Maybe it isn’t so bad after all.

After more than a week of derision both online and in person, Portland’s imperfect holiday tree lit up Friday afternoon, dazzling the crowd of hundreds gathered in Monument Square for the annual event.

As the lights flashed on, precisely at 4:30 p.m., the crowd cheered its approval – or relief? – at seeing the Portland-grown tree come to life. Some attendees said they had doubts that the tree, which they said looked thinner than those in past years, would hold up to history.

“It was 50/50. I wasn’t quite sure,” said Portland resident Julie Lankford. But “It definitely looks better with the lights.”

Lankford said she hasn’t missed a tree-lighting in more than 20 years, and even visited the holiday tree in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the city seemed to make up for the tree’s lack of branches with an abundance of lights.

The tree made its journey from Portland’s Deering neighborhood to Monument Square on Nov. 20. In the days since, it has endured a stream of negative (and a few positive) comments online, including on the city’s Facebook page, where users complained that it looked scraggly, thin and a little crooked.

Portland’s holiday tree stands in Monument Square in Portland on Wednesday, before the tree-lighting ceremony on Friday. Some had criticized the city’s tree choice, saying it looked scraggly. But it was all cheers Friday night after the lights were lit for the first time. Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald

“Portland you really did the city dirty with this tree,” one user commented on a video of the tree being craned into place. “We are the pine tree state and that’s the best you could do?”

Some people went as far as calling City Hall to complain.

“Is that for real or is this a joke?” one unnamed woman said in a voicemail left with the city and shared with the Press Herald. “That’s terrible. It’s a disgrace.”

WHY SO SPARSE?

This year’s tree grew up in a confined space between two residential buildings, and both property owners were planning to remove it whether or not it was selected, said city spokesperson Jessica Grondin. It was also relatively close to Monument Square and accessible to harvesters.

“We did not have great choices this year due to the extremely dry conditions,” she said in a statement. “Any of the better trees that were nominated by residents were too far away from Portland, which would have driven up transport and climate costs.”

Grondin said city staff view this year’s tree as an “opportunity to see the beauty in something that was not long for this world” and a way to give the old tree one last purpose after years in the community.

Anna Brettler takes a selfie with her father Matt, both from Poland, after the tree-lighting at Monument Square on Friday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Mark Reiland, Portland’s arborist, said “the aesthetic aspect of it is one small part of the calculus,” and noted that the city focused its search on trees that were already slated for removal.

“We’re really trying to build up the green infrastructure and build upon it in the city,” Reiland said.

He added that the tree’s height – roughly 40 feet – makes it easier to spot, especially during the packed lighting ceremony, and said the sparse branches allowed crews to wrap the visible trunk with lights along with the branches.

Some who filled the square before the tree-lighting, including Portland residents Chris Clegg and Erika Petri, said they were optimistic that the tree would glow up when the lights came on.

They gazed up and down the tree around 3 p.m. Friday, while the street was still lit and the branches still dark.

Clegg said the tree looked “a little Charlie Brown-y, but it’s still cool.”

The pair said they were happy to hear the tree was already slated for removal before being selected by the city.

“I think every tree deserves a chance,” Petri said. “It’s nice that it’s getting a chance to shine before it goes to the whatever it’s called – the woodchipper.”

A HOPE FULFILLED

On Wednesday afternoon, as the sun shined on the still-dark tree, a handful of people weighed in.

One woman told her friends the tree looked “like Charlie Brown’s.” She, like several others who joked about it as they crossed the square, declined to give her name.

Matt Hoff, a Pennsylvania resident who’s joined family in Portland for 10 years over Thanksgiving, said he could “see right through it.”

“I don’t think it’s as tall as it normally has been, or as full,” Hoff said. “But it’s still nice.”

Minutes before lighting the tree, announcers Lori Voornas and Jeff Parsons, of radio station WHOM, riffed on its reputation during the pre-lighting show, which featured performances by members of the Portland Ballet; Maine’s homegrown “American Idol” contestant, Julia Gagnon; and the Casco Bay Wind Symphony.

“It’s like a caterpillar turning into a monarch butterfly,” Parsons said. “When it lights up, this is going to be the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen for Christmas.”

Voornas held a vote-by-applause to see how the audience felt about the tree. She asked who thought it seemed a little lackluster; a handful in the crowd clapped.

“Who thinks the tree for the tree lighting in the city of Portland is the best tree ever?” she asked. The crowd roared with cheers.

Mayor Mark Dion told the crowd he was unsure what to think when he first saw the tree.

“The longer I look at it, the more it grows on me,” Dion said in his remarks. “It makes me happy and homesick all at once.”

Leana Good-Simpson, of Portland, took a photo of the newly lit tree shortly before 5 p.m. and called it “beautiful to me.”

Since the tree is so thin, viewers can see all the lights from one side to the other, she said.

“I think with the lesser leaves it just looks beautiful,” Good-Simpson said. “It just looks simple, and to me it looks really elegant.”

Staff Writer Megan Gray contributed reporting.