The most inspired tree decorations from museums and heritage shops

SS Great Britain

Brunel makes another appearance at the SS Great Britain shop, with a Brunel tree decoration that is hand-stitched and ethically sourced – it features Brunel’s watch chain, stovepipe hat, and miniature plans for the SS Great Britain.

London Transport Museum

The London Transport Museum offers a papier mache fair trade Christmas bauble, each of which is entirely hand-painted.

V&A

Depicting the façade of the V&A building as seen from the courtyard comes this embroidered fairtrade tree ornament.

The Design Museum

From the renowned stock of the Design Museum Shop and designed by the museum, a quirky tree decoration based on a car air freshener, a design which is itself based on a tree.

People’s History Museum

This purple fabric suffragette decoration from the People’s History Museum, and also offered at the Museum of London, is a handmade and ethically sourced decoration which dons a rosette in WSPU colours (purple, white and green) and a sash that reads ‘Votes for Women’.

The Postal Museum

One of a handful of postbox designs offered by The Postal Museum, this tree decoration is designed by Gisela Graham.

IWM

IWM puts Santa in a spitfire in this exclusive design made from velvet, one of a few decorations from the museum, which also offers a wool robin donning aviators, and a snowman flying a plane of its own.

National Museums Scotland

Modelled after the Lewis Chessmen Berserker from the National Museums Scotland collection, this gold depiction of a Viking lord is an exclusive to the shop.

Royal Armouries

From the Royal Armouries, it’s armour! This miniature version of a Barbute helmet, which arose in the late twelfth century, is made from polyurethane and hand-painted to finish,

The Science Museum

The Science Museum’s Snow Bauble spells the word ‘SNOW’, borrowing letter combinations from the periodic table.

Natural History Museum

This T.rex in a Jumper Christmas tree decoration nods to the Natural History Museum’s penchant for dressing up its own full-size animatronic dinosaur in its own customer knitwear.

The National Gallery

This embroidered Vincent van Gogh decoration from The National Gallery is one of a few artists-as-tree-ornaments. In gold coloured metallic thread it has been hand-made by women co-operatives working to Fairtrade principles in Thailand and India.

The British Museum

At the British Museum shop, a tin heart features an illustration of the exterior of the iconic building by London-based illustrator Josie Shenoy.

The Brunel Museum

The Brunel Museum offers a hand-made ceramic Christmas tree decorations, created by Charlotte Stockley in her Surrey studio and featuring, among designs, the top hat Brunel is often pictured in.