Madrid is buzzing. Plaza de Isabel II (also known as Plaza de Ópera) flanked on the west by the Teatro Real opera house, features the now, sadly, ubiquitous European Christmas tree. A tall and invasive metal cone like an upturned brazier decked in ugly uniformity with precision spaced decorations; it is truly ugly. Strings of vertical lights form a too-perfect silhouette and perfect is not what Christmas trees were ever meant to be.