Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Do you light them?

 

I've heard that lighting them was a special occasion, because of course the small candles would burn for only a short time. And there was always the danger of the tree catching on fire, so someone would stand by with a bucket of water.

[T.o.b.y]

Of course we light them! I don't know how other people do it, but we always light the candles on the Advent wreath first, striking only one match and then we use that fire to light up the tree and all the other candles in the room. The electric lights are all turned off and then we sit in the candle-lit room and sing carols. It's very beautiful and kind of spiritual - and with the exception of my husband, we're all atheists or agnostics... :-D

[besleybean]

See this is so common with very many agnostics, atheists, humanists...

Personally I have to say that as a militant atheist, I just don't get it.

As I recently said to two of my Christian friends, for me, carols are beautiful tunes ruined by the words!

[T.o.b.y]

Well, I am not a militant atheist. I am agnostic and married to a pretty devout Christian.

 

I don't agree with a lot of stuff in the Bible and I won't deny that people have done terrible things in the name of their gods, but I have great respect for religion in general. I think the world would be an even sadder place without it. Religions have inspired so much that is beautiful... Art, literature, music, traditions and customs that knit communities together...

 

As for Christmas, I love that holiday and I love carols. I don't pray when I accompany my husband to church (that would feel like lying to me and in a way like disrespecting a deity I don't even believe in :-p), but I sing other songs where the words aren't mine or have anything to do with my life, so why not sing a carol?

[besleybean]

I guess some are into Xmas and others not...I fall into the latter category.

I refuse to attend church with the school kids and the school have eventually accepted that now.

I try to be ethical even about all of music. But I confess you are right, I do sometimes find myself singing something and then thinking...you know what, this really isn't PC!

[Carol the Dabbler]

How long do the tree candles burn? (Seems like a few carols oughta be about it!) Do you then replace them with fresh candles, or is the lighting an only-once-a-year event?

[T.o.b.y]

The candles I buy burn for about 2 hours. We light the tree on the 24th, then again on the 25th and 26th if we're home (if not, then the tree of whatever family member we're visiting). Then again on New Years Eve and for a last time on January 6th. After that, Christmas is officially over and all the decorations are taken down (I hate Jan 7th).

[besleybean]

We have no tree, no lights, no decs.

[Caya]

Are real candles really that uncommon in the US? I love them, the beeswax gives off such a fine Christmas-y scent even before they are lit. As for the fire hazard, that's mostly people lighting them one last time before throwing out the tree on Epiphany and not realizing that it has dried out a lot since then and become considerably more flammable. But yeah, bucket of water next to it, that's just common sense.

 

As for lighting them, most households here have a rod holding a candle, which you light the other candles with (only photo a quick googling gave me was here) - most of them also have the bit for extinguishing the candles again below the candle holder because, like Toby said, they don't remain lit long (leaving them to just burn down is a good way to get a fire started because they might become unstable in their clip holders when almost burned down). Just for the giving the presents part (which is done on Christmas eve here, no waiting till next morning for us :lol:) and/or a few carols.

 

@Carol: as for size, I pulled up some random candles at amazon and they're about four inches long and half an inch thick.

[Arcadia]

I think real candles must be pretty uncommon here, yes, as I don't recall ever seeing a tree decorated with them. I'm aware of the tradition, though, just have never known anyone who actually follows it. Wait ... my grandparents had a few on their tree, I think. Yes, the first few years we had Christmas with them, they did. But just a few, and I don't recall them ever being lit, as they also had electric lights. They were just there for pretty.

I wonder if the type of trees we use might be a factor ... when we lived in North Carolina, for example, the most common tree used for Christmas was white pine, which has very weak, flexible branches compared to other trees. A candle holder would just flop over and dump its contents. Another popular tree in many places is balsam fir, which also has weak branches.

The last few years we've been getting Frasier firs, which are nice and sturdy, but cost a lot more, and we get them from a special lot ... not everyone sells them, because of the expense. We get a small one, so it's not that much, but the 7-8 footers can easily cost $100. This lot keeps selling them, though, so they must be popular ... in spite of the fact that my family is the only one I know that still gets a real tree every year. Everyone else that I can think of has switched to fake trees, many of which now come with the lights already installed.  Cheaters!
 
None of my family is particularly religious, we just love the tradition. My brother-in-law is Jewish and I think he loves it the most of all. The kids come home, the house becomes fairy-like and softly lit, the kitchen is alive with wonderful scents ... what's not to like? Plus we give each other a lot of amusing gifts, and we play silly games, and it really is peace on earth for awhile. I don't see any reason why you'd have to be a devout Christian to enjoy all that. And if you are a devout Christian, there's plenty of space in the holiday for that too.

[Caya]

Our trees are mostly spruce, in the Alpine forests as well as for Christmas, mostly because they grow like nobody's business. If you want to be fancy, you spring for a fir, mostly because they have softer needles (decorating a spruce can be a prickly affair) and give off a nice scent.

 

And yep, no one in my family is particularly religious and that never stopped anyone from celebrating Christmas (but again, Austrians happily adopt/keep any kind of holiday that involves eating and/or drinking, no matter what origin). Even some Viennese Muslim folks I know celebrate Christmas, mostly because their kids would pout if everyone else in their peer group got presents and they didn't, and they don't see it as a very Christian thing anyway (probably helps that the German name is Weihnachten, hallowed night, which isn't terribly specific). Also, despite some encroachment by the German Weihnachtsmann and the US Santa, traditionally the Christkindl (Christ child) brings the presents here, and for some reason that one is usually played by a blonde woman (or a woman with a blonde curly wig). No, I don't get it either, but that's tradition for you. :lol:

[besleybean]

Yep, I'm not one for tradition!

Well the only one I cared about was new Sherlock on 1 Jan...but this next time may be the last, at least for a very long time.

[Carol the Dabbler]

The candles I buy burn for about 2 hours. We light the tree on the 24th, then again on the 25th and 26th if we're home (if not, then the tree of whatever family member we're visiting). Then again on New Years Eve and for a last time on January 6th. After that, Christmas is officially over and all the decorations are taken down (I hate Jan 7th).

Is that all from one round of candles, or do you burn the entire two hours' worth each time, or what?

[Carol the Dabbler]

Are real candles really that uncommon in the US?

 

Oh, Americans have candles -- just not on the tree. A lot of people seem to have table decorations consisting of greenery and/or fruit with candles. Alex and I don't, but that's because of our rowdy cats. (I can just imagine them dashing around, tipping over lit candles, setting themselves on fire, etc.)

[besleybean]

People put candles on trees?!
Sheesh, health and safety nightmare!(dons tin hat).

[Pseudonym]

A tin hat hat won't help, it'll just mean your head bakes faster if there's a fire :P

[besleybean]

Ok, asbestos suit, then!

[Arcadia]

Oh, we have tons of candles around the house, but they don't get lit often. I think we've had the same candles on the mantel, for example, for about 10 years. Mostly we light them when there's company. I light one in my studio every once in awhile just for the scent.

 

We've never had problems with Cats vs. Lit Candles, either. What are you feeding your beasts, Dabbler, Mexican jumping beans? :D

[besleybean]

I belong to a cat forum( I know, it's sad!) and there are endless stories of cat versus tree.

[Arcadia]

There's endless videos of them, too. I guess we've just been lucky and have always had perfectly mannered cats. :p

[Carol the Dabbler]

I have no idea how our current herd would interact with a Christmas tree. I'm sure they'd be delighted to have a nice big new toy, but I have no desire to learn the details.

 

One of Alex's cats used to eat the mylar tinsel and then walk around with it hanging out of its rear. It was lucky, because that sort of thing ("linear foreign objects") can easily kill a cat. So we wouldn't want tinsel.

 

Our two youngest are still at the "teething" stage, where they'll bite at anything small enough to fit in their mouth. So we wouldn't dare have anything electric on our putative tree either.

 

And any ornaments sturdy enough to even consider would quickly be batted down for a game of kitty polo. So why bother?

[Arcadia]

Aw, I love a good game of kitty polo!

[Carol the Dabbler]

Don't worry -- they have plenty of other pucks to choose from!

[T.o.b.y]

 

The candles I buy burn for about 2 hours. We light the tree on the 24th, then again on the 25th and 26th if we're home (if not, then the tree of whatever family member we're visiting). Then again on New Years Eve and for a last time on January 6th. After that, Christmas is officially over and all the decorations are taken down (I hate Jan 7th).

Is that all from one round of candles, or do you burn the entire two hours' worth each time, or what?

We burn the candles down completely every time. I usually buy them in late October. They come in packs of 20 at 2 to 5 Euro a pack depending on how fancy you want to get. Ours are fairly pricy because I want beeswax but I know a place where I can get a really good deal.

[Van Buren Supernova]

Little bit confused, it seems like we have multiple Christmas tree discussion in a few threads, or I was seeing things? :p

 

Err.. what is militant atheist? Is it some term means hardcore atheist?

 

My core family has mixed 'religions', two of us used to be closer to Christian, two Catholic, Buddist mom and always agnostic dad.

I put in apostrophe because we are all actually agnostic, we don't really practice anything, and now mostly we had been soured by idea about religions because of bad experiences and observations since long time ago and have zero faith in the human representations. The idea of religion is good, but there are so many bad interpretations from all religions and those who condemn religion with stereotyping are just as bad. We just adopt the mantra of doing good deeds and that is enough.

 

We don't celebrate Christmas or do anything special about it, but around my uni time, my parents suddenly bought a medium sized Christmas tree. They did so because they thought we would like it and we do! It's also something nice and decorative for the house. We lived in temporary rented house for years where everything we had were basic minimum, fuctional and practical. I don't remember anything that was meant for decoration only.

 

So that year we didn't have any decorations for the tree, we hung things we could find like christmas cards, some handmade stuffs and our childish valuables (decorations improved over the years though ) The tree came with the light that played soft christmas tune.

It's the nicest thing in the house :p

 

One morning, I was about to travel to my uni, if I remember correctly I needed to finish some task and most probably had to miss Christmas at home. Had to wake up at dawn since it's bloody long journey. I was in living room in the darkness, and the tree was playing soft christmas tune with the sparkling tiny lights. It felt nice, happy and sad at the same time because I was about to leave, I spent a while just sitting and looking at it.

 

That tree lasted for probably fifteen years and fell apart only not too long ago, and we never had the replacement as we live apart, everywhere and never gather for Christmas. It's still the same, just another day but nicer day, because of the holiday = chances to meet loved ones.

Forever, christmas tree always reminds me of that special time and home.

 

Just this year, I bought a small one that I put on table. It has lights and simple nice decoration, but I can't find similar tune yet. But I'm not in hurry, best Christmas tree are built over yearssss. :p

 

Regarding candles, interesting tradition.

Have you guys thought about using tealights? Some brand lasts 6 hours each, and it's very safe too.

 

 

I have around two boxes at all time (one box contains 100 tealights) because I like to light subtle aromatherapy.

One day there was a blackout, I lighted many and put them around, everywhere that is safe, they create very nice ambience.