A decadent display of over-opulence? No, no, this is all about practicality (well, mostly…).

We love a big, beautiful Christmas tree: resplendent in the living room, the icon of the festive season. Delicate, carefully chosen ornaments, more precious and cherished each year, sparkling and dancing from pine-scented branches. Color-coordinated, polished, grown-up glamour: fresh white, frosted silver and twinkling golden lights.

However, sometimes in December the little ones come home from preschool proudly offering up their latest creations: homemade tree decorations. Small masterpieces. Expressions of their incomparable creative genius. Direct evidence of their irrefutable and matchless talent – sure. But… and we say this delicately… they don’t always come in the right colors.

“Oh, Pumpkin, it’s marvelous – is it a Christmas pudding? Oh, it’s Santa. Where’s his head? Oh, yes, I see. And that’s his sack of presents, is it? Oh, a reindeer? Ah, yes, of course. Silly me.”

What to do? No one wants to crush that nascent prodigy – even Michelangelo probably produced a few below-par works before creating the Sistine Chapel – but, at the same time, is front and center on the tree the very best place to display such art?

Enter the second tree. Here is a place for all those homemade efforts, the rainbow unicorn your five-year-old fell in love with, bright foil-wrapped chocolates and anything that doesn’t match your color scheme. It’s a place of creativity where you can encourage artistic streaks, try out craft projects around the kitchen table, or display treasures found on fall foraging walks – sprigs of holly, pinecones or leaf skeletons.

It's not just for children, either. Explore your own creativity with multiple trees – not necessarily homemade crafts, but styling and seasonal trends. Perhaps a bare branch tree for the kitchen decorated with little birds, faux pears and a partridge. Maybe a little color therapy with an opulent all-gold look. Or try a tree where guests can leave notes, or take something away with them – a handwritten, fortune-cookie-style piece of wisdom.

Christmas trees – real or faux – are not an insignificant expenditure, but there are fantastic ways to get the look for less. Firstly, second trees can be smaller versions, often in the kitchen, the hallway or a child’s bedroom. It doesn’t need to be large – in fact, a petite one allows it to be delightfully stuffed, for all the festive feels. Our own Pre-lit 3ft Christmas Tree is festively plump and looks decadent on a tabletop or sideboard.

Or you can go even further. Rather than a green fir, we love a bare branch, adorned with fairy lights for Christmas glow, and decorated with homemade snowflakes cut from plain or silver paper. Any winter walk can yield a couple of fallen branches that will look fantastic artfully displayed in a large vase or hung from the ceiling.

If space is an issue, try a wall tree, which can be as simple as your favorite Christmas cards tacked to the wall in a triangle shape, or a ladder tree, with straight branches hung together between lengths of twine. There is something for every room, and any space. In fact, the only caution we offer is that once you realize how much potential having extra Christmas trees gives you, you might find it gets rather addictive.