GOOD GRIEF!
Where is Canada’s national Christmas tree, Charlie Brown?
BRUCE DEACHMAN makes the case for sprucing up the capital.
Tens of thousands of Americans will gather next week in Washington for a ceremony that has become a beloved tradition for almost every one of the past 90 years: the lighting of the National Christmas Tree.
The illumination of the 28-foot Colorado blue spruce planted near the White House will be accompanied by a message of peace delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama, as well as musical performances from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Renée Fleming, Arturo Sandoval and the Avett Brothers. It is, in other words, a big deal.
In Ottawa, meanwhile, no such ceremony exists. Oh, we have our Festival of Lights, and it is impressive to be sure, with the Department of Canadian Heritage decorating trees and bushes in the region with more than a third of a million twinkling lights. And the National Capital Commission does a bang-up job installing and decorating indoor trees at six official residences, including the homes of Gov. Gen. David Johnston, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Harper’s secret carolling buddy, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.
Additionally, Public Works puts up grand trees each year inside the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, enjoyed regularly, one has to think, by MPs and their staff, as well as various RCMP officers, commissionaires, reporters, lobbyists, maintenance workers and the like.
But as for a stately outdoor fir or spruce that could inspire awe and joy in visitors to the nation’s capital, something that tourists from Tuscaloosa and Mullumbimby would brag about seeing to their friends back home, we fall short.
Torontonians have their own official tree, a magnificent evergreen overlooking Nathan Phillips Square, where skaters can pause in the hopes of catching their mayor light up under its snow-capped boughs.
Tens of thousands of nostalgic New Yorkers, and millions more worldwide with televisions and Internet access, meanwhile, will relive their favourite moments from Home Alone 2 on Wednesday when the Rockefeller Plaza’s 76-foot Norway spruce is lit.
And in Chicago, an equally massive crowd is expected to show up at the Daley Plaza on Tuesday for the 100th anniversary of that city’s treelighting ceremony.
Here in O-Town, we project images of snowflakes onto the brickwork of the Parliament Buildings, like some cheesy disco, circa December 1979. Maybe it’s time we got a tree, one that says “Welcome to Canada, the home of Christmas.”
WHY
Susan Martin has visited each of the aforementioned Christmas trees, including a bright string Christmas Treelighting ceremonies in D.C., where she lived in the mid 1980s.
An American expat and artist who’s lived in Orléans for more than 20 years, she said she’s baffled as to why Ottawa boasts no national tree. She hosts visitors in her home via the Couchsurfing website, and says she’s frequently asked the same question.
“I just don’t understand it. It’s such a wonderful thing. It marks the beginning of the holidays. (In Washington), you had the opportunity to walk up and see it and smell it — it smelled like stars in snow, it was so fresh. And it took a couple of weeks to decorate, so it was this ongoing process to watch it build up to its glory.
“It’s a tradition you pass on to your kids,” she adds, “and I don’t want to see this dismissed in Ottawa, because it is important. It’s awe-inspiring. It would be nice to have a tree.”
WHAT
A monstrous spruce immediately comes to mind, but that’s narrow-minded thinking. Our flag, after all, features a maple leaf, and the maple tree was designated our official arboreal emblem in 1996; perhaps we should expand on the Canadian brand by choosing it as our NCT. Or, being a fair and equitable nation, we might consider alternating among each of the provinces’ and territories’ official trees. One year it would be Ontario’s Eastern White Pine, followed the next by Quebec’s Yellow Birch and then New Brunswick’s Balsam Fir.
That all-inclusive motif would carry over to the tree’s decorations, where winking Santas and miniature crèche scenes will share branches with dreidels and mosqueshaped snow domes. An Amish quilt will serve as its skirt. Instead of a star on top, there’ll be an ornamental elephant. For practitioners of Satanism, every hundredth light will be black. Vegan eggnog will be available. There’s a seat for everyone on this bus.
WHERE
The front lawn of the Parliament Buildings would seem to be the most logical venue for an NCT, but Ottawa has numerous suitable sites. The Rink of Dreams at City Hall would provide a nice complementary setting, while the dreary exterior of the National Arts Centre could certainly use such a festive boost. Other possible locations include the ByWard Market and either Confederation or Major’s Hill parks.
And if, in this post-9/11 world, we remain worried about Those Grinches Who Would Like to Annihilate Our Fun, we could always keep the NCT safe at the Diefenbunker in Carp. Executive director Henriette Riegel says she would welcome Canada’s NCT there, and if it’s especially tall, it could be laid on its side in the bunker’s 378-footlong blast tunnel. “That would make it easier for children to decorate,” she says.
Then again, what with the CBC losing its authority over hockey broadcasts in Canada, it might want to fill its broadcasting holes by adapting its Hockeyville contest format to annually determine which Canadian community gets to host the Tree. Sackville one year, Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! the next. Don Cherry could host, wearing holiday-themed jackets.
Or the location and responsibility for our National Christmas Tree could be spread out among Canadians like jury duty: Every January, one resident is selected at random to provide that year’s NCT. A city-planted larch one year, a towering pine at the cottage another, and an apartment-sized houseplant or papier-mâché model the next.
I can hear the bus tours joyously jostling with the school choirs already!