The Toronto Eaton Centre will not have any Christmas tree for 2022

A longstanding tradition at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre will reportedly come to an end this holiday season, with the shopping mall's management revealing that it will forego a Christmas tree of any kind for its 2022 seasonal celebration.

Cadillac Fairview announced that it "will mark the start of its holiday campaign on November 17th with a magical, not to be missed celebration at CF Toronto Eaton Centre," but this year's celebration will look quite a bit different, lacking the central feature shoppers have come to associate with the holiday season in the downtown mall.

A CF representative tells blogTO that to accommodate an ongoing modernization project, "This year, in lieu of our holiday tree, we are very excited to bring to life a one-of-a-kind program called Merry Merry Music that will unite our community through the power of music and a magical surprise."

The representative hints that a list of performers is on the way, saying that "we promise, it will be worth the wait."

Not to jump to any unrealistic conclusions, but Mariah Carey just so happens to be in Toronto to perform on Dec. 11, so who knows, maybe CF is redirecting their tree budget towards an appearance from holiday royalty before she is once again placed back into cryostasis for another year.

The announcement of no tree will be a big change for 2022, a year after the mall introduced a towering 108-foot-tall Christmas tree to ring in the 2021 holiday season.

Six other CF properties will indeed keep with tradition and host tree-lighting ceremonies on Nov. 18, including CF Markville and CF Sherway Gardens in the Toronto area.