Mum creates UK's first ethnically diverse Christmas decorations after child asks questions

A child asked her mother whether Christmas decorations could have "brown skin" as she put up the tree with her mother - bringing into question how ethnically diverse decorations could encourage conversations about race and colour. Natalie Duvall was asked the question by her then seven-year-old in 2018 as she looked around at her Christmas decorations with their white skin tones.

Natalie realised that the answer "yes" was not obvious to her daughter who was looking at the fairies, Father Christmas and angel decorations around the house. Her child was unable to see herself represented in the decorations.

So Natalie set to work with Alison Burton on creating Britain's first collection of ethnically diverse Christmas decorations - angels, choristers, and wise men with textured hair and black and brown skin.

Natalie told Sky News: "An angel could have any kind of skin, whether it was brown, pink or red.

"It's your interpretation of what an angel is.

"And it was really sad to me that my daughter thought that they were only one colour.

"They were only white. And that's not the world I want my daughter to grow up in - that there's only one version of something."

While decorations are often seen as an accompaniement to Christmas, they can raise difficult conversations and questions.

Natalie said the decorations can be for everyone, not just those with black and brown skin for whom the representation is important.

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She added: "I think that some people find it daunting to have conversations about race and colour.

"But what you introduce into your household, whether it be the books that you read, the films you watch with your children, or even having diverse decorations on your tree, helps to facilitate that conversation about race and to normalise these in the household and for them not to feel like a novelty."

Christmas decorations portraying different ethnicities are available abroad but it is a fairly new concept in the UK.

They are designed by the founders, then packed and shipped from a warehouse in Kent.

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The company, March Muses, is in its fourth year and the creations are the norm in the Duvall and Burton households.

"It was special to see my daughter's face light up when she saw this angel that looked like her," Ms Duvall said. She was like, 'Oh, it's brown. It looks like me'.

"It's a small way of showing her she is represented in this world, and that she belongs in this world. Now when we show her new designs of our angels she says 'I've seen them 100 times Mum, what's new?'.

"That's the reaction we want, we want it to be normal and not a novelty."