Montreal's ugly tree should've become an annual Christmas tradition

It was a holiday flop that almost started something special.

In 2016, city organizers ambitiously promised a tree that would rival the Rockefeller Center spruce. What they got instead was a 26ish-meter or 88-foot balsam fir that, despite a grand lighting ceremony hosted by then-Mayor Denis Coderre, looked like it had been through a bad breakup.

Skinny, crooked, and patched with awkwardly sparse branches and mini red Canadian Tire logos for decorations, the tree stood in the Quartier des Spectacles as the world laughed, with social media calling it things like "erectile dysfunction", "sub-contracted... to Charlie Brown", and that "it was just released from Xmas tree rehab and (needed) spare change".

#TreeShaming became a trend on what was then Twitter.