Are little red trucks the most iconic Christmas item? TikTok seems to think so

On TikTok, little red trucks have become the platform’s latest treasure.

If you’ve been scrolling through the app on your phone this week, you’ve likely come across the platform’s latest trend: showing off red pickup trucks carrying evergreen conifers. Or, as thousands of posts have put it, “a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree.”

The hashtag #littleredtruckhaulingachristmastree currently has over 27.8 million views. Nearly all of the posts feature faces brimming with holiday cheer as they hold up the very specific decorative holiday item for the camera.

From hand towels and bookends to throw pillows and lamps, users are showing off their items emblazoned with the classic but often overlooked iconography of the holiday season. With each post, users deliver the same chorus with a Southern accent: “It’s a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree!”

So what is the “Little Red Truck Hauling A Christmas Tree” (LRTHACT) trend that has users on TikTok rushing to the aisles of their favorite stores and sharing videos of them speaking with a Southern twang?

Read on to find out:

When did the little red truck hauling a Christmas tree trend start?

The social media craze can be traced back to Nov. 21, when TikTok user mello_yoshi posted a video that showed off the many LRTHACT Christmas decorations his mother had gifted him.

“My mom got me — she got me this little mug with a little red truck holding a Christmas tree,” @mello_yoshi says in a thick Southern drawl while holding up the mug in question. He then begins to pick up various other objects with the signature truck/tree symbol.

Ultimately, @mello_yoshi showcases 12 different items in his home that all have the LRTHACT.

“And she got me this little light-up red truck holding a Christmas tree,” he continues. “And she got me this little welcome mat with a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree and...” he trails off.

TODAY.com did not immediately receive a response from the TikToker who started the trend.

How exactly does the little red truck hauling a Christmas tree trend work?

The LRTHACT video format appears relatively simple and requires two key ingredients: at least one object featuring a tree on a truck and a good Southern accent to match @mello_yoshi’s.

Various users have drawn on Mello’s viral post to celebrate their own LRTHACT items or the ones they’ve come across in stores. All the while, they mimic Mello’s southern accent while repeating some variant of the words “look, a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree."

“Mom! It’s a little red truck hauling a Christmas tree,” user Haleigh Booth’s 6-year-old daughter exclaims in one clip.

“Hey mom!” her 8-year-old son says in the same video. “It’s another red truck hauling a Christmas tree.”

Speaking to TODAY.com, Booth says every year she sees decorations of little red trucks hauling Christmas trees but never thought anything of it until the TikTok trend began.

“I just thought it was hilarious,” she says. “Everybody sees that same Christmas decoration everywhere on everything."

In another post, user @alyssaleanne holds up a LRTHACT and also recites the words with a Southern lilt.

“Why are you talking like that?” her mother asks as the clip ends.

The trend is inclusive, too as one user who goes by the name @beelzeslut on the platform points out.

“For all you lesbians out there, we found a little green Subaru haulin’ a pink Christmas tree,” the user quips.

Where did the little red truck hauling a Christmas tree come from?

LRTHACT furnishings undoubtedly have a nostalgic factor. More often than not, the little red trucks included in the imagery are old-timey in nature and equipped with large round fenders. It’s hard to pinpoint when or who exactly came up with the initial artwork that started it all.

In 1984, The New Yorker featured LRTHACT for its— Dec. 10 cover.

An additional early image of the LRTHACT can also be traced back to an advertisement illustrated tens of Decembers ago.

A promotion drawn by American illustrator Peter Helck in December 1930 shows a Ford Model AA flatbed truck hauling Christmas trees. The ad reads, “The Ford Truck saves valuable minutes.” Representatives for Helk, who died in 1988, did not immediately respond to TODAY.com’s request for comment.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com