Utinni!

This is the sixth year of "The Tree". As always, it's one of my favorite parts of the holiday season, a nice little tradition which I don't see going away ever.

Most people reading this will know of the tree, and may have even been blessed enough to gaze upon its luster. If not, here's a quick recap: My mom bought it for me before my intern year and has also supplied about 95% of the ornaments for it; most importantly she has every year fastidiously bought and shipped the latest iteration of Star Wars ornaments. The Star Wars ornaments started coming out back in the mid 1990's (some good coming of George Lucas's massive commercialization campaign) and mom has been all over them since.

Other than that, there's not much to say. Gwen and I shoot to put the tree up on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which we did again this year. Mom had sent some new light strands this year, which now adorn the tree. Each year there are more and more ornaments which require a plug-in to a light socket, and the in and out of so many sockets puts a strain on the light strand itself, necessitating intermittent replacement.

My pictures of the tree did not come out too well this year, mostly because I'm trying to photograph the tree at the worst possible time, and I have no tripod for macro and "dark" shots, but there's some time pressure here and I need to get this post done.

For other recaps of the tree on OTHER years, the links are just below. The photography has been better in the past, and since all but five of the ornaments have been on the tree before, you can check them out there.



2004

2005


2006


When we set up the tree, Gwen and I use a few guiding principles. First, we try to recreate as many Star Wars scenes as we can. We try to pair up the jedis for their big fights. Darth Vader fights Obi Wan all over the place. Luke and Vader go at it. For the earlier films we have Qui Gon and Darth Maul toe to toe, and younger Obi Wan gets to fight Jango Fett. There are space battles, too, with Darth Vader in his tie fighter annually chasing down Luke in his X-wing, 'staying on target' if you will. We put the Star Destoyer around the Death Star, we put Han and Leia close - we try to make it so that every part of the tree has some part of the movie as its basis, or at least we get as close as we can. There are a few different Yoda figures, but the wise-looking Yoda always goes on top of the tree, and goes on last. This is tradition. Also there is a Jar Jar ornament that stays in its box - it's simply not cool enough to put on the tree.

Many of the ornaments are plugged directly into the light strands, and have quotes and music spew from them every time they are turned on. Several others are battery powered with quotes and such, and have push-buttons to activate. Gwen and I have a routine where we can power on the tree (it requires a transformer here in Europe) and hear EVERYTHING. We do this by dividing the non-automatic ornaments (there are nine this year) and pushing all the buttons as fast as we can after flicking the switch. The end result is an awesome cacophony of Star Wars music and quotes and is really the coolest thing about the tree. (The Emperor, in his Death Star, who brags of its fully "armed and Op-er-ation-al" nature seems to always have the last word...)

This year all the new ornaments are centered on Tatooine. There is a jawa with R2D2, a Millenium Falcon blasting off from Mos Eisley (which plays the main Star Wars theme, inexplicably missing up until now), the scene from Obi Wan's hut where he shows Luke his lightsaber for the first time (this one has a variety of quotes from the movie from that scene, and the a blue light bulb illuminates the saber itself at the point in the quote where it gets turned on - it's sweet), and most importantly an angry Tusken Raider wielding his gaffe stick in a menacing matter (is there any other way?) The Tusken Raider, especially, is a sweet addition and even now it's hard to consider the Tree as ever having been Tusken Raider-free. The only let down with this particular ornament is the lack of the patented belligerent attack noise - the one we all know and love.

So 2007 brings some really strong augments to an already kick-ass tree. This is what Christmas is meant to be. It's always cool to see what new ornaments come down the pipe each year.

The non-Star Wars ornaments include mostly Spider Man in various poses; there is also one Giants ornament and one Steelers ornament, two Lord of the Rings ornaments (Gandalf and Frodo - which begs the question why not more? Well, for some reason, these are the only two they've made! One can only dream how extra-super-cool it would be to see all manner of LOTR co-habitating with Star Wars; Nazgul and Tie Fighters side by side, etc. Maybe some day), and an assortment of "other" ornaments too singular to classify in a group. Overall Star Wars covers about 80% of the tree.


My favorite ornament remains the initial Darth Vader - the one that speaks, has an angry glowing red light saber which gleams menacingly in the dark, and - speaking the best quote from the trilogy - taunts, "The Force is with you Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi - yet..." every time the tree is turned on. This guy, from 1997, remains the anchor of the tree and is my top pick.

Anyway, this is Christmas in our house. Enjoy the pics!




BEHOLD!




All Lit Up






Don't Mess with Darth - He Anchors the Tree






"BRRWUUWUWUAAA!"







One More Pass....






I'll Never Join You!





Wise Yoda brings balance to the Force - AND the Holidays!





He wanted you to have this when you were old enough...






Hi - We're the only good part of episode one!