‘I wouldn’t say they look good’: B.C. town combats complaints about tree stumps with festive decor

Charlie Brown would be proud. 

In the quiet mountain town of Creston, B.C., tree stumps, which are considered eyesores by some, are decorated for the holiday season — an initiative started by an anonymous source, and finished by the Town of Creston. 

Each of the 10 stumps is decked out with lights, some colourful and some white, and some even have their own red Santa hats.

“I wouldn’t say they look good, but I mean, they look festive,” Creston communications lead Brandy Dyer told CBC’s Daybreak South. “Maybe if you’re a gnome you would think they’re cute.” 

Dyer said it all started when a cold snap a few winters back killed the trees, among other crops and orchards in the area. 

“In the summer we heard some grumbling on Facebook after we cut these trees down,” Dyer said. 

People wondered why the city would cut the dead trees down, laughed and called the public works department names.

But the stumps couldn’t be removed, Dyer said, for financial reasons. 

“It’s much cheaper to leave the stumps and dig those up at the same time that we replant,” she said.  “Regardless of what people might think — that we waste money — we don’t, we try to stay on budget. So we budgeted the planting for next summer. And so that’s why we’re left with these stumps downtown.”

Of course, grumbling about the hideous stumps left behind persisted on social media. 

Then, something magical happened. Town staff were downtown one day when they noticed a couple of the stumps had been decorated with lights. They still don’t know who it was, Dyer said. 

It inspired something in the staff, who went out and spruced up the remaining stumps. 

“When life gives you tree stumps, you put lights on them and you call it festive,” Dyer told CBC News.

When people continued to complain, Dyer took to the town’s Facebook page to explain. 

After that post went viral within the community, Dyer said someone went out and added Santa hats to some of the stumps. 

It won’t be an ongoing thing, because as Dyer noted, the stumps are scheduled to be removed in 2026. But if there did happen to be stumps in the town next year, she said it would be tough to resist following suit.

“To be honest, if there was stumps next year, we would probably decorate them again,” she said. “But no, the plan is in the spring to replace the trees, and then everybody can just be happy again.”

But for now, she said, it’s bringing a little holiday cheer to those who need it most.

And as Linus said in A Charlie Brown Christmas, that’s what Christmas is all about.