Bottoms up! New trend has Christmas trees hanging from ceilings

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Todd Brabender remembers that December nearly 20 years ago when he and some University of Kansas friends gathered around a Christmas tree that was hanging upside-down from a water pipe in his apartment.

It seemed like such a crazy idea then. But not anymore.

The centerpiece of holiday decorating is more often being inverted -- hung from the ceiling or mounted bottom-up on the wall -- by those looking to save space, more prominently display pricey ornaments or simply distinguish their Christmas tree from so many millions of others.

Upscale retailer Hammacher Schlemmer sold out of its $599.95 pre-lit inverted tree, a 7-foot evergreen that rises from a weighted base, before the end of October. Web tree seller ChristmasTreeForMe.com has sold out of two of its four upside-down models. And potential buyers can't look to tree importer Roman Inc. either, because it's sold out too.

"This has turned into a worldwide deal," said Bill Quinn, owner of Dallas-based ChristmasTreeForMe.

Not a new trend

Odd as it may sound, the trend may have some very ancient origins. Legend has it that a seventh-century English monk went to Germany and used the triangular shape of the fir tree to explain the Christian belief in a Holy Trinity. Converts came to revere the fir and by the 12th century, the story goes, it was being hung from ceilings at Christmas.

But few believe history is what's moving the trees out of warehouses and into customers' living rooms.

"My suspicion is that the vast majority are buying them because they seem to be nontraditional," said Edward O'Donnell, a history professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., who is an expert on Christmas traditions. "It's funny and it's off the wall. Or off the ceiling."

Dan Loughman, a vice president of product development at Addison, Ill.-based Roman Inc., which stocks about 200 different types of trees, said overturned trees began being bought by consumers in the last few years after seeing them on display in stores.

Retailers started using the trees because they take up less floor space, put more ornaments at eye level, and provide additional room to stack merchandise at the bottom -- or, actually, the top.

Imported from China

"They want to replicate what they see in the store," Loughman said of customers. "They go in a store and see a tree with red and white ornaments, they want that. Now that they're seeing the red and white ornaments on an upside-down tree, they want to replicate that."

Roman has been importing the trees from China for about five years. They carry freestanding ones, a ceiling-mounted variety and an inverted half-tree that juts from a wall.

Quinn said the trees are particularly popular with those who collect high-priced ornaments because they increase the visibility of those decorations.

Time will tell whether the upside-down tree is here to stay, but retailers that carry the items -- which include Target -- say they expect sales to grow next holiday season, in part because of the scarcity of them and publicity surrounding them this year. O'Donnell said it's no surprise that another trend has entered the marketplace during the most commercial time of year.

"We're a relentlessly consumer-driven society," he said. "There's just so much pressure on marketers and on retailers to come up with something new every year."

Joe Jamrosz, corporate sales manager at Niles, Ill.-based Hammacher Schlemmer, which has carried the trees on and off since 2001, said most who buy them have a traditional tree, too.

"It's still going to be a second tree for most people," he said. "I think the good tried-and-true Christmas tree is still going to be the tree that the majority of the people have."

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On the Net:

Hammacher Schlemmer: http://www.hammacher.com

ChristmasTreeForMe: http://www.christmastreeforme.com

Roman Inc.: http://www.roman.com/