Christmas is fast approaching, meaning there's not much time left to purchase those last-minute holiday gifts, relish in the merriment of a fully decorated home, and perform your family's annual traditions. The holiday season looks different for everyone, especially when it comes to the centerpiece: Your Christmas tree. There's a lot of love for larger than life firs and spruces that take up your entire living room or entryway, but there's a common thread between designers and interior fanatics revolving around using a sparse, Charlie Brown-esque tree in the home—and it's a bit polarizing.
In 2022, Architectural Digest posted a TikTok of entrepreneur Jenni Kayne's home decorated for the holidays. The video shows a shot of Kayne's multiple Christmas trees, the one in her entryway being a silvertip fir, and the comments are, to put it lightly, ruthless. "If seasonal depression was a decoration," wrote one person. However, for the ones who choose these types of trees and have been doing so for years, the bare boughs serve as a way to bring uniqueness and artful beauty into the home.
Christopher Spitzmiller—potter, lamp maker, and author of A Year at Clove Brook Farm—has been putting up silvertip firs for the last eight to 10 years. "It's like a tree out of the 1920s," Spitzmiller explains. "It hearkens back to another time where things weren't so perfectly manicured," adds his husband and landscape architect, Anthony Bellomo. The couple search for a tree that could've been chopped down in your backyard—one that's lanky, unusual, and unique—to give their home a more editorial look that not everybody else would have or want. The perfectly manicured balsam trees don't interest them. "I like to see the ornaments on the tree, and [the silvertip fir] really highlights them," Spitzmiller says. The tree naturally grows in tiers with a gap in the middle, and rather than a spruce that "gobbles up all these things," as Bellomo explains, the sculptural silhouette of a sparse tree puts your chosen decorations on display.
For Sandra Cavallo, a graphic designer and owner of the blog Old Silver Shed, the Charlie Brown Christmas trees assist in the magic of the holiday. "That tree and my Christmas style is always about telling a story and making you look deeper into set little vignettes," she says. Cavallo's love for them sprouted when her family was younger and living in Switzerland. "Those were the trees that were available to us," she explains. "I really fell in love with them. They smell beautiful, they look very architectural and sculptural, so that really appealed to my design sense." Like Spitzmiller, Cavallo wants a centerpiece that will show off her many sentimental ornaments and bring a vintage, more authentic, and natural look into her home. "A sparse tree in a home can feel like you're bringing the outdoors inside," she says. While it can be a challenge for her to do something different each year with the little room she has on each branch, the familiarity of the greenery itself makes it magical and classic for her family.
For these decorators, this is not a trend. Over the years, they've found the perfect species of trees to feature their decorations. For Spitzmiller and Bellomo, they prefer the silvertip fir, so much that they're going to start selling them in Bellomo's shop in 2024. When Cavallo can't find a silvertip, she chooses un-sheared or, as she puts it, "pitiful" balsam trees. Or she prunes fuller trees so they end up with a rustic feel. Loi Thai—fellow Charlie Brown Christmas tree enthusiast and interior designer at Tone On Tone design studio—prefers red spruces found in the forests of Maine. "These sparse trees are so organic, airy, and natural looking—they feel like they’ve been plucked from an enchanted forest," Thai says. "They bring a bit of magical charm courtesy of nature."
However, they all know this isn't a universal choice. "It’s hard to please everyone, especially on social media," Thai says. "My Charlie Brown Christmas trees are always a hit or a topic of conversation. Even if people do not get it, they find it original and want to know more about it." In the past, Cavallo would have people asking why she chose that tree, and while the Instagram comments on Spitzmiller's tree posts are generally kind now, they didn't always used to be.
As Cavallo puts it, "I think that there is a specific market for my tree." While some people love that full, picture-perfect look, the natural uniqueness of these sparse plants create an interesting holiday aesthetic that these designers will choose every time. "That's the whole allure to a Charlie Brown tree," Bellomo says. "It's not the perfect tree, but it has personality and it has charm."
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Meghan Shouse is House Beautiful's Assistant Editor, a role she has held since September 2023. On top of being the magazine's go-to Waco expert, Meghan also touches on quite a few other verticals in the digital space, like hot news content featuring your favorite HGTV stars, home design inspiration, and the latest interior TikTok trends. However, her favorite pieces are the ones that start conversations, such as stories about resale value and whether or not the Solo cup is chic. Before becoming a home writer, Meghan worked in the fashion industry for two years, writing for Harper's Bazaar after graduating from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in apparel merchandising. When she's not interviewing interior designers about home trends, you can find Meghan reading a fictional thriller with her cat in her lap, planning themed parties, or strolling through flea markets searching for chunky candle holders and vintage bookends.
