The newly erected Christmas tree in Oudenaarde in East Flanders has had a difficult first week, after it was taken down almost immediately after it arrived for being too ugly.
The tree proved to be a problem from the moment it arrived, which eventually led to it being swiftly reloaded and taken away again, according to local media.
"Everything was neatly sealed off to be able to install the tree," Neel De Loor of brasserie De Cridts on the Grote Markt told VRT. "It was a real setback. The tree was too ugly. They tried to solve it by cutting the trunk shorter, but that only made it worse. Just branches fell off. Eventually, it was decided just to reload the tree and take it away."
The mayor of the city has already promised a quick solution, promising that a new tree will arrive as soon as possible, at no extra cost to the city. "I don't know exactly what went wrong. We want a large, mature tree in Oudenaarde every year. This was not really the case this year," mayor Marnic Demeulemeester (Open VLD).
“The Christmas tree was completely broken at the bottom and there were holes everywhere. By the middle of next week at the latest, the supplier must provide a new large Christmas tree," added Alderman of events John Adam.
Jules Johnston
The Brussels Times
