Officials Set to Remove €48,000 'Balding' Christmas Tree After International Ridicule

Officials in Rome announced on Monday, December 18, that they will remove a huge “balding” Christmas tree from the city’s Piazza Venezia after it was ridiculed worldwide.The tree, which cost €48,000, according to The Local, became a national talking point because of its sparse branches that were quickly shedding pines. Italians dubbed it “Spelacchio”, meaning “threadbare, shabby or balding”, the newspaper reported. Some even likened the tree to a toilet brush, international media reported.These videos of the controversial tree were shared by politician Maurizio Gasparri, one of its harshest and most vocal critics. The vice president of the center-right Forza Italia party posted them on his official Facebook page shortly before the city’s environment department announced the tree would be taken down. In the clips, he called for the tree’s urgent removal. On December 12, he captioned the first video: “Christmas tree… 50,000 euros of public money!!! An insult to Rome, to the Romans and to Christmas. Share if you are outraged like me.” Then on December 17, he captioned the second video: “Today we are in Piazza Venezia in Rome and ‘spelacchio’, the Christmas Tree, is getting worse. It is the symbol of inability.”Officials have admitted the tree was already dead when it was erected earlier in December, according to Italian newspaper La Stampa. There were no plans to replace the tree after its removal, the newspaper reported.After it was first unveiled, the tree spawned a spoof Twitter account that has accumulated more than 4000 followers. Romans were invited to mourn the loss of their tree at the site on New Year’s Eve in an event advertised on Facebook. Credit: Facebook/Maurizio Gasparri via Storyful