Words Hoard & Heath
Photography Kaboompics / Pexels and Kelly Sikkema / Unsplash
The basket stops well inside the tree’s widest branches. In Kaboompics’ photograph, its rounded woven outline gives the tree a distinct foot, with pale parquet visible all around it. A basket-shaped cover concentrates the decoration beneath the trunk without adding a circle of fabric across the floor.
Start with what has to fit inside. Balsam Hill’s guide makes the stand’s size and style the starting point for a collar. Measure the stand with its feet fully spread and compare that with the cover’s internal space, including any narrower opening. A broad outside measurement does not tell you what will fit through the top.
Check how the cover opens before assembling the tree. Find out whether it separates into panels or has to pass over part of the stand, and read its fitting instructions before the tree is dressed. The basket photograph does not show the support inside. Use a stand suitable for your own tree, with enough room for it to sit in its normal position.
Cloth changes the outline
A blanket gives the base a softer boundary. Kelly Sikkema’s small tree sits among dark knitted folds that spread beyond the lowest branches. The trunk disappears into the cloth, which makes a low, irregular shape beneath it.
Try the cloth with the tree secure in its stand. Fold the spare length back until the edge sits where you want it, then look from the seat where you will see the tree most often. A very wide spread can make a small tree seem lost above it. Keep the loose edge clear of the route past the tree.
Pale long-pile fabric makes a broader foreground in Kaboompics’ close view. It rises in front of the basket and runs beneath a wrapped parcel, leaving only part of the weave in view. We would leave more of that woven front uncovered. The soft layer can sit beside the basket without hiding its shape.
Keep a way in
Leave the reservoir accessible if yours is a cut tree. The RHS advises using a stand with a well of water, checking daily and topping it up when the level drops. Before adding presents, make sure you can see the water level and reach the refill point without moving the tree.
Leave that side free when the parcels arrive.
