The Brussels Christmas tree (; ) is a

Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen pinophyta, conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was deve ...

erected annually on the Grand-Place/Grote Markt (main square) of

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, Belgium. It has traditionally been a real tree either from the Ardennes forest, from the city of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

or from different countries as

diplomatic gift A diplomatic gift is a gift given by a :diplomat, politician or leader when visiting a foreign country. Usually the gift is reciprocated by the host. The use of diplomatic gifts dates back to the ancient world and givers have competed to outdo e ...

, except in 2012 when it was replaced with an abstract sculpture.

Traditional trees

Traditionally, the Grand-Place/Grote Markt in the centre of

hosts a real Christmas tree each year, taken from the Ardennes forest. The normal height for these trees is around high. The Grand-Place itself dates from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

(though most of the buildings around the square date from the 17th century and were rebuilt during subsequent years), and it has played host to a

Christmas market A Christmas market is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent. These markets originated in Germany, but are now held in many countries. Some in the U.S. have Phono-semantic matching, adapted ...

each year since 2000.

2012 tree

On 30 November 2012, a abstract-style tree was erected on the Grand-Place instead of a usual real Christmas tree. It was designed to work with an overall theme of light installations on the Grand-Place, and allowed visitors to climb to the top of the "tree". It was constructed out of steel-framed boxes, wood and screening materials. It cost €40,000 ($52,000) to construct, which was described as about a third of the price of a real tree. The Belgian press reacted negatively to the installation of the tree, with some suggesting that it was erected to avoid offending

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s. Brussels city councillor concurred with this sentiment, and also pointed out that it marked a change of name for the annual Christmas market to "Winter Wonders". Fellow councillor Philippe Close responded to that criticism by saying, "What we want is just to modernise the pleasure of winter, of this Christmas market and all the image of Brussels. The Christmas tree is not a religious symbol and actually lots of Muslims have a Christmas tree at home." By 1 December, an online petition against the installation had received 11,000 signatures. By 11 December, this had increased to 25,000. Due to concerns over vandalism during New Year's celebrations on the Grand-Place, it was announced in early December that the tree would be taken down on 28 December, instead of early January, as was the case with the real trees in the past.

References

External links

* {{coord, 50, 50, 48, N, 4, 21, 9, E, display=title Individual Christmas trees Buildings and structures in Brussels Tourist attractions in Brussels Christmas in Belgium City of Brussels Individual trees in Belgium

Traditional trees

2012 tree

See also

References

External links