“That’s it?” one person asked in the video. “What the hell?”
Commenters are calling it the “worst Christmas tree in Canada.”
For the last forty years, the residents of Orillia would typically gather at the town’s opera house to watch the tree light up.
According to CTV News, the tree had aged and it was visible in its “droopy” branches and its lack of sturdiness. The city opted to only decorate the tree trunk instead of getting a new tree, ultimately leading to the crowd’s disappointment as shown in the video.
“Some of the comments have been humorous,” City Councillor Ralph Cipolla said in CTV’s report. “But it’s for the kids; the kids love the Christmas tree, and this doesn’t represent that.”
Cipolla also said he asked the City Council to get a new tree to make up for the reveal gone awry.
“If you look at other cities, Barrie, Toronto, they have huge, big Christmas trees,” Cipolla added. “I think there’s no reason why we can’t have one the same.”
Jimmy Fallon also caught wind of the tree ordeal and poked fun at it on The Tonight Show.