Ah... yes! evergreens, pitch, and turpentine. One might as well be playing with gasoline. I am amazed by those old-timey pictures of Christmas trees abundantly decorated with lit candles. (strongly suspect fiction is in play)
I am amazed by those old-timey pictures of Christmas trees abundantly decorated with lit candles. (strongly suspect fiction is in play)
No fiction. It was very common during my childhood in England.
Of course things were a bit different then:
The Christmas trees were freshly dug out of the ground and still had their roots on. They were not all dead and dehydrated ready to burst into a huge fire ball at that slightest provocation. Surprisingly hard to set on fire in fact.
We had no air conditioning, double glazing or heating much for that matter. A Christmas tree did not dry out for the short time it was in the house.
In fact after Christmas my parents planted the Christmas trees at the back of the garden, there was a bunch of them growing for many years.
Not that I'm saying it was a brilliantly safe thing to do and I would not do it today.
When I was a child - around 7 I think - we celebrated at my grandmother's, where tradition dictated that only real candles were allowed, I still vividly remember when one of the branches suddenly caught fire. That was not so impressive, but my grandfather was; he calmly went over to the tree and 'wiped' out the fire with his bare hand. Imagine my wide eyes!
Only an average of 4 deaths per year due to burning Christmas trees in the whole of the USA.
Not bad. That makes them safer than the electric Christmas lights at 9 deaths per year.
To put this peril into perspective every mid-summer the Finns take to the forests and lakes to celebrate. Seems 4 or 5 fall out of boats and drown on that holiday every year. There are only 5 million Finns.
Pumpkins that vomit fire and brimstone. Fire-breathing Thanksgiving turkeys. Christmas trees only Mr. Napalm could be proud of. I shudder to think what you're going to do with the poor Easter Bunny.
Exactly. But I think Finland has you beat, " From 1970 to 2000, 9279 unintentional drownings occurred (mean: 299.3/year)" [1]
Too may lakes and beer you see.
I placed and lit candles on my Grandparents Xmas tree in the mid 70's throughout sometime in the mid 80's. Our own tree had the larger 5W blinker lights on it. I miss both fire hazards to be honest.
The LED and small incandescent lights we have today simply do not compare.
Candles have a warm glow and a gentle flicker that has quite an impact. Hard to describe, other than it makes the room "feel" really great. When we placed them, the tree got trimmed to allow warm air to flow away and no needles were near the flame. Grannie placed her hand near the candle, felt all around, trimmed back the most risky ones. When we were done, we put them out.
Grannie was European, Grandpaw part Cherokee Indian and European.
Frankly, I miss the random twinkle we get from the simple heat driven blink bulbs. The dangerous ones are run in series off the main lines, but oh man! The mixing of light and the twinkle which ends up a little different each time and never stable as a pattern is something I would watch for hours. I do miss that.
Somehow, we need LEDs to do this. I've put it here every so often. Gotta be possible.
I did run the danger bulbs one year, just to show the kids. They still grumble about it. Not having it that is.
Only an average of 4 deaths per year due to burning Christmas trees in the whole of the USA.
Not bad. That makes them safer than the electric Christmas lights at 9 deaths per year.
To put this peril into perspective every mid-summer the Finns take to the forests and lakes to celebrate. Seems 4 or 5 fall out of boats and drown on that holiday every year. There are only 5 million Finns.
People do the oddest things.... just about every year in Taiwan, somebody decides to go fishing along the shore in a typhoon and dies.
Candles can be very hazardous in the hands of the unthinking. I had a retail shop with about a thousand pounds of candles on consignment and my store manager left one candle burning in the window because of the Christmas season. The next day we had a parking lot where the store once was and I was out of business. Since we were going to buy fire insurance after Christmas.. when we had extra cash... it ended the enterprise.
Has anyone ever gone harvesting misletoe with a shotgun? Since it is paracite that grows high up in oak trees and in clumps; it is easiest to stay on the ground and just shoot the stuff out of the trees.
I agree. I have been infatuated with LEDs since I first got hold of a red LED in the early 1970's. But they really don't have the romance of real live flames. Actually I think the danger of fire is part of the romance:)
"danger bulbs"
Yeah, I want that. Where on earth can you get them any more?
No fiction. It was very common during my childhood in England.
Of course things were a bit different then:
The Christmas trees were freshly dug out of the ground and still had their roots on. They were not all dead and dehydrated ready to burst into a huge fire ball at that slightest provocation. Surprisingly hard to set on fire in fact.
We had no air conditioning, double glazing or heating much for that matter. A Christmas tree did not dry out for the short time it was in the house.
In fact after Christmas my parents planted the Christmas trees at the back of the garden, there was a bunch of them growing for many years.
Not that I'm saying it was a brilliantly safe thing to do and I would not do it today.
I seem to remember that the real trees we had then were fireproofed before sale anyway
Excellent idea, I'll have to add that feature if I can find any chestnuts here in LA!
Try Sunset Blvd.. plenty of chest nuts.
Just maybe... before there ever was a Christmas tree, there was the humble Yule log. It is all a pagan holiday in any event and fire light plays a big role.
I suspect if you just got to Whole Foods... even in L.A. you will find chestnuts available. After all, we have them here in Kaohsiung.. year-round.... along with water chestnuts.
Yeah, I want that. Where on earth can you get them any more?
I don't know. I should look, because I want them too. My set is long gone. The ones I grew up with were all white, with color coatings. That would be a fun project. Mix up some sweet colors... Gonna put that on the spud list too. Grand kids may be happening soon. Need to show the old world stuff to them as it was done for me.
I do vaguely miss the smell of the large, parallel connected hot bulbs cooking the rosin and other oils of the tree.
The nice toasty feeling of the incandescent bulbs near the face and hands. Too hot to touch but warm when close.
The paint of the bulbs flecking, cracking, and peeling off and making each bulb a unique snowflake if examined.
But for all of the near misses, and the telltale burning plastic stink of garland, tinsel, and the cord insulation if touching a bulb, I don't know if I want to go back.
I can remember those metal "flower" things that you screw in between the bulbs and the socket. Well, those all work great until that tingling sensation when your sibling manages to plug in the string (forcibly and methodically) so that the outside metal of the bulb is mains hot and the tip is neutral.
Alternatively, that fad in the 80's with the bubbling UFO* lights was weird and impressive looking. (*Well, the base looked and glowed like UFO's to me...) Inevitably, of course, a child would inadvertently break the glass tube releasing the foul contents. The secret ingredients of which were never explained on any sort of MSDS.
Ah... yes! evergreens, pitch, and turpentine. One might as well be playing with gasoline. I am amazed by those old-timey pictures of Christmas trees abundantly decorated with lit candles. (strongly suspect fiction is in play)
No, not fiction. I can remember candles on the Christmas tree when I was very young. Not done often if at all now of course.
I placed and lit candles on my Grandparents Xmas tree in the mid 70's throughout sometime in the mid 80's. Our own tree had the larger 5W blinker lights on it. I miss both fire hazards to be honest.
The LED and small incandescent lights we have today simply do not compare.
Candles have a warm glow and a gentle flicker that has quite an impact. Hard to describe, other than it makes the room "feel" really great. When we placed them, the tree got trimmed to allow warm air to flow away and no needles were near the flame. Grannie placed her hand near the candle, felt all around, trimmed back the most risky ones. When we were done, we put them out.
Grannie was European, Grandpaw part Cherokee Indian and European.
Frankly, I miss the random twinkle we get from the simple heat driven blink bulbs. The dangerous ones are run in series off the main lines, but oh man! The mixing of light and the twinkle which ends up a little different each time and never stable as a pattern is something I would watch for hours. I do miss that.
Somehow, we need LEDs to do this. I've put it here every so often. Gotta be possible.
I did run the danger bulbs one year, just to show the kids. They still grumble about it. Not having it that is.
It is possible to have led lights flicker. For a series string of leds all it takes is powering the string with a constant current source, a transistor across each led you want to blink, and a circuit to turn those transistor on briefly. One approach would be to put an optoisolator transistor across the led and have a 555/4017 to drive the optoisolator. Makes them twinkle like the stars on a cold night.
Ummm... I still am having difficulty with the lit candle on a pine tree concept.
A. Isn't there a holder for the candle? Or do you just tie them to a branch?
B. Okay, I can now accept that this was done historically. But are you sure it was done with trees inside a house? Sure, maybe in a castle with a great hall or such, but I have my doubts about thatched roof cottages with low ceilings ever having had such an obvious fire hazard.
Of course, you can avoid all the safety issues by just using a menorah instead of a tree.
But even then, I have a bit of difficulty with candles in a Menorah as Hanukkah was all about a shortage of olive oil for the oil lanterned... no candles there either.
I guess if we used a Menorah we would not be calling it Christmas.
Well, I grew up in a household where every year, the rabbi of our temple would beg us not to have a Christmas tree. We would simply reply that we need the tree to put the presents under.
@Heater
Are your trying to say the Great Fire of London started in a Christmas tree that was set up in September?
erco
Posts: 20,256
Comments
No fiction. It was very common during my childhood in England.
Of course things were a bit different then:
The Christmas trees were freshly dug out of the ground and still had their roots on. They were not all dead and dehydrated ready to burst into a huge fire ball at that slightest provocation. Surprisingly hard to set on fire in fact.
We had no air conditioning, double glazing or heating much for that matter. A Christmas tree did not dry out for the short time it was in the house.
In fact after Christmas my parents planted the Christmas trees at the back of the garden, there was a bunch of them growing for many years.
Not that I'm saying it was a brilliantly safe thing to do and I would not do it today.
What worries me, though, is that those bl**dy candles are making a comeback...
Combine those with 'modern' tree decorations, and yeah...
Erlend
https://www.nfpa.org/~/media/Files/Research/Fact%20sheets/ChristmasTreeFactSheet.pdf
Only an average of 4 deaths per year due to burning Christmas trees in the whole of the USA.
Not bad. That makes them safer than the electric Christmas lights at 9 deaths per year.
To put this peril into perspective every mid-summer the Finns take to the forests and lakes to celebrate. Seems 4 or 5 fall out of boats and drown on that holiday every year. There are only 5 million Finns.
Erlend
Exactly. But I think Finland has you beat, " From 1970 to 2000, 9279 unintentional drownings occurred (mean: 299.3/year)" [1]
Too may lakes and beer you see.
[1] http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/5/1053.full
The LED and small incandescent lights we have today simply do not compare.
Candles have a warm glow and a gentle flicker that has quite an impact. Hard to describe, other than it makes the room "feel" really great. When we placed them, the tree got trimmed to allow warm air to flow away and no needles were near the flame. Grannie placed her hand near the candle, felt all around, trimmed back the most risky ones. When we were done, we put them out.
Grannie was European, Grandpaw part Cherokee Indian and European.
Frankly, I miss the random twinkle we get from the simple heat driven blink bulbs. The dangerous ones are run in series off the main lines, but oh man! The mixing of light and the twinkle which ends up a little different each time and never stable as a pattern is something I would watch for hours. I do miss that.
Somehow, we need LEDs to do this. I've put it here every so often. Gotta be possible.
I did run the danger bulbs one year, just to show the kids. They still grumble about it. Not having it that is.
People do the oddest things.... just about every year in Taiwan, somebody decides to go fishing along the shore in a typhoon and dies.
Candles can be very hazardous in the hands of the unthinking. I had a retail shop with about a thousand pounds of candles on consignment and my store manager left one candle burning in the window because of the Christmas season. The next day we had a parking lot where the store once was and I was out of business. Since we were going to buy fire insurance after Christmas.. when we had extra cash... it ended the enterprise.
Has anyone ever gone harvesting misletoe with a shotgun? Since it is paracite that grows high up in oak trees and in clumps; it is easiest to stay on the ground and just shoot the stuff out of the trees.
I agree. I have been infatuated with LEDs since I first got hold of a red LED in the early 1970's. But they really don't have the romance of real live flames. Actually I think the danger of fire is part of the romance:)
"danger bulbs"
Yeah, I want that. Where on earth can you get them any more?
Excellent idea, I'll have to add that feature if I can find any chestnuts here in LA!
I seem to remember that the real trees we had then were fireproofed before sale anyway
Try Sunset Blvd.. plenty of chest nuts.
Just maybe... before there ever was a Christmas tree, there was the humble Yule log. It is all a pagan holiday in any event and fire light plays a big role.
I suspect if you just got to Whole Foods... even in L.A. you will find chestnuts available. After all, we have them here in Kaohsiung.. year-round.... along with water chestnuts.
I don't know. I should look, because I want them too. My set is long gone. The ones I grew up with were all white, with color coatings. That would be a fun project. Mix up some sweet colors... Gonna put that on the spud list too. Grand kids may be happening soon. Need to show the old world stuff to them as it was done for me.
The nice toasty feeling of the incandescent bulbs near the face and hands. Too hot to touch but warm when close.
The paint of the bulbs flecking, cracking, and peeling off and making each bulb a unique snowflake if examined.
But for all of the near misses, and the telltale burning plastic stink of garland, tinsel, and the cord insulation if touching a bulb, I don't know if I want to go back.
I can remember those metal "flower" things that you screw in between the bulbs and the socket. Well, those all work great until that tingling sensation when your sibling manages to plug in the string (forcibly and methodically) so that the outside metal of the bulb is mains hot and the tip is neutral.
Alternatively, that fad in the 80's with the bubbling UFO* lights was weird and impressive looking. (*Well, the base looked and glowed like UFO's to me...) Inevitably, of course, a child would inadvertently break the glass tube releasing the foul contents. The secret ingredients of which were never explained on any sort of MSDS.
No, not fiction. I can remember candles on the Christmas tree when I was very young. Not done often if at all now of course.
It is possible to have led lights flicker. For a series string of leds all it takes is powering the string with a constant current source, a transistor across each led you want to blink, and a circuit to turn those transistor on briefly. One approach would be to put an optoisolator transistor across the led and have a 555/4017 to drive the optoisolator. Makes them twinkle like the stars on a cold night.
http://www.amazon.com/German-Christmas-Tree-Candles-WHITE/dp/B009RR70M8
Google is a dangerous tool..
But I would recommend using the candles in this instead of on the tree:
http://www.amazon.com/Biedermann-Sons-H-350-Scandinavian-Christmas/dp/B000VUX5VK/ref=pd_sim_hg_3.
A. Isn't there a holder for the candle? Or do you just tie them to a branch?
B. Okay, I can now accept that this was done historically. But are you sure it was done with trees inside a house? Sure, maybe in a castle with a great hall or such, but I have my doubts about thatched roof cottages with low ceilings ever having had such an obvious fire hazard.
Of course, you can avoid all the safety issues by just using a menorah instead of a tree.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menorah_%28Hanukkah%29
But even then, I have a bit of difficulty with candles in a Menorah as Hanukkah was all about a shortage of olive oil for the oil lanterned... no candles there either.
I still don't feel comfortable with the fire safety issue, but the tree would look good.
All the way from Latvia... wow.
Yes of course there was holder for the candles. It's a dumb idea but not that dumb.
Yes, in houses. Things used to burn down a lot in those days, Christmas tree candles or not : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London
I guess if we used a Menorah we would not be calling it Christmas.
http://www.blumchen.com/christmas_shop_candles_lights_pg3.html
Well, I grew up in a household where every year, the rabbi of our temple would beg us not to have a Christmas tree. We would simply reply that we need the tree to put the presents under.
@Heater
Are your trying to say the Great Fire of London started in a Christmas tree that was set up in September?