I am angry!

Anger is not a very Xmassy emotion, I know, but in my home town of The Hague unfortunately this year anger has something to do with Christmas this year.

I love my hometown and one of my favourite places, ever since I was a child growing up in The Hague, is the chique Passage, I wrote about it in this blogpost last Christmas and showed you this picture.

Isn’t it beautiful?
I always love going to the Passage around this time, to see this huge Christmas tree with all those lights. Often on weekends there are Christmas carol singers or children playing Christmas songs on their violins for some pocket money. The acoustic in the Passage is wonderful, which makes it all a bit magical.

It is a good thing I made this picture last year, because from now on it will not look like this anymore. From now on the place will be empty and silent and right now it looks like this.

 

And not just this year, apparently our beautiful Christmas tree will not return at all anymore.

Why? You may think it is because of the economic crisis or lack of money….. but nooooooo that is not the case…….
It is because behind those black boards a new Apple Store is being built and the Apple company does not want that tree it front of its Store………….. Apparantly in its rental agreement Apple has negotiated that the tree will not be put up any more from now. I am just sooooooo angry about this and I apparently I am not the only one.

 



You can see more about it here, start watching at 7.40 mins (it is in Dutch)

To be honest, it is good news our town is getting an Apple Store, they make the most wonderful Stores in wonderful buildings everywhere in the world, it is good for the city, it brings jobs etc. etc .  And yes, I like Apple products, I do have an Iphone, we have an Ipad. But that does not give a huge company with $$$$$ to spend the right to take away local traditions! There is more to ‘moving’ into a town than just $$$$$!

What a stupid thing to do on both sides, Apple and the other party in the rental contract to take away this lovely tradition. (Honestly ‘other party’ whoever you are, a Christmas tree would not have been a deal breaker, you lack negation skills to say the least!)

And what a missed opportunity by Apple too, are their marketing peeps asleep? Why not put up that beautiful tree in front of the Store each year, pay for it with all those Apple $$$$$ and put a sign next to it: ‘Sponsored by Apple’, or something.
Give those children with the violins and the carol singers back their place next to the Christmas tree, and give us back that special place downtown full of Christmas spirit, instead of this bare rotunda where nothing is happening right now and where - once the Store is there -  only shoppers will walk, just like every other day of the year.

Certainly the local people will go to the Store and spend their money and buy Apple products, so Apple, do the decent thing: give something back to our community, give us back our Christmas tree, our Christmas tradition, it is CHRISTMAS after all, a time for giving not taking!!

 

I rest my case.

 

Phyllis