A decent star can add a good six inches
And create a whole load of other problems.......ouch
Townsfolk left deeply unsatisfied by Bury St Edmunds' 'twig' of a Christmas tree
Yeah, yeah, "It's November, I don't want to hear the C word until the 24th of December" and so on – tell that to the denizens of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England, who have been left feeling cold after the arguably premature erection of the town's Christmas tree. The yule totem was stood to attention this week by community …
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Friday 9th November 2018 13:06 GMT pig
Meh.
Imagine the comments if they had a 50ft tree covered with loads of decorations.
It would be all "Why are you spending on a tree instead of children's / adult / other council services"
Council's can't win. Damned it they do, damned if they don't in this world where everyone is a critic and we seem to compete with each other over who can spot any semblance of fault first.
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Friday 9th November 2018 13:14 GMT Giovani Tapini
In full respect to the article wording...
While the town "pines" for a more respectably sized tree, this story resin-ated with me as other towns have gone through this in recent years. I find that in some cases the people have actually got a point, so its no wonder they start needling the council.
The problem is that if there is too much girth you cant fit it into the hole. If there is too much length it starts getting wobbly and cannot maintain its erection. My wife tells me that tinsel is too scratchy and irritating leaving me with just the balls for decoration.
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Friday 9th November 2018 13:33 GMT disgruntled yank
Goodness
Fair play demands that I tell you that there is a Christmas tree already set up just south of the White House. I haven't looked that closely, but I think that the sole decoration so far is a big ribbon in a dull red. Most likely the size would more than satisfy the Buriers--something around thirty feet, I suppose.
Though I have long since become used to neighbors who put up Halloween decorations by the first of October, it does seem early to be putting up Christmas trees.
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Friday 9th November 2018 15:06 GMT DavCrav
Re: Not Technical!
"Oh, I see. It offers numerous opportunities for double entendre and allusion to penile dimensions and engorgement - which is what technology is all about these days..........<sigh>......."
Speaking of double entendres, in German the act of doing physical exercise with a dog is referred to as das Dogging.
I will just leave that here and walk away.
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Sunday 11th November 2018 14:35 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Old but good
In recent years I became tired of holding down my temporary outdoor Christmas tree in the teeth of the apparently more frequent gales.
Last year the problem was solved quite cheaply. A cone shape made from 9 x 3m vertical bamboo canes - with sequenced 5050 RGB LED strips spiralling round it.
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Friday 9th November 2018 21:10 GMT Rich 11
Why can't our beautiful town have a Trafalgar Square type tree.
Two reasons.
1) You don't know how to use a question mark.
2) The Trafalgar tree is an annual gift from Norway to all* the people of the UK, sent as a thank you for coming to their defence in 1940 and for supporting their resistance movement all the way through to the end of the war (which of course turned out exceedingly well for all of us, especially given Telemark). The tree the Norwegians will send us this year will be the 72nd one, and that's a damn fine tradition we can all be proud of and grateful for.
*Though I'm guessing we can agree on excluding Tommy Robinson and other pieces of neo-Nazi shit.
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Tuesday 13th November 2018 15:05 GMT Michael Wojcik
Lighting
Size isn't everything. It's the way it's decorated. Last year the tree was larger but it looked like the lights had just been thrown at it.
Too true. Personally, I feel volume lighting is the only way to go. Lighting just the hull of the tree is simply lazy.
On my trees, I start at the trunk, pick a bough at the bottom in the back, bring the light string out along it and wrap all the branches coming off it that are large enough to hold the string without drooping excessively. Then back along the bough to the trunk, advance to the next bough at the same level, and repeat until you reach the top of the tree.
Since that takes more strings than can safely be daisy-chained,1 I drop a couple of extension cords down the trunk to different heights, so I can plug additional strings in as I work higher up the tree.
My trees are typically around 8 1/2 feet high and 5 to 6 feet in diameter at the largest point, and I get 4000 or so lamps on them. If a tree isn't bright enough to read by, what's the good of it, eh? And there's something to be said for a massive cone of multicolored lights in the parlor to really convey the holiday spirit. (I use all solid lights. Blinking ones would be a bit seizure-inducing.)
Naturally I have all this running off a dedicated circuit with GFCI and AFCI protection. We always use Frasier firs and have a stand that holds a few gallons of water, which I top off twice daily. Adequately-watered Frasiers can last a long time; the tree's still flexible and moist when I discard it after Twelfth Night. The lights don't come near the ignition temperature of the tree but they could certainly dry out one that didn't keep soaking up water, and a big pile of well-aerated kindling is not really something you want in your house.
1The incandescent tree light strings sold in the US are generally rated for up to 6 strings of 100 lamps in a chain. I play it safe and go with one fewer than the strings are rated for.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
