Canadian Tire’s centennial celebration is a virtual Christmas Tree designing experience

Update 12/06/2022 04:49pm ET: Originally, the virtual Tree Decorator VR experience also served as a direct shop, where users could design the Christmas tree of their dreams and order all the necessary items, including ornaments, toppers, garlands and more directly from the experience. Now, however, as updated by Canadian Tire, the experience no longer “allows for purchase and it’s more for inspiration and all products used to design the tree on the app are available for purchase, but in-store.”

2022 marks Canadian Tire’s 100th anniversary. To celebrate the retail company’s century in existence and the upcoming holiday season, Canadian Tire is introducing a virtual Tree Decorator (VR) experience.

Available on the web, mobile, and as a VR app for the Quest, Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, the experience lets you walk around a room with interactable objects and a Christmas tree. Interacting with the tree allows you to choose from several trees available at Candian Tire locations near you, while you also have the option to use your own tree.

You then get to design your tree with a range of ornaments, toppers, garlands, tree skirts and collars. Once designed, you can head to your local Canadian Tire to pick up a package full of everything you need to make your virtual tree a reality or have the items delivered.

“When you’re happy with your personalized tree, from the tinsel to the Christmas tree topper, you can use your design as a blueprint to make magic happen in your living room. Your Canadian Tire Christmas tree, plus every decoration you’ve selected, can be bought at your local Canadian Tire store – so you can focus on everything else on your Christmas to-do list,” reads the retailer’s website.

Elsewhere, in the virtual world, click around and explore and you’ll find an “extra festive Christmas mission,” which is basically a puzzle that awards you with a bonus gift. “If you unravel the puzzle, you could win a limited-edition 100th anniversary NFT. It’s a new type of digital collectible for you to keep, gift, or bring with you on your journey into the metaverse,” says the retailer.

The NFTs have been designed by five Canadian artists, namely CelinePaul Glyn-Williams, Olya, Vectorvault (aka. Adam Jarvis) and Josh Hy, and are likely to serve no purpose. Canadian Tire doesn’t mention if the NFTs have, or would have in the future, any utility at all. The retailer only says that there are only 100 NFTs to be claimed, which makes it “super rare,” and that you can keep the collectible as a “memorabilia or transfer it to someone else.”

Image credit: Canadian Tire