Dangerous Traditions

For Swedes, Christmas doesn't come to an end a week before New Year's Day. Instead they mark the end of the holiday on Jan. 13 with the annual Julgransplundring, or Christmas tree plundering.

Then, Swedish children are free to relieve the tree of all the candy canes they may not have sneaked off it in the preceding weeks. After the cleaning has been done, the sensible Swedes save themselves the trouble of maneuvering the unwieldy, and by that time very dry, evergreens down apartment building staircases by simply pitching them out their windows.

This may explain a recently opened police investigation into the premeditated or reckless bodily harm inflicted on a boy in the city of Braunschweig. The 11-year old suffered minor injuries to his face when a discarded Christmas tree was lobbed from above, the Netzeitung.de online news site wrote. A friend walking on the other side of the street saw the falling tree, but her warnings came too late.

The boy's mother took him to a doctor and stopped off at the police station to file charges.

The children were unable to pinpoint which window the tree had fallen from, a police spokesman said. There was no word on whether any Swedes lived in the building.

The investigation is ongoing.