Woodstock replaced its much-maligned village green Christmas tree on December 6 with a more symmetrical one after several days of mocking and criticism that took the town by storm.
Shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the new tree arrived on a flatbed trailer. Workers from the town’s maintenance and highway departments carefully moved the replacement tree from the trailer to its stand.
“A little more. Good,” town supervisor Bill McKenna said. He helped fit the tree trunk into its base.
Many motorists honked as they passed, some voicing approval.
“It’s all your fault, Bill,” Village Apothecary owner Neal Smoller shouted jokingly from his car as he drove past.
The activity drew a bit of a crowd at times, with some stopping to take pictures and video, while the crew was doing its best to get the tree as straight as possible.
“A little more this way,” Bill McKenna would direct.
The workers would make adjustments, step back, and then eyeball the tree.
McKenna maintained it was the tree originally chosen.
“We went back. and it was still there,” McKenna said. He and his wife went back to the tree farm over the past weekend and found it, he said.
McKenna and highway superintendent-elect Don Allen went to a tree farm and selected a tree for the village green. Allen said the tree was heavily damaged during transport and setup. In fact, it was missing its top and several branches.
Allen said he didn’t have anything to do with the pickup and setup of the tree.
The original tree was the butt of constant jokes, especially on social media.
Tree committee chair and frequent McKenna critic Michael Veitch placed the tree in a copy of  the 1951 painting of the green in Collier’s magazine by Woodstock artist John Pike.
Filmmaker Chris Finlay posted a Facebook poem about the fate of the old tree.
The town took all the attention in stride, even joining in on the ribbing with its own post. “A big shout out to the incoming highway superintendent for dropping off this beautiful tree. The supervisor was able to straighten it up a little, and the town clerk provided the lovely Christmas ball. That’s great teamwork.”
Above the posting is a picture of a small sapling much like the Charlie Brown’s tree in the Peanuts Christmas cartoon.
On Wednesday evening the symmetrical tree stood unadorned and unlit on the village green
The lighting reportedly to be placed on the tree some time Thursday will be sure to have its critics.
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