What do grateful nations give as Christmas presents? They give Christmas trees. Big, huge, splendiferous Christmas trees.

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What do grateful nations give as Christmas presents? They give Christmas trees. Big, huge, splendiferous Christmas trees. It’s a grand gesture but, sadly, one where the story is often not as well remembered as it should be.

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For many years now, Trafalgar Square boasts a massive Norway spruce. It’s been an annual gift from Norway every year since 1947. The city of Oslo sends this tree every year in gratitude for crucial British support during the Second World War. Not only did Britain support the Norwegian government-in-exile, they fought alongside them, providing air and naval power, as well as helping resistance efforts against German occupation. To say Norway was grateful is an understatement.

The whole procedure around the Trafalgar tree is imbued with pomp, from the ceremonial felling of a carefully selected 20-metre tree deemed to be that year’s “queen of the forest”, through to the tree’s transport by freighter up the Thames, where the tree is unloaded and transported through the city to the historic square in early December. The decorations are quite spare, in keeping with traditional Norwegian style — simple vertical lines of energy-efficient white lights, and at the top, a star. The Trafalgar tree is taken down on Jan. 6 and then chipped into mulch.

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Sadly, it seems that the history associated with this tree has also been mulched as so few people today know why it makes its annual appearance.

A little-known aspect of this........

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