The national Christmas tree fell. Make of that what you will.

In a daring insult to the holidays, the National Christmas Tree shunned its festive duties and toppled Tuesday afternoon, alerting federal park officials and temporarily throwing plans for the national tree lighting ceremony into doubt.

This story is actually an exercise in inserting your own metaphors.

People who don’t like the president much have already done so compared the boom to President Biden’s economic policies, and criticized Mr. Biden’s inability to prevent the tree from falling, as if his only responsibility as president was to tether a Christmas tree to the icy earth. (Even though he was, he was in Georgia, at a memorial service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter.)

Others may find this unfestive accident strangely relatable. Who among us hasn’t rebelled against the American push to celebrate Christmas almost an entire month early? Maybe the tree was just tired! Or perhaps the pressure was too much: this tree replaced a tree that had been planted but was removed after it was struck by a fungal disease. (The debate over whether to use a cut or planted Christmas tree has raged in the tree community for decades.)

Regardless, the episode unfolded when a strong gust of wind forced the 40-foot-tall Norway spruce to the ground, Jasmine Shanti, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, said in an email. As night fell Tuesday, workers used a crane to straighten the spar, which it did arrived from West Virginia will be installed earlier this month at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House. In a particularly pathetic sign of holiday optimism, the tree’s lights were still on as it lay on its side.

At first it seemed unclear whether the original tree would be in any condition to star in the film ceremony on Thursday evening an event with celebrities, including singer Dionne Warwick great on Xand Darren Criss, who has 3 million followers on Instagram.

But Ms Shanti said in a second email that the tree, which fell around 1pm, was back upright by 6pm after workers repaired a broken cable and assessed the tree’s condition.

“The show goes on,” she wrote.

One hundred years ago, Grace Coolidge, the first lady, allowed District of Columbia Public Schools to plant a tree on the Ellipse, according to the National Park Service report. extensive accounting of the history of the National Christmas Tree. Others have fallen since 1923. In 2011, the tree had been planted on the Ellipse in 1978 also blew over after being hit by high wind speeds. And that tree had replaced another in 1977, which had lasted only a few months.

In a development that shouldn’t surprise anyone living in Washington, the area has become a stormier place over the years. According to According to a weather analysis by The Washington Post’s The Capitol Weather Gang, high winds have increased since the mid-2000s, which is absolutely true.