Hold the tinsel and get out your phone - these celebrities are going all out when decorating their Christmas trees, writes Emma Gunavardhana
Welcome to the battle of the baubles. You may have noticed it during Thanksgiving at the end of November - pictures of festivities from the holiday, celebrated in the States, suddenly filling up timelines and social media feeds around the world.
The Kardashians shared the all-you-can-eat buffet magnitude of their Thanksgiving lunch in their snaps, Oprah Winfrey shared a picture of herself basting her own turkey (with no make-up, we may add) to her 23m Twitter followers and Julianne Hough shared numerous videos of choreographed dance routines with her entire family – trust us, they are worth a watch. Whatever sense of ‘my turkey’s bigger than your turkey’ it ignited, things have moved up a notch since and turkeys have now been replaced by Christmas trees.
First up atop her gargantuan spruce is supermodel Alessandra Ambrosio, posting a picture of herself to her 1.3m followers perched atop a ladder placing the fairy on hers. Then there’s Taylor Swift, seen on her Instagram account sitting meditatively in front of a tree she had installed in her hotel room to her 7m followers. Meanwhile, Kourtney Kardashian shared hers – a tree that’s more lights than pine-cones and needles - to her 6.3m followers.
Michelle Obama gave her followers on Instagram a festive #TBT (throwback Thursday) by sharing an image of her and Barack in front of the Christmas tree on their first year in the White House, while Ellen Degeneres’ tree has somehow been taken over by cats. Forget about a star on top of the tree, this year it’s the tree that has reached star status.
There are, of course, those trees that don’t need a celebrity endorsement to warrant a Twitter presence or tens of thousands of ‘regrams’ on Instagram. The tree in Rockefeller Plaza in central Manhattan has the same signpost effect around the world as the Coca Cola ‘Holidays Are Coming’ advert - it even has its own Twitter and Instagram account.
Back in the UK, Claridge’s tree has quietly reached something of a cult status. This year designed and decorated by Dolce & Gabanna, it is most definitely London’s ‘It’ pine tree. So far management at the luxury hotel have calculated that images of the tree have been shared over 55,000 times online.
So when you’re reaching for that dusty box of baubles, wondering if that tatty fairy will last one more year or if you think a little bit of tinsel can’t hurt, it’s best to take to Twitter, log on to instagram and get involved in a little healthy festive tree-trimming inspiration.
Send us pictures of your Christmas trees to @GettheGloss #GlossipGirl