The city council of Oslo is considering stopping the long-upheld tradition of sending Christmas trees to the Dutch port city of Rotterdam and the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik from this year.

Oslo has been giving a Christmas tree to London, Rotterdam and Reykjavik each year since the late 1940s and early 1950s.

But over the last couple of years, the Norwegian capital city is increasingly feeling to have "significant challenges" to chop spruce trees in Norway and transport them over a long distance to other European cities for the festival, reported the Norwegian-language newspaper Aftenposten in its Tuesday issue.

A city council secretariat report concludes that the practice is an "unfortunate environmental signal."

Describing it as "an incredibly nice tradition," Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang said sending Christmas trees to the three cities starts to get complicated and relatively expensive.

The Oslo mayor now wants to continue with presenting a Christmas tree to London only as it is "a central part of Norway's history and a symbol of friendship with the UK that we will do everything we can to carry on."

Each year since 1947, Oslo sent a Christmas tree to London's Trafalgar Square as a token of gratitude for British support for Norway during the Second World War.

From 1952, the city of Oslo presented Reykjavik with a huge Christmas tree every year, which is always placed in the Austurvollur Square in the heart of downtown Reykjavik.