So, is this Christmas tree a desecration or celebration?

“It’s a disgrace verging on sacrilege!” Are we talking here about Miley Cyrus twerking naked on a wrecking ball and chain? No, the object of this outrage is a humble Christmas tree.

Summertown is the intellectual, cultural and artistic centre of Oxford…or is it? The area probably is home to more Nobel Prize winners than any other neighbourhood in the world. During Art Weeks the place is ablaze with exhibitions, performances and celebrations. So why did ‘Disgusted and Appalled of Summertown’ sabotage their own public Christmas tree?

Three locals, councillor Jean Fooks, above, resident Nicholas Hardyman and artist Ted Dewan decided to create a community celebration of Christmas without any public money from the council. They persuaded some Summertown businesses to chip in and buy an eighteen-foot Norwegian pine from Bagley Wood in Kennington. Transporting it to Summertown was a problem, but they knew a man with a van who delivered it last Wednesday morning for free.

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A volunteer offered some strands of lights before noon. They tested the lights by pouring water on them and found the water collected in the sleeves. The lights were not fit for purpose. All they had at this stage was one bare tree protected by a ring of orange plastic barriers provided by Oxford City Council.

Artist Ted Dewan, above, rose to the occasion and used the barriers at the bottom of the tree as his theme. “I can do something different. This is an emergency tree. What happens after an accident? Cones come out. Barriers go up. Let’s decorate the tree as a tribute to the city road workers. I’ve got to know a few of the road technicians over the years and I truly appreciate what they do in all weathers and times of the day. Their work is largely unappreciated, even though roughly half as many of them lose their lives in the line of duty as do British police.”

Ted ordered 50 metres of orange plastic barrier mesh and two hundred metres of accident emergency red and white tape for which he paid out of his own pocket.

He said: “These humble materials are omnipresent in roadworks around Oxford at the moment and I wanted to use them in a way that exalted them and made them fun.”

The artist put the design through a risk assessment. I thought a road cone ‘star’ at the top would be perfect, but a real one would weigh too much. If it fell off it could hurt someone.

“So I got a light collapsible cone and arranged for a ‘winkie light’ – the kind they put on skips for night time safety – to go on top of the cone.

The tree won’t light up much apart from the six volt battery-powered winkie light but that will save quite a few kilograms of carbon. The aim was to use lowly materials with imagination and achieve fantastic results.”

Mr Hardyman described the result. When you walked down the street towards the tree it looked like a present that had been wrapped up.

Only when you got closer and saw the materials did you become confounded.”

Councillor Fooks put the event in perspective: “We were faced with having no decorations, no lights to switch on and only two days to find a solution. Ted rose to the challenge and I was immensely grateful to him. It is a great pity that his innovative decorations upset some people.”

But it did cause offence. By 2.30pm on Friday, three hours before the ‘switch on’, which I was invited to perform, the decorations were dismantled thanks to the efforts of ‘Disgusted of Summertown’.

One said: “Was this farce dreamed up by a council as a weak attempt to save money? If the council is so hard up, why bother with a tree at all?”

According to the councillor this was a Summertown venture. Not an Oxford City Council one. No public money was involved.

“I cannot see how the tree reflects the spirit of Christmas,” said another.

Artist Ted Dewan disagrees. “Humility and improvisation are very much in the Christmas spirit. After all Jesus was born in a stable, not the Randolph Hotel, and Silent Night was inspired by an organ that didn’t work.”

A third grumbled: “It’s trash, ruins the magic of Christmas and makes a clean and lovely street look like a tip.”

Artist Ted was already taking the decorations down when someone shouted this. Ted thought: “It must be the cleanest Christmas tree around. All the decorations are brand new. I bought them myself yesterday for £75.”

Another gripe: “You should not decorate something in the heart of Summertown that looks like roadworks. It’s not smart enough. It lowers the tone of the neighbourhood and is nothing compared to the magnificent Christmas tree erected outside the Carter Jones office.”

Ted’s response: “The tree outside Carter Jones cost around £2,000. This one cost rather less and celebrates different values. A man’s reach must o’er extend his grasp or what’s a Christmas for?”

Others went further and claimed it was a transgression, a sin against the residents.

“Summertown is an ordered, safe place. It’s our space and we all have a contract to respect it. You have broken that social contract.”

They clearly saw this Christmas tree as something that was desecrated, not as something that was celebrated.

Perhaps this is the heart of the matter.

To say a thing desecrates a place means there is enormous affection and love for that space. The hate of something that may threaten, harm of change it is the other side of the same coin. Or maybe the reaction is just about economic privilege, prestige and snobbery. Christmas, come back. All is forgiven.

In the meantime the Summertown Christmas tree now stands barren, unlit and unloved.

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