Decorating the Christmas tree is a time-honored holiday tradition, and everyone has fond childhood memories of hanging baubles and twirling tinsel with their families. Here’s the thing many of us have to grapple with in our less magic-filled adulthood, though: decorating a tree on your own is kinda boring and a little sad. Or, if you’re this hapless TikTok user, extremely hazardous to your health.
TikToker @jsssjess brightened up the moods of anyone who’s just put up a Christmas tree by themselves this festive season by sharing a recording of her hilarious attempt to fix the tree-topper atop her Christmas tree, which ended in disaster. Although Jess was hoping to shoot herself some aesthetically pleasing TikTok content, instead she ended up shooting herself in the foot when she took a tumble and ended up with a bruised tailbone (not to mention a bruised pride). It looks like someone needs to ask Santa for a sturdier stool…
While she might’ve failed to put the star on top of her tree, at least Jess’ spot-on impersonation of Buffy the Elf has brought… joy to the world (thank you, I’m here all week). TikTok couldn’t get enough of the perfect comic choreography of this whole seasonal slapstick scene — from Jess’ bizarre, multi-faceted fall to the cold indifference of the tree, and let’s not forget the beautifully apt choice of background music.
“Rocking around the Christmas tree was the perfect lyrics for this,” laughed one comment. “This was made for the subtle foreshadowing effect,” suggested another. “how do you fall in 5 different directions?” asked someone else, while a different comment quipped: “That fall lasted like 3-5 business days.” The tree is the star of the show for some, however: “The christmas tree be like I’M STILL STANDING.”
Thank you from all of us to user @AubJones, however, who suggested Jess repost the video with the iconic drum solo from Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” for the sound. The result is even more uncannily perfect than you could ever have guessed. Watch this and prepare to believe in the magic of Christmas again. Or at least the magic of people making fools of themselves never failing to make the rest of us feel better.
“I fell so hard,” Jess hilariously whines after her arboreal decorating accident, but honestly she should count herself lucky because Christmas trees can be a lot more deadly than you would think. In 2023, one woman was killed and two other people were injured when a 66-ft tall tree blew over amid stormy weather in the Belgian town of Oudenaarde. What happened to that poor woman was no doubt a tragedy, although as sudden causes of death go, “death by Christmas” has got to be one of the best.
As for Jess, if it’s any consolation for her sore coccyx, her tree might not have a star, but thanks to her glorious video going viral (two times over, in fact), she has become the star. How’s that for a Christmas miracle?