Move over, ugly Christmas sweaters — ugly Christmas trees are in this year

It was meant to kick off the magic of the holiday season.

A community tree-lighting ceremony, with hundreds of people gathered, waiting for the moment the massive tree outside the Opera House in Orillia, Ont., would become aglow. 

The crowd counted down in anticipation. Three… two…. one…  And then, the peoples’ reaction, captured on a now viral video: “What the hell?”

It was, perhaps, not the sentiment the town had hoped for. Only the trunk of the tree was lit up while the branches stayed dark, and it wasn’t an accident — it was an esthetic decision made by the Downtown Orillia Business Improvement Area because the tree was dying, according to Downtown BIA chair Michael Fredson.

“The tree is not in really good health. It’s dying. So, it was like, ‘Let’s try this,'” Fredson told CBC News. “Um, so ya, we did. We did try this.”

“You know you messed up when you get a Canadian mad enough to say ‘hell’,” late-night talk-show host Jimmy Fallon said in a bit on The Tonight Show, as videos of the incident made their way around the internet.

But as the tree has its 15 minutes of infamy, Orillia can take heart that its far from alone. In fact, the ugly Christmas tree — made most famous perhaps by the “little green one [that] seems to need a home” in A Charlie Brown Christmas — may be making a comeback this season.

‘The new holiday trend’

Not unlike the ugly Christmas sweater that came before it, the trend is catching on, as people again reject the tradition of a perfectly manicured holiday look and embrace quirk and nostalgia.

“Ugly Christmas sweaters have become such a fad in recent years that similarly unsightly trees are now the new holiday trend,” home design magazine House Beautiful declared in an article last month that showcased pom-pom-adorned Dr. Seuss-style trees, a Christmas cactus, and a classic, sparse German Christmas “feather tree” from U.S.-based retailer Anthropologie that’s so popular there’s currently a waitlist for it.

Amazon boasts a plethora of “ugly Christmas tree” options, including a replica of the Charlie Brown tree complete with Linus’s blue blanket at the base.

People gleefully share ugly trees throughout the years on Reddit, and online marketplace Etsy claims in its 2023 trends report that one of this year’s hottest decorating trends is best described as  “charmingly chaotic.”

“Its whimsy comes from not taking itself too seriously,” Etsy notes in the report.

A short history of ugly trees

And outside the home, there’s a history of underwhelming public trees both disappointing and delighting crowds in cities around the world.

Last year, a Christmas tree in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, went viral after it was erected to “cries of dismay and horror,” according to the Guardian. “All you can do is laugh,” said Mayor Peta Pinson at the time, describing the droopy tree with lights falling off it.

Rome’s official Christmas tree in 2017 was so threadbare it was described as “mangy” and compared to a toilet brush.

“If you’re on a bus going around the square you overhear people talking to each other and saying, ‘Look how ugly the tree is,’ and you have people stopping for selfies. It’s getting attention for all the wrong reasons,” Alvise Armellini, the Rome correspondent for German news agency DPA, told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann that year.

Rome didn’t fare much better the next year, when its tree was described as “bald.” One Twitter user commented: “Last year the Roman Xmas tree was dead on arrival. This year it just wishes it was,” according to Italian Insider.

In 2016, a 26-metre tree in Montreal was described as ugly, skinny and lopsided and panned on social media.

The next year, Montreal leaned in and made an entire ‘ugly’ Christmas village.

“It could become a Montreal tradition — instead of having a magnificent, perfect tree every year, you have one that’s authentic, crooked, a little bizarre with personality that could be super-original and a mark of distinction for Montreal,” said Philippe Pelletier, part of the group responsible for the tree and village.

When a sparse Christmas tree was unveiled in Reading, Pa., in 2014, the town eventually rallied around it. They even read a copy of A Charlie Brown Christmas at an event celebrating the tree, which, NPR reported, the town came to see as a metaphor for the city’s troubles.

“We’re the underdog city, and it’s the underdog tree,” resident Karen Wulkohicz told NPR.

As for Orillia’s tree, the BIA’s Fredson called it “unique.”

“You kind of just have to take it with a bit of a light heart,” he said.

Like Linus said, “I never thought it was such a bad little tree. It’s not bad at all, really. Maybe it just needs a little love.”