cuisine, superb wines and clocklike efficiency. But when it

comes to Christmas trees, the United Kingdom is peerless.

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.

"With the black Christmas tree, we made a bet based on

what we saw in Europe last year and the number of people who

called this year and said to put them on the list,"

said Bill Quinn of the Dallas-ba
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