A woman’s aesthetically decorated Christmas tree has gone viral for a different kind of decoration, after an opossum found its way inside.
The video, with 4.2 million views, starts with TikTok user Brett (@brettbratt359) “freaking out” while showing off her decorated Christmas tree. Her frosted white tree, decorated with an array of black ornaments, ribbons, and sparkling lights, seems to be fine.
However, as she walks closer to the tree, she shows a pair of beady eyes staring back at her from between the boughs, revealing an opossum sitting comfortably in her tree.
@brettbratt359 I don’t understand how this thing is in my house right now.
♬ original sound – Brett
“I have no idea how this opossum got in my house and up into my tree,” Brett says in her video.
She shows the opossum nestled deep in between the bristles of her tree while explaining that she’s been trying to get the creature out but it won’t let her.
“I don’t know how it got in here,” Brett says in her video. “I don’t leave my doors open. Somebody help.”
With over 13,200 comments, people have been raving about the opossum, even commenting their best holiday-themed puns.
“‘And a possum in a pear tree,’” one person commented.
“Ah, the Yule Opossum. May he bless you with his prehensile tail,” another wrote.
“On the first day of Christmas, a possum came to me,” another user wrote.
Others were shocked by the idea of the furry creature sneaking into the tree.
“Imagine sitting on the couch and you look over and a possum is in your Christmas tree staring at you,” one wrote.
“I thought we were looking at the lone red bulb on the Black & White tree, but I see black soulless eyes staring at me,” another person commented.
In a follow-up video with over 370,700 views, Brett shares more details about how a sneeze gave the furry invader away and how she got it out of her house.
She explains that as she was working from her couch, she heard a sneeze. She says that she owns several dogs and a cat, so she assumed it was one of them. However, as she heard more noises, she finally looked over at the tree.
“I see this really big long-looking rat tail,” Brett says in her video. “And I just kind of stopped ‘cause I was in shock.”
She also explains that she had to wrestle the creature out of the tree, since the opossum “was holding on [for] dear life to this Christmas tree.”
The next strategy she tried was offering the opossum food. Unfortunately, this also backfired.
“After giving up a few times and trying again and trying to feed him, I end up just giving it my all and plucking his fingers from the branch of the tree, like one at a time,” she says in her video.
Brett told the Daily Dot in a comment that it was about a “30-minute escapade” since the creature in question was a lot bigger than the video shows.
The Humane Society of the United States says that often, opossums get into the house through a pet door. As opossums are generally not aggressive, they recommend closing interior doors and “gently nudging” the opossum with a broom to encourage it to leave.
Commenters were stunned by Brett’s bravery in handling the opossum situation, giving her words of encouragement.
“You just GRABBED it?! Girl you’re brave!!! Omg,” one person wrote.
“GIRLLLL I can’t even kill a spider let alone take a possum out of a tree,” another wrote.
