When it is a diplomatic gift, it is difficult to then resell it on Leboncoin. Every year, the city of Oslo donates a Christmas tree to London to thank the United Kingdom for its help during World War II. But the tree is not always to the taste of the British.
Let us first return to the reasons for this present. After the Nazi invasion in 1940, King Haakon found refuge in the British capital. As a thank you, a conifer taken from the Oslo green belt since 1947 and sent to the United Kingdom. “It’s a gesture of gratitude for the assistance we received during the Second World War,” explains the mayor, Anne Lindboe, after taking the first sawing blows on a venerable spruce tree at the end of November.
“We went to war with Norway? »
But over the years, fir trees have received all the adjectives that can be given to a plant. Shaggy, hungry, anemic… Many of them are not exactly flattering.
In 2021, British Internet users went all out. “We went to war with Norway? » mocked one, another castigated “one of these 5G towers disguised as a tree” while a third mocked “a half-plucked chicken”. To the point that Oslo had considered sending another, bushier tree.
Travel conditions and “cucumber” tree
The conifer – which has its own account on X – sometimes loses its splendor due to the adventures of the journey. Before taking its place in Trafalgar Square, it is tossed for several days from truck to boat then back to truck, passing from a dry Nordic cold to a salty sea air then to the English climate, humid and temperate. With, inevitably, a few broken branches and devitalized thorns.
“Trees are generally impeccable where they grow, but a lot can happen during the journey,” assures forester Knut Johansson, responsible for managing municipal forests. “We once received complaints that the tree looked like a cucumber,” he recalls. This year, an almost seventy-year-old tree took place on Monday in central London. And if it delights some, like Becky and Gareth Wood, a couple we met on the square and who find it “fantastic”, that won’t stop the criticism from continuing to pour in on social networks. Like this X user who asked herself: “Where is the other half? ! »