'Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir Tree. The place he had was a very good one: the sun shone on him: as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little Fir wanted so very much to be a grown-up tree...'

So begins Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale of a little fir tree yearning for Christmas and adulthood, a fairly tale staple of the holiday season.