first Sunday of Advent like it always has. That is why I am writing this now, and not in December.
The tree skirts I am writing about are from Rovelle's Closet, a small British boutique that has been quietly dressing women like us for a few years now, and as it turns out, dressing our Christmas trees too. One is the Nativity, blue, with the stable and the star of Bethlehem. The other is the Oasis, cream, with a tall saguaro cactus and a ring of desert flowers.
I first saw them last November, on the first Sunday of Advent. My sister Ann had invited us to her home near Newcastle for Sunday lunch, and she always has her trees up early so the grandchildren can see them lit. The big one in the sitting room had the Nativity underneath it, and three of the children were lying on their stomachs on the floor, looking at the baby in the manger. The little tree in the corner of her kitchen had the cactus one, and I stood and looked at it longer than I looked at the roast dinner.
I had always thought a Christmas tree skirt had to be red felt. So while Ann was clearing the plates, I asked her, plainly. She laughed and said, “Helen, you are the fourth one today. I bought the cactus one first and the Nativity one the week after.” Read on, because that was the point at which I stopped thinking of tree skirts as an afterthought.
Mine, the Nativity one, under our sitting-room tree last Christmas.
Here is what forty Christmases of putting up a tree has taught me. A woman my age gets offered two kinds of tree skirt. There is the red felt kind from the chemist, with a little white fuzzy trim, that sheds glitter on everything you own and has faded to pink by the third year. And there is the fancy kind at the department store, velvet and gold braid, that costs about what the tree did and looks like it belongs in a hotel lobby.
So most years I gave up and tucked an old white bath towel round the stand, which hid the water dish and the extension lead well enough, and told myself nobody looks under the tree anyway.
Everybody looks under the tree. The grandchildren lie on the floor and look at nothing else for a month.
The morning the cactus one came. I unfolded it on the bed because the living room floor had boxes of decorations all over it.
I ordered both of them on my phone that same evening, sitting in Ann's kitchen while my husband said his goodbyes at the door for the third time. They were under my trees before Christmas last year, and they will be again when I put the tree up this year. Going by last Christmas, it comes down to six things, and I will give them to you plainly.
Designs that look like nobody else’s tree
This is what stopped me in Ann’s kitchen. The Oasis is a tall green saguaro on cream, with a whole ring of bright desert flowers round it, red and orange and gold and a big magenta one, and a zigzag border in orange, burgundy and navy. It looks unexpected in a British home and it looks like Christmas at the same time. The Nativity is the quiet one, Mary and Joseph kneeling at the manger under a big shining star, with blue hills all round and a little trail of yellow flowers near the edge.
The saguaro on our kitchen tiles.
I have a little cactus on the kitchen windowsill and a cactus under my tree now.
Margaret T., DurhamIt hides the stand and every wire
The boutique says it covers the tree stand and any trailing wires for a clean, finished look round the base, and that is exactly what it did. No more green plastic stand, no more water dish, no more orange extension lead snaking out to the wall. The skirt goes down, the presents go on top, and the bottom of the tree looks finished for the first time in forty years.
The little tree in our kitchen corner, the same place Ann keeps hers.
Our tree stand is older than my son. You cannot see one inch of it now, or the cords.
Susan R., GatesheadThe look of a handmade patchwork, without the fuss
I will say plainly what these are, because I asked. They are printed, with a patchwork-style design, and the boutique says it gives you the warm charm of a handmade patchwork without any of the fuss. That is exactly how they look under the lights. My daughter thought I had been sewing for weeks, and I let her think it for a whole afternoon before I told her where they came from. I have not threaded a needle since her school sewing badges, and I do not plan to start now.
My mother quilted and I never had the patience. This one looks like something she would have made.
Joan W., MorpethRound, with an opening that goes round the trunk
They are round, with an opening in the middle for the trunk, four inches across on the small and medium and six inches on the large. You lay it down round the stand, smooth it out, and that is all there is to it. No pinning, no tucking, no folding a towel three ways to make it reach.
Straightening the edge before church on Christmas Eve.
It goes round the trunk and lies there, done.
Jean P., TynemouthThree sizes, from a tabletop tree to a big one
They come in three sizes, 36, 48 or 72 inches across. Our front-room tree is a seven-footer Frank insists on every year, so the Nativity is the large. The kitchen tree is a little four-footer, so the Oasis is the medium. Measure your tree at the bottom branches before you order.
I ordered the big one for our tree in the spare room and the small one for the tree on my sideboard.
Margaret H., North ShieldsThe present that gets unwrapped first and kept longest
The boutique calls them a lovely festive gift for people who love decorating at Christmas. I gave my neighbour the steam train one last December, and she put it under her tree before she had finished her coffee. This year my daughter is getting one for the new house.
The weekend the parcel came, waiting for my husband to finish the lights.
Bought one for each of my girls and one for me.
Carol B., HexhamThe Oasis and the Nativity, against what used to go under my tree
You can keep tucking a towel round the stand like I did for forty Christmases. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Red felt that sheds glitter everywhere
Faded to pink by the third Christmas
Stand and cables still peeking out
Velvet and braid at department store prices
Or a bath towel, if I am honest
Designs nobody else has under their tree
The look of a handmade patchwork
Hides the stand and every wire
Three sizes, tabletop to tall tree
The one the grandchildren lie on the floor to look at
About the price
The small is £39.95, the medium is £49.95 and the large is £79.95. I will be honest, when I saw the prices I read the whole page twice looking for the catch. I have not found one. They came with free UK delivery, they looked like the pictures, and they went straight under the trees.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these come in small runs, and the most popular designs go first, mostly before December. What I can tell you from my side is that I once paid more than that for a velvet skirt I gave away after one Christmas, so this was an easy yes.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. There were 7,263 of them, sitting at 4.7 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots.
If the bottom of your tree has been red felt or a towel for as long as you can remember, and the family is coming to you this year, this is where I would start. Take a look before the design you want sells through.
Helen
THE CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT COLLECTION
- 20 designs, from the saguaro Oasis to the Nativity
- Hides the tree stand and trailing wires
- Patchwork-style printed design
- Round, with an opening for the trunk
- Three sizes, 36, 48 or 72 inches across
- Free UK delivery
Small runs. Once this stock is gone, it is gone.