After all, their own beloved Queen Victoria elevated the humble evergreen to a holiday tradition.

Now look what the Brits have done. Last year, when the trendiest Americans were hanging their trees upside down, style-setters in Great Britain dumped dreams of a white Christmas and embraced the dark side – black trees with black trunks and black branches, like Scotch pines scorched in a wildfire.

"Black and white has been a strong interiors trend for a couple of years now," Susan Rose, editor of Britain's Ideal Home magazine, said last fall. "If you want to do an elegant, sophisticated Christmas, black is the way to do it."

Now edgy Americans chase that look, too. They began calling Christmas tree dealers as soon as they heard the news. This year, black joins our holiday palette.
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