@BrianRubin I think the top of your tree is on fire!
Nah, that’s just some festive flame. It’s fine.
I believe we have a new nickname for Brian. :)
-xtien
Wife says that’s 100% accurate.
I knew I liked her! Still waiting for the cat’s opinion.
-xtien
What, festive flame?
Be that as it may…
Merry (or Happy, if you’re on the other side of the pond) Christmas to all of you, and Happy Hanukkah or Solstice to everyone who celebrates those!
Feliz Natal e Boas Festas! :D
Merry Christmas.
Hey, everyone. You all bring me a lot of joy every year. Thank you! And Merry Christmas!
I can’t find the Secret Santa thread (was it not stickied?), but will be opening presents tomorrow. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Merry Christmas everyone!
You just have to ignore the stack of boxes there, it’s some gift from one of my sons to my other son. I think it might just be a cardboard “robot suit” honestly, because I think there are cut out holes for arms. :)
Ha ha ha. Tree so big the tree topper is on the side.
Merry Christmas to the people on the best forum on the internet and there are a lot of forums :)
Merry Christmas to you and yours from Maine. Thanks for all the game recommendations and warnings about the stinkers.
A flyer turned up in our post box this week asking everyone in the neighborhood to put out luminaries (candles in paper bags) at 6 PM this evening.
If you all haven’t seen Treeman on Netflix yet I highly recommend it.
My sister, since we were children, has always felt the need to get the biggest Christmas tree possible.
The poor Angel is actually less crushed this year than normal.
A Merry Christmas to all, from this displaced Canadian now living the life of a Connecticut Yankee. :)
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Quarters to Three.
In the mid 19th century as they became popular in the USA, Christmas trees were lit with candles. Not surprisingly, this was a huge fire hazard, and people were aware of the hazard but did it anyways. Some municipal governments tried to ban candle-lit trees, but got a lot of pushback because it was a ‘tradition’. Which it wasn’t really; Christmas trees themselves went way back but lighting them had been rare. Of course people felt that it could be done responsibly, for example by keeping an eye on the tree and having both a bucket of water AND a bucket of sand in case it caught fire. But house fires became so common that insurance companies banded together and refused to cover losses from Christmas tree fires.
In the late 1800’s electric lit Christmas trees became a sign of wealth and buying all of the parts and hiring an electrician would cost about $2,000 in today’s money. But new technologies appeared to drive the prices down. General Electric tried to patent a string of bulbs, but unlike today the patent office actually read applications, and they were told that their application was based on existing technology and therefore refused. Nonetheless many different Christmas lighting companies started to appear and there was a patent race and licensing quagmire that few could make sense of, for example, packaging in a cardboard box, or coloring the lights, or wiring in series vs parallel. It wasn’t until 1921 that Lester Haft of the CD Wood Electric co. had the idea of a simplified system that allowed connecting strings of lights end to end, and despite using common connectors, the patent was eventually granted. Others tried to circumvent the patent, and larger companies such as GE were squeezing the smaller players out of the market. In response a group of companies formed an association to fight back, and named themselves National Outfit Manufacturer s Association. NOMA would dominate Christmas lighting through the 1960’s.
For some Christmas Eve light history reading, check https://oldchristmastreelights.com/table_of_contents.htm.