New York: the sad Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center

Sad, like a year of a pandemic. The chill of fall and the looming of December are usually synonymous with joy in New York City, when an all-American Christmas spirit gently creeps into hearts and publicity. Each year, the installation of a gigantic Christmas tree in front of the famous Rockefeller Center, erected rough before being gradually decorated, is the first stone of the building of the holiday season.

But this year is not usual, the spirit of Christmas is clouded by the inevitable anxiety of not being able to celebrate it correctly because of a pandemic whose end we can hardly foresee. Thus the arrival, on November 14, of a plucked fir tree, of which only the sadness of the bare branches captures us, aroused moderate enthusiasm among Americans. The one that we have always seen standing proudly as a sumptuous symbol of the Christmas holidays, becoming for many the reflection of his time, sad and without vigor.

The decorated tree revealed on December 2

The Rockefeller Center Twitter account, however, presented the news happily, as reported by the BBC. The tree, purchased in New York State, arrived with a police escort on the streets of New York. For the mall and for the company that installed the 23-meter-tall tree, New Yorkers can rejoice that the tradition continues, even in these difficult times.

Internet users did not seem to share the same opinion. “This tree, like all of us, has experienced very difficult times in 2020,” we can read from some mocking spirits, when others sincerely deplore the choice of this tree so tired. Some still defended the conifer that we imagine in better shape once recovered from the trip during which it was attached. Faced with the unenthusiastic reactions to it, the Rockefeller Center responded, several days later. “Wow, you must all look good after a two day trip, right? Wait until I put on my decorations! See you on December 2nd!”