It's not exactly what people think of as a Christmas tree. The town of Poole, Dorset, England has a municipal Christmas tree that falls in line with Britain's stringent health and safety guidelines, which try to avoid all possible risks, no matter how remote.
Citizens compared the tree to a wizard's hat and a traffic cone. Link
Thus it has no trunk so it won’t blow over, no branches to break off and land on someone’s head, no pine needles to poke a passer-by in the eye, no decorations for drunken teenagers to steal and no angel, presumably because it would need a dangerously long ladder to place it at the top.
Last year Poole boasted a Norwegian fir draped with strings of coloured lights. It cost £500 and continued a decades-old tradition. The replacement, which is constructed on a metal frame overlaid with what appears to be artificial grass, cost £14,000 and comes with built-in fairy lights and hidden speakers to play Christmas tunes that will put shoppers in the festive mood. But the only mood apparent among shoppers who saw the tree yesterday was a bad one.
Citizens compared the tree to a wizard's hat and a traffic cone. Link
Comments (15)
The appropriate replacement would be a pitiful bent-over pine sprig mounted on a pair of 2x4s with a single ornament.
I in general hate Christmas but this still saddens me.