On the Way to Work This Morning...

The Christmas tree below is in the Thompson Center. See how full and green it is? See how it has been decorated with care and attention to detail? Lovely tree, isn't it?

Unfortunately, the tree in the Thompson Center isn't Chicago's official Christmas tree. This is: I know the city it trying to save money by accepting a donated tree from the area rather than building a tree out of many, smaller farm-grown trees. Those cost more, and it takes more manpower to assemble and decorate that tree. I further realize that, since this is a donated tree selected from a group of trees from around the greater Chicagoland area, and thus you kind of have to take the best of what you can get.

But for fuck's sake, people--put some effort into it!

The Daley Center Plaza tree looks especially awful when viewed from the middle of the Plaza itself, where this picture was taken--the beige building behind the tree doesn't hide its defects like the Daley Center does (when viewed from the opposite angle). And the straight string of lights draped down the tree only enhance the careless, disheveled look of the thing, like the city workers decorating it beheld their efforts, shrugged and said, "Eh, good enough."

No. It's not "good enough." Not at all.

Considering that Chicago's Christkindlmarket has garnered considerable praise recently, with favorable comparisons to similar markets in Vienna and Dublin, our world-class market should be complemented by a world-class Christmas tree.

I'd rather have a series of smaller, finely decorated trees positioned strategically around the plaza--or, if it came down to it, no tree at all--than to have this embarrassment on public display.

The official Christmas tree of the city of Chicago should not look more shitty than what my neighbor down the block, with far less money and far fewer resources, can throw together.