A Foraged Christmas Branch: A Charlie Brown-Inspired Christmas Tree by Amy Ilias
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We’ve been noting the slow rise of sparse-chic, Charlie Brown-style Christmas trees in the homes of trendsetters the past few years. But these versions—large, artful, completely foliage-free branches decorated with colorful ornaments and lights—may be the sparsest and chicest of all (not to mention most eco-conscious).
We spotted the festive branches on designer Amy Ilias’ Instagram account recently and reached out to learn the what, why, and how behind her arresting holiday decor. Read on to find out how to make your own.
Photography by Amy Ilias.
Above: Amy and her husband, artist Jim Denney, started the tradition of the holiday branch back in 2010. Their first “was a large branch that Jim C-clamped to our dining table in Brooklyn. It was very humble, kind of sad, and very much inspired by Charlie Brown’s tree. It was a way of re-entering festivity after a long and difficult personal stretch,” shares Amy. After moving into a large Victorian in the Hudson Valley (see the house tour here), they transitioned to much larger, free-standing branches.
Above: The branches are each secured to planks of wood with long screws. Large stones weigh down the planks. “During the Covid pandemic, we had a tradition: Jim would read to me while I did jigsaw puzzles at the coffee table. It was around the holidays, and he was reading Richard Power’s beautiful book The Overstory [a novel about trees and the interconnectedness of everything]. It was that reading, and listening to Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Fir Tree” for the millionth time on NPR that made my decision to commit to fallen branches,” says Amy.
Above: Amy decorates the branches with colorful ornaments, beads, and, of course, string lights.
Above: Pictured on the left are the branches they foraged for the 2021 holidays. Pictured on the right is where they found those branches that year: in a brush pile next to a parking lot near their home. “We have a very small car, so our parameter is that we need to be able to carry it home,” says Amy. “The other is that it needs to be fallen. We usually find the branches in brush piles on vacant lots. Maybe someday we will get an old pickup and our range will expand.”
Above: A few days after we connected with Amy about her branches, they came crashing down, likely from one of the couple’s three overzealous cats. Curiosity killed the Christmas branch. “A bunch of ornament and branch casualties. Practicing non attachment,” she wrote on Instagram.
