Montreal's big, 'ugly' Charlie Brown Christmas tree attracting visitors, jokes

A giant christmas tree in the centre of Montreal is getting a whole lot of attention — for all the wrong reasons.

It started off as an ambitious plan by city council: erect the largest Christmas tree in North America — bigger than the one in New York City’s Rockefeller Center.

But that’s not how events unfolded.

The Montreal Gazette reported Monday that New York City’s tree is usually about 23 metres (75 feet) tall, so planners for Montreal’s evergreen must have thought they were playing it safe by choosing a balsam fir that stood 27 metres (88 feet) tall to appear in the Quartier des Spectacles, located at the corner of Sainte-Catherine Street and Jeanne-Mance Street.

Montrealers did not expect the people of New York City to get their hands on a 29-metre (94-foot) tree this year, which took a little bit of the lustre off of Montreal’s smaller specimen.

Not only does the tree fall short in terms of height, but it’s also not winning any beauty contests.

Since it went up a couple of weeks ago, members of the public have said on social media that the evergreen has a “Charlie Brown Christmas tree” appearance. It’s a slim tree to be sure, and its branches are sparse and patchy in places. The top of the tree seems to lean precariously to one side, and instead of traditional decorations, it’s dressed up with cutout reproductions of the Canadian Tire logo.

The tree even has its own spoof Twitter account: @sapinlaid, which means “ugly fir.” As some Twitter posts below show, the evergreen has become the butt of many jokes.

It might seem less than impressive to some, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t coming to see it. Apparently, locals have been flocking to the square to get a look at the infamous tree.

One woman who came to see the tree told CTV in an article published Monday that it looked even worse than she expected.

“When I say worse, I actually mean better because I want it to be as ugly as possible,” the unnamed woman said. “I’m one of those people who loves tacky Christmas sweaters.”

Here’s how some Twitter users responded to Montreal’s massive tree: