Big Christmas Trees for maximum impact

 

 

Christmas Wrapped Up
Nordman Fir cut 9ft to 18ft

Frosts Big Christmas Trees
Large Christmas Tree Service

 

 

The interpretation of "Big Christmas Trees" could be quite varied. However, if we think of anything over 3 metres or approx 9ft. high, I think we can rate that as a Big Christmas Tree!

There seems to be many claims to fame for "the biggest Christmas tree in the world" so let us look at a few samples. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the biggest Christmas tree in the world is in Rio de Janeiro - 82 metres (approx 240 ft). It has 2.8 million bulbs to light its way!

Rio de Janeiro also boasts another big Christmas tree - the biggest floating Christmas tree in the world.

A big Christmas Tree in Gubbio - a medieval hill town in Umbria, Italy deserves mention. This big Christmas tree however is only a "shape" representing a fir tree which is 800 metres high and made up of 500 lamps connected by 12000 metres of electric cables (40000 feet), which covers the mountainside of Monte Ingino from about 500 to 900 metres of altitude.

Here is another use for a big Christmas tree! Have you ever thought of a Christmas tree being underwater? An oil industry big Christmas Tree! A big Christmas tree for the Ormen Lange project was positioned recently at a depth of 850 metres in the Norwegian Sea. Hydro's Thomas Bernt, who is responsible for subsea operations, says that it is the world's biggest Christmas tree, or wellhead valve and piping assembly, ever used in an offshore project.

Coeur D'Alene in Idaho also claims to be home to a very Big Christmas Tree measuring in at approx 50 metres, a beautiful Fir tree - more than twice the size of the tree in New York City's Rockefeller Center and with over 30,000 lights to decorate it.

Two further big Christmas trees worth mentioning are The New York City tree and the Long Island tree with heights of approx 24 and 30 metres.

Big Christmas trees are often in the form of Giant Redwoods - truly beautiful big Christmas trees.

For most of us, the main areas where we will find big Christmas trees are in our town centres, municipal buildings, major shopping centres and large retail shops. Councils and Corporate entities are the main purchasers of big Christmas trees.

Big Christmas trees can be selected from species such Blue Noble, Nordman, Norway Spruce, Various types of Fir, Giant Redwoods to name but a few.

The purchase of a big Christmas tree will of necessity have to be handled by experts. There are many very professional companies online who will handle the entire procedure of the purchase of a big Christmas tree right down to placing it as required.

Delivery and handling of a big Christmas tree is a very specialist job so be careful to choose an expert.

Finally we have a great tradition whereby every year Norway sends a very big Christmas Tree to London. Here is the full story ...

The 62nd Norwegian Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square was lit on Thursday 4th December in the annual ceremony that attracts thousands of spectators to Central London. The tree was lit by Rune Gerhardsen on behalf of the Mayor of Oslo, in the presence of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, and the Lord Mayor of Westminster.

The ceremony includes carols sung by the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

The first tree was brought over in 1947 as a token of Norwegian appreciation of British friendship during the Second World War. When Norway was invaded by German forces in 1940, King Haakon VII escaped to Britain and a Norwegian exile government was set up in London. To most Norwegians, London came to represent the spirit of freedom during those difficult years. From London, the latest war news was broadcast in Norwegian, along with a message and information network which became vital to the resistance movement and which gave the people in Norway inspiration and hope of liberation.

The tree has become a symbol of the close and warm relationship between the people of Britain and Norway. Norwegians are happy and proud that this token of their friendship - probably the most famous Big Christmas tree in the world - seems to have become so much a part of Christmas for Londoners.

The tree itself, a Norwegian spruce ( Picea abies ), is chosen with great care. Selected from the forests surrounding Oslo, it is normally earmarked for its pride of place in London's Trafalgar Square several months, even years, in advance. The Norwegian foresters who look after it describe it fondly as 'the queen of the forest'.

The tree was cut down in November during a ceremony in which the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the British ambassador to Norway and the Mayor of Oslo took an active part. Most years, the first snow will have just fallen to brighten the otherwise dark forest. Local and international schoolchildren sing Christmas carols and the city authorities serve 'forest coffee' and sandwiches.

25 metres tall and 50-100 years old
The tree, which is usually 20 to 25 m (70 ft) in height and anything between 50 and 100 years old, is then shipped free-of-charge across the North Sea to Immingham by DFDS Tor Line. A special crew is contracted to haul it from the docks to Trafalgar Square and the space which is allocated every year to the Norwegian Christmas tree.

It takes several hours to put the tree up. Scaffolding is erected, the tree is winched up, and the base of its trunk pushed four feet into the ground and secured with a dozen or more wooden wedges. There is no other form of support. The tree stands there again as it did in the forest.

The lighting ceremony
The ceremony of switching on the lights took place in the early evening of the first Thursday in December. The scene is familiar to most of us. There is a band playing and a choir sings Christmas carols as the Lord Mayor of Westminster arrives with his party. The floodlighting of the nearby National Gallery is specially dimmed for the occasion. At the flick of a switch the Christmas tree comes alive, turning into a twinkling mass of lights. In line with Norwegian tradition the lights are all white; electrical bulbs being the twenty first-century equivalent of candlelight.

A crib provided by the Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields was erected on the west side of the Square. It was dedicated at a special service on the Sunday after the lighting-up ceremony. The passing public may stop on their way home from work and join the carol singers every night until Christmas. During the carol singing, donations to selected charities are collected by volunteers.

In addition to Oslo's tree to London, the city of Bergen gives a tree to Newcastle every year, and the city of Stavanger sends one to Sunderland. There are also Norwegian Christmas trees in Scotland: Edinburgh and the Orkney Islands.