Bikes, brandy and a giant bin: Tate Britain's artful Christmas trees

Bill Woodrow's 1988 version, the first to be commissioned, presented an ecological view of the world, festooned with cardboard sculptures of maps and a giant globe Photograph: Tate

Tim Head's contribution in 1989 was more playful, even postmodern: a riot of artificial trees, their form based on an logo taken from the packaging of a commercial cleaning product
Photograph: Tate

Lisa Milroy's tree in 1990 was traditional but with a wry twist, made up from painted images of traditional Christmas decorations Photograph: Tate Photography/Tate

Evergreen living: Boyd Webb's version (1991) was a tree made up of many trees. It offered a fantastical reflection of the natural world Photograph: Tate

Craigie Aitchison's Tree the following year featured not only a small gaggle of sheep and a donkey, but decorations featuring birds Photograph: Tate Photography

Topsy-turvy ... the tree made by Shirazeh Houshiary in 1993 was suspended upside-down and its roots slathered in gold leaf Photograph: Tate

The 1994 tree, by Cathy de Monchaux, was 20ft high and swathed in canvas and blue velvet and supported by what the curators described as 'eight amorphous lumps'
Photograph: Christine Boyd/PA Archive/Press Association Images

The Christmas Tree 1995, designed by Cornelia Parker, was laden with dried fruit, hinting at both a winter store of energy and the potential ingredients for a Christmas pudding. She even managed to organise things so that the scent of brandy lingered in the air Photograph: Tate Photography

Julian Opie – as you might expect – went pop with his toylike Christmas Forest in 1996
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Michael Landy – perhaps best-known for destroying everything he owned for a 2001 project – focused on the waste of Christmas in stark fashion Photograph: Tate Photography

Artist Richard Wilson's Christmas Tree 1998 was unashamedly industrial, using found materials 'to express the order and chaos of Christmas'
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Mat Collishaw introduced a touch of the macabre in 1999, producing a conventional-looking tree beneath which video played of rats scampering around. They even nibbled their own mince pies Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

The millennial tree, designed by Catherine Yass, had a hint of Star Wars about it: an undecorated, traditional fir was suspended nine feet above the floor of the rotunda, bisected by a thin beam of blue neon running from the top of the dome Photograph: Graham Turner/Guardian

The 2001 tree, the 14th comissioned by the gallery, is the creation of artist Yinka Shonibare and is made out of 102 cane branches wrapped in shredded batik fabric, a hallmark material for the artist Photograph: KIERAN DOHERTY/REUTERS

Tracey Emin avoided a tree altogether in 2002, writing a message inviting visitors to make a donation to the Terrence Higgins Trust charity in return for the opportunity to win an original artwork by the artist Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

Mark Wallinger decorated his 2003 tree with rosaries. Instead of a fir, he chose an aspen – the wood used to make the cross on which Christ was crucified Photograph: Sarah Lee

Sculptor Richard Wentworth putting the finishing touches to his tree the following year. He hung broken plates and domestic light bulbs from its branches Photograph: Martin Godwin

Gary Hume finishes his Christmas tree. The traditional spruce tree is decorated with blackbirds crafted from steel plate which perch on the branches Photograph: Rex Features

Sarah Lucas decorated her tree in typically robust style in 2006. It was a Nordman fir tree with sculptures made from wire and stretched tights, which took the form of baby angels and fairies' genitalia Photograph: Sarah Lee

The 2007 tree created by Fiona Banner. Foreshadowing her 2010 commission at Tate – two real-life warplanes that fill the gallery – Banner decorated the tree with 122 handmade kit models of all the world's fighter planes. It was called Peace on Earth Photograph: Sarah Lee

Artists Bob and Roberta Smith created an interactive work called Make Your Own Xmas in 2008
Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Last year Tacita Dean went for the traditional option with a traditional German Weihnachtsbaum, which had real-life candles
Photograph: Tim Ireland/PA Archive/Press Association Images

This year Giorgio Sadotti's tree is simple and unadorned with not a bauble in sight – just a massive bullwhip coiled mysteriously around the base. The artist said it would be used for a performance piece on twelfth night, on 5 January 2011, starring someone he described simply as 'Fanny from Marseilles' Photograph: David Levene/Guardian