--- title: Netflix and Rome Christmas Tree Fail Inspires Twitter Memes description: After a Christmas tree debacle last year, Netflix gave Rome $400,000 to get a new tree, but it looks like no one's happy with the result. canonical: https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-05T16:29:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:18.811Z og:title: This Mangled Christmas Tree Cost $400,000 and No One's Happy og:description: Not very festive og:url: https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3dd3b87e18b62357/69894099929fad0ec0bf23aa/netflix-rome-christmas-tree-memes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: Rome's Official Christmas Tree og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Mangled Christmas Tree Cost $400,000 and No One's Happy twitter:description: Not very festive twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3dd3b87e18b62357/69894099929fad0ec0bf23aa/netflix-rome-christmas-tree-memes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rome's Mangled '#Spezzacchio' Christmas Tree Cost $400,000 and No One's Happy > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7016fb45-c13b-4f88-8353-e66a0be7570c&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 5, 2018 4:29 PM UTC  Rome, Italy, 04 December Rome's official Christmas tree during the preparation at Venice square in Rome, Italy, 04 December 2018\. The tree, more than 20 meters tall, will be lit by the Rome mayor Virginia Raggi on December 8th. It will be decorated with 60,000 LED lights with low energy consumption and 500 colored spheres. The natural fir comes from Cittiglio, in the province of Varese.on Rome, Italy, 04 December 2018\. (Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Rome, Italy, 04 December Rome's official Christmas tree during the preparation at Venice square in Rome, Italy, 04 December 2018\. The tree, more than 20 meters tall, will be lit by the Rome mayor Virginia Raggi on December 8th. It will be decorated with 60,000 LED lights with low energy consumption and 500 colored spheres. The natural fir comes from Cittiglio, in the province of Varese.on Rome, Italy, 04 December 2018\. (Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 5, 2018 4:29 PM UTC Not even a $400,000 sponsorship from [Netflix](http://time.com/5470242/friends-netflix/) can remedy Rome’s Christmas tree woes. The [eternal city](http://time.com/5176977/rome-snowfall-snow-video-drone/) notoriously had such a sparse Christmas tree in 2017 that people joked wwas [“spelacchio”](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/world/europe/rome-christmas-tree-spelacchio.html) (meaning “baldy” in Italian) internationally. More cynical observers thought that the shabbiness of the tree might reflect the tensions in Rome and the country at large. In an attempt to troubleshoot the Christmas tree debacle this year, Rome’s mayor enlisted Netflix to sponsor the tree in their central square to the tune of more than $400,000\. Unfortunately for Rome, however, this year’s Christmas tree had issues of its own, with many broken branches and oozing sap. Italians soon came up with another quippy nickname, “spezzacchio,” an Italian play on words for “sliced up.” And, as might be expected, the Internet wasted no time in making light of Rome’s Christmas tree troubles, riffing on Netflix’s involvement by making memes of the streaming service’s offerings alongside the mangled tree. > [](https://twitter.com/RiprendRoma/status/1069587120665370624) > [](https://twitter.com/PieroLatino/status/1069578124881526786) Others took a darker approach, using the tree as a metaphor for the challenges facing the country. > [](https://twitter.com/ohmybaskerville/status/1069605404785733632) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/"},"headline":"Rome's Mangled '#Spezzacchio' Christmas Tree Cost $400,000 and No One's Happy","datePublished":"2018-12-05T16:29:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:18.811Z","description":"Not very festive","url":"https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Holidays 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3dd3b87e18b62357/69894099929fad0ec0bf23aa/netflix-rome-christmas-tree-memes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3dd3b87e18b62357/69894099929fad0ec0bf23aa/netflix-rome-christmas-tree-memes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Rome's Official Christmas Tree","caption":"Rome's Official Christmas Tree","creditText":"NurPhoto—NurPhoto via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5471145/rome-christmas-tree-netflix-memes/","name":"Rome's Mangled '#Spezzacchio' Christmas Tree Cost $400,000 and No One's Happy"}}]}] ```