Dec 14 2024 - Tradition of the Christmas Tree

 

What is the Christmas tree tradition?  Is it pagan or Christian?     "Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition—as we now know it—by the 16th century when sources record devout Christians bringing decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce."  "It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. According to a common version of the story, walking home one winter evening, Luther was awed by the stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and decorated its branches with lighted candles." Do you think this is the story of the Christmas tree?  Scholars have discredited this much-repeated story  and say the myth stems from an engraving in 1843 which depicts the Luther family gathered around a Christmas tree.  Scholars look for documented evidence of things and illuminated Christmas trees were first documented in 1660s. What is Luther credited with that is more likely fact?  Gift-giving on December 24th rather than January 6th to more closely associate gifts with Christ's birth. He is credited with writing a Christmas carol.  The evidence is that Christmas trees came about in Germany, along with decorating and lighting them with candles.  Tinsel was first used there and was real silver until the 20th century.  The tradition of trees slowly moved east - Germany wasn't popular in England even with the monarch marriages between the two countries.  It was Victor and Albert who launched the Christmas tree in England.  Things eventually progressed to America through German immigration and high society copying the English Court.   So with that origin in Germany, I guess we should all make sure there's a pickle ornament on our tree - that's the German specialty for decorations.   This is the Dawn Redwood's leaves in the autumn - beautiful bronze.

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Nov 29 2024 - Top of the Tree

 

Don't want to put a star on the top of your Christmas tree?  Get out the glue gun and wire - you are making your own.  Look at the examples from the Fantasy of Trees.  There's everything possible when trees have themes.  Here's the Wayfair recommendations: A Sweet Santa Hat A Many-Pointed Star A Shining Silver Star A Dazzling Snowflake A Minimalist Black Star A Charming Twig Star Isn't a snowflake almost a star?  So you get a Santa hat or a star.  I think a traditional Santa hat is pretty lame. But if we just go visit the Fantasy of Trees there are many mor possibilities.  There are two musical trees this year - the drum set on top of one and a music score turned into a snowflake on the other. And the orange blob?  This is a squishmallow.  It is a brand of fluffy plush toys in various colours.  Our picture looks like a Fuit Squad Ximena the Mango.  While it is unavailable on Amazon, here's the description:  READY, SET, SQUISH! Collect your favorite fruits today! Squishmallows are as cuddly as they are cute!  SUPER SOFT: Made of super soft spandex & polyester stuffing for crazy, cuddly fun.  FUN FOR ALL OCCASIONS: Squishmallows make great pillows, bedtime buddies and travel companions! These special Valentine's Day Squishmallows make adorable gifts! Which tree will get the most votes?  The Squishmallow or the Monk's Chocolate Tree?  It looks like another tight race this year.

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Dec 17 2023 - Christmas Bucket Lists

 

I already don't like bucket lists.  But there might be some crazy, extreme Christmas bucket lists,  Just maybe. No, no.  They are squeamishly embarrassing. Here is a typical writer of the Christmas bucket list: "Hi! My name is Laura. I'm a wife, a mom of 4, a lover of coffee, to-do lists, and all things organizing. I created this blog to help you navigate the chaos of life as a mom in a (somewhat!) organized fashion." Her list is normal Christmas things to do. Just a lot of them in one list - no sense of organized approach at all.   Some of the bucket lists are "fun holiday activities". Other bucket lists are "cheesy" things to do.  Don't forget the "meaningful" bucket list ideas. Are there at least twelve things on the bucket list?  You bet there are 12!   We can have fun with a Christmas bucket list - a "smash-up sort of thing".  I think that the Guinness Book of Records would be in the mix. Whatever the Guinness Book of Records has to say about the best Christmas-themed records works for me.  Crazy, extreme and usually takes a lot of people or practice to achieve. I vote for the easy path - something in a Santa suit.   Would it be bungy-jumping in the most famous places around the world in a Santa suit?  yes - there's a single one in Indonesia in 2011.  What about scuba-diving in a Santa suit and feeding a shark?  Yes - in Australia in 2011.  Having a charity swim in December in Santa suits?  Yes - in Northern Ireland.  Rappelling down a bridge in a Santa Claus suit?  Yes that's been done.  And how are your marital arts skills in a Santa suit?  They are excellent in Seoul shopping malls. Would it be the largest Santa-suited sky-diving jump?  That's a good one - again it's Australia. And that's a partially compiled set of ideas for a Santa-suited bucket list for 2023.  First item:  go get a Santa suit.

Here's an item for a Christmas bucket list  - decorate your tree with 25 Amaryllis plants. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca

Dec 16 2021 - Snakes in Christmas Trees

 

The Weather Report has a series of little stories and ads all around the central view of the hourly, daily, weekly, or whatever weather display.  While the ads are irritating in their constant motion, the stories can be bizarre, cute or funny. Here are today's special reports: "Watch as giant clouds 'eat' the land before your eyes on windy day".  That's in Colorado. "Family find deadly poisonous snake in their Christmas tree"  - it is HERE. This happened in South Africa 2 days ago.  "Wild pigs take over neighbourhood causing damage." The wild pigs are in Texas.   This one from last week is interesting: "Climber finds astounding $168,700 worth of jewels on mountain" A climber who found a trove of precious stones on Mont Blanc has been given half of the 150,000-euro ($168,700) haul to keep after authorities couldn't find the original owner. The climber found the emeralds and sapphires on the mountain in France in 2013, and he has now been allowed to keep half of the stones. Gem experts divided the haul equally between the climber and the local council, with each lot valued at 75,000 euros ($84,350), a spokesman for the council told CNN on Tuesday.  The council said the precious stones were being transported on board an Air India Boeing 707, the "Kanchenjunga," which crashed on Mont Blanc in 1966.   Here's a frosty Christmas Tree from a few years ago.

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Dec 14 2021 - Charles the King

 

Everyone held their breath in England when Queen Elizabeth went into hospital a few weeks ago.  Under common law, Prince Charles will automatically become King the moment the Queen dies. Prince William could only become King if Prince Charles chose to abdicate. That would require legislation, as happened with the Declaration of Abdication Act 1936.  While there are "reports" he considers the job a very difficult one and not one that he wants, there are also "reports" that he's waited so long - he will take up the role. I wondered what were the circumstances that the current Queen is only the second Elizabeth?  I assume it is because if a monarch had sons, they took precedence over daughters.  That was changed with the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 along with removing the disqualification arising from a marriage to a Roman Catholic.  The history of the monarchy in Britain is so complicated, that I stopped looking.  I hadn't realize that there was controversy over her being the second Elizabeth:  Rather than choose a regnal name; she chose to remain Elizabeth, "of course"; thus she was called Elizabeth II.  This annoyed many Scots, as she was the first Elizabeth to rule in Scotland.   So much tradition:  What number in the succession stops being important and becomes just a number? Is there a top 10 or 20 that count more than the others - Wikipedia goes to 63.  I realized it would be those directly related to the Queen - the first twenty-four.   Below is the top twenty - this comes from the official British monarchy website. It is https://www.royal.uk   So the succession of the Monarchy is importance to us today. This is a time when one can find out their ancestry and get a sense of their family tree. I expect the British Monarchy to stay around for a while given our intense curiosity about our own ancestors.  And there are exciting times ahead with the countdown to the year-long Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022 celebration. Here's an elegant Christmas tree from a few years ago at the Fantasy of Trees.

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Dec 10 2021 - How Many Decorations

 

This year I had the task of buying ornaments for one of the trees at Fantasy of Trees.  The sponsor representative decorated the tree with what I'd purchased.   I hadn't done this before and realized I didn't know how many ornaments to buy or how much ribbon for a garland.  So off I went to the internet and got the expert advice. The advice turns out to be this: For a tree under 9 feet, it is typical to have 10 to 20 ornaments per foot.  So the six foot tree would have somewhere around 60 to 120 dangling ornaments and whatever things of interest you decide to decorate it with.  That's a lot of stuff!  These are trees on display in a festival, so it seems to me that more is better, and variety and novelty would be important. Artificial trees are complicated now - or perhaps diverse. There are more dimensions to account for than just height.  There's the circumference/shape - full, slim, pencil - from 48 inches down to 21 inches.  And then there's style of the evergreen - plastic tips in various evergreens, to single evergreen type. And the number of them to make a full-looking tree. And finally, there is the finishing - sparkled, cashmere, and flocked.  Cashmere is a light dusting of fake snow, and flocked as fully snow-covered. A decorated tree is a visual composition, and wants to be created according to visual art rules.  It wants to have garland or ribbon of some sort to create lines for the eye to follow to view the tree. There are horizontal patterns, vertical and diagonal.  The old days of popcorn strings are replaced with fancy ribbons and faux fur. Tinsel is now considered optional and that likely is due to the garland taking dominance. A tree wants a satisfying topper - sufficient to make the eye travel to the top and land there for a short time. There are far more approaches now than stars - tree toppers can be startling and fun. In addition, there should be  focal points in the visual pattern field.  These are larger items in the tree or perhaps signs with cute sayings.  They give the eye something to stop at and enjoy. Finally the bottom of the tree needs a skirt with substance so the skinny stand doesn't show.  There are decorative tree collars that completely hide the bottom of the tree.  These look something like elegant barrels beneath the tree.   My plaid theme meant that the Dollarama Store turned out to be my friend.  There were ornaments in the shapes of stars and covered in plaid.  There were Santas on sleighs wearing plaid, there were stockings by the fire in plaid, little winter boots, cute dogs, and elves.  Even oven mitts and towels for under the tree.  Everything under $4.00 and most things $2.00.   Tree skirts edged in plaid.   This is a telling story about our disposable society and the industrial production of goods. There's an 80% chance that the artificial Christmas trees were made in China in one region with 500 Christmas goods factories.   There's a long history of children's jokes about Christmas trees: How do Christmas trees get ready for a night out? They spruce up. Where do young trees learn to become Christmas trees? Elementree school. What was the Christmas tree’s favorite thing about Star Trek? The Captain’s log. What did the Jedi say to the Christmas tree? May the forest be with you.

Dec 18 2020 Countdown to ?

 

We live in a countdown social environment.  This year the Countdown to Coronavirus Vaccine has replaced both Countdown to Christmas and Countdown to New Years.   The ads for countdown timers are unending. My favourite is itsalmo.st (doesn't that look like a visual tongue twister).  The site is It's almost - and describes itself as a snazzy free countdown tool.   The countdown itself is fairly recent. It came into our social fabric in 1952 (1953 also given), according to Merriam-Webster.  It got its boost from rockets, television, and broadcast engineering, mostly.  On record for its first use is the Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang. Lang, best known for his movies Metropolis and M, was working on a science fiction film called Woman in the Moon that featured a dramatic rocket launch, preceded by a countdown of the final ten seconds before launch.   In sports, Cambridge University's rowing race was known for using a countdown to signal the start of the race.  No date is given for this.   The military had the expression zero hour, used from 1915 onwards, Implied is a countdown. They also had D-Day H-Hour and T-Time to refer to start time. It is associated with the dropping of the first atomic bomb, zero hour and ground zero. Given how we have a countdown on the alert everywhere, I thought there would be some good countdown jokes, but I was disappointed.  Here it the one I chose: Every year on New Year's Eve, when everyone's counting down the final 10 seconds to ring in the new year, I get up off the couch and stand up. I stand up and raise my left leg and just leave it raised for a little while until the countdown finishes and midnight strikes - that way I always start the new year off on the right foot. Today's picture is one of the pretty Christmas trees at last year's Fantasy of Trees event.

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Lighting the Christmas Tree

Wondering about the interesting news of 2019, a "Noel" retitled "Noeel" Christmas story popped up:     "An electric eel in Chattanooga, Tenn., is sparking a little holiday cheer.  Every time Miguel Wattson the electric eel releases a jolt of electricity, a festively-decorated Christmas tree next to his tank at the Tennessee Aquarium flickers and glows.  "There is a sensor directly in his exhibit that picks up when he produces electricity," Aquarist Kimberly Hurt, who cares for the electric eel, tells NPR.  The aquarium had already connected the sensor to a soundboard and a light board to correspond with Wattson's bursts, says Hurt. "It'll light up the board. It also does make some noise so people can hear when he's producing electricity." So it wasn't a huge leap to also have Wattson's sensors connected to a Christmas tree, for a seasonal spin on the display." More on the story and video footage of the electric eel here. Brian's lily field faces a farm house and garage. I got to wondering what it might look like with a scenic view - facing west to mountains.  Here's an interpretation.

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The Longest Christmas...

It will be Christmas-time after the weekend for Americans.  We put up the Christmas tree and take it down.  What about people who leave their Christmas trees up all year? What is your reaction to this?  Good Housekeeping Magazine's reaction is to have lots of ideas for what to do with a Christmas tree all year long:  a Valentine's day tree with hearts, a Halloween tree with pumpkins, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, etc. Does the Guinness book of records have a record for the longest standing Christmas tree?  It has many records - for example the oldest Christmas tree - the tiny tree from 1886 Woolworths in Britain that comes out every year. There appears to be only one world record for the longest standing Christmas tree. It is claimed by the World Record Academy. "WAUSAU, WI, USA -- Neil Olson put up his Christmas tree in 1974 when two of his six sons went off to serve in the Vietnam War; he planned to take it down when they were all home for Christmas; that still hasn't happened; five of his sons live in the area, but his eldest son, who was injured in the war, hasn't been able to make it back to Wisconsin for Christmas; the slim spruce covered in tinsel and dusty Christmas decorations has stayed parked in Neil Olson's living room for 40 years now, setting the new world record for ther longest-standing, all-natural Christmas tree, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/." This doesn't compete with the most reputable source of records -  Guinness.  There is no world record  listed with Guinness for the longest-standing Christmas tree. The results retrieved when searching for "longest" and for "longest standing" are hilarious.  What about the longest Christmas cracker, longest balancing a wreath on his thumb while dressed as Santa Claus, longest time spent inside an inflatable snow globe, longest letter to Santa,  longest wish to Santa, longest Christmas cracker pulling chain, longest Christmas cake, longest choir concert as a Christmas gift, longest Christmas stocking.  And the person who celebrated the longest Christmas day by flying around the world.  Today's picture comes from Salt Spring Island at the ferry dock.  Looking at it, you might think that this is the longest-running hippy town in Canada.

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