‘Borrow a ladder.’ South Carolina town is in uproar over half-decorated Christmas tree
The holiday season isn’t so merry for one small South Carolina town, where residents are spending the run-up to Dec. 25 in an uproar over the state of their municipal Christmas tree.
The town of Swansea unveiled its Christmas tree Nov. 30 in the center of the small Lexington County town beside the town fountain at the corner of 2nd and Church streets.
Residents quickly noticed something off about the tree. The ribbons around the tree only seemed to go halfway up the tree’s branches.
“Is someone completing the decoration that they stopped?” one person asked on Facebook under a post about the tree.
“Maybe a 1/2 decorated tree is the ‘new fad,’” another wrote.
“Someone’s getting coal for Christmas,” said another.
One commenter said the town should ask to borrow a ladder, while others lamented that other small towns had nicer decorations up for the holidays than Swansea.
The tree inspired some town residents to redecorate the tree on their own and share pictures of their improvements online. That didn’t sit well with the town however, which removed the unofficial additions.
“Who ever is messing with the decorations on the Christmas Tree at the fountain, stop!” the official town Facebook page posted on Tuesday. “If it continues, the tree will be removed!”
Resident Savanna Reynolds even recorded herself at town hall asking Mayor Viola McDaniel if she would allow local businesses to add decorations to complete the tree, but was told that no one volunteered to help decorate the tree and the decorations were now set.
“I’ve already did what I’m going to do to the tree,” McDaniel can be heard saying on the video. “Y’all can do it next year when somebody else comes in.”
When Reynolds says the tree’s condition makes the town look trashy, the mayor can be heard responding “It’s trashy anyway.”
McDaniel did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The State.
One resident is now trying to organize a protest at the tree on Friday, where the protesters will call on the mayor to “step down and resign.”
Others are simply hoping to get a different tree for Christmas this year.
“Our poor little town!!” said one commenter under the Facebook tree post. “Something has to change bc what we got right now is not it.”
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