The National Christmas Tree Fell Over. Make of That What You Will.

In a bold affront to the holiday season, the National Christmas Tree eschewed its festive duties and fell over on Tuesday afternoon, alarming federal park workers and temporarily throwing the plans for the national tree-lighting ceremony into question.

This story is basically an insert-your-own metaphor exercise.

People who don’t much like the president have already compared the tree to President Biden’s economic policies, and criticized Mr. Biden’s inability to keep the tree from falling over, as if ensuring the tethering of a Christmas tree to the frigid earth were his sole responsibility as president. (Even if it was, he was in Georgia, at a memorial service for the former first lady Rosalynn Carter.)

Others may find this unfestive mishap oddly relatable. Who among us hasn’t rebelled against the American urge to celebrate Christmas almost an entire month early? Maybe the tree was just tired! Or maybe the pressure was too much: This tree replaced one that had been planted but was removed after it was stricken with a fungal disease. (The debate over using a cut Christmas tree or a planted one has been raging in the tree community for decades.)

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