Obviously this was not taken today, but in my defence I can say that I did process it today - more than three months after it was originally captured during our short sojourn to Portugal's Algarve at the beginning of December. As I understand it, the tradition of putting up Christmas trees and decorating them originally came from Germany. The idea, I do believe, is to decorate a real tree of the type normally found still green during a northern European winter. Ideally the tree ought to be alive or freshly cut; for those who believe the issues with real trees (shedding needles, not always the perfect shape or size, etc.) outweigh the benefits of the smell that permeates the house while it is there, can and often do opt for artificial trees of greater or lesser realism that can be easily assembled and disassembled. For those with neither the time, inclination nor imagination to decorate a tree, artificial ones can come ready decorated and lit - you can even get decorated (and undecorated) upside-down Christmas trees (although why anyone would want an upside-down Christmas tree is beyond me). While Portuguese people may have real or at least realistic trees in their homes over the Festive Season (and if they do it is, like Hallowe'en in Lisbon, a relatively recent phenomenon), their municipal authorities seem to prefer these prefabricated monstrosities that really are as kitsch as you might imagine them to be. Strange.