Fir dearth spurs work

December 3, 2015 6:15 PM

With a possible Christmas tree shortage looming, now's the time to take a closer look at artificial Christmas trees—by watching How It's Made style clips about them, of course, as well as a bunch of other holiday-related products.

Holiday-themed How It's Made clips:
Candy canes
Chocolate coins
Christmas ham
Christmas ornaments
Gingerbread house kits
Hand bells
Ice sculptures
Nutcrackers
Wrapping paper
Yule log cakes

Wintry-themed making-stuff clips:
Artificial snow
Dog sled (without power tools)
Indoor ski resort
Steam bending a toboggan: part 1, part 2
Weaving traditional snow shoe webbing

In the same genre but basically commercials:
Aquavit
Chocolate oranges
Eggnog
Fruit cake
Skis
Snowboards
Wool blankets and scarves

Making Christmas Crackers in 1910 previously
How It's Made ylsuoiverp

posted by knuckle tattoos (13 comments total)

Awesome. There is so much mesmerizing watching ahead of me.
posted by Secretariat at 7:14 PM on December 3, 2015

Sweet!
posted by Fizz at 7:27 PM on December 3, 2015

You'll never convince my father into an artificial tree. He will abide the little desk-sized ones, if necessary, but god forbid a full-size plastic tree enter his home. It's just not the Christmas season without a high-maintenance fire hazard that drops tiny needles all over the floor.
posted by gloriouslyincandescent at 8:01 PM on December 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh the hams!
posted by Secretariat at 8:56 PM on December 3, 2015

The beloved Christmas tree of my childhood, which was guaranteed to slash several fingers each time it was assembled, was the traditional tree of aluminum, complete with rotating colour wheel. (The video makes it seem rather alien and terrifying, but ours was friendly, except for the assembly-related bloodlust.)

We eventually moved on to fake plastic trees that hardly ever hurt us, but they just lacked personality, you know?

Xmas Tree 2015 for me is this rescue rosemary. The boyfriend had to pull it out of its site next to the neighbour's garage today due to its imminent demolition, but I brought it home tonight in a baggie full of soil taped shut, inside a FreshCo bag, which really confused at least two people on the TTC who wondered if they, too, could buy a rosemary bush like this at that store. There's only one ornament on it now (it almost but didn't quite pull a Charlie Brown's tree over it), so I don't know if I'll add any more. I think K-9 can do quite nicely on his own.
posted by maudlin at 9:09 PM on December 3, 2015 [4 favorites]

I didn't see a Plumbus on the list. How They Do It?
posted by Muncle at 9:52 PM on December 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

You know, I'm not sure it says "Christmas ham" anywhere but in the video title, so we should all probably substitute "ham" for "bell" while singing carols this year to make up for the lost festiveness.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 10:06 PM on December 3, 2015

Yummmmm, chocolate oranges! In a box with a see through window.
They are my special treat. I just love those little segments.
posted by quazichimp at 12:21 AM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]

After spending thanksgiving day burning pine boughs, I'm in no hurry to put a Christmas tree in my house ever again. The conflagration is... Impressive.
posted by wotsac at 4:09 AM on December 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

My neighbor operates a Christmas tree rental service. He has a large grove of trees which he uproots every Christmas. They get rented out and then returned, after which he re-plants them to use many of them again for next year.

Much more ecological, I think.
posted by vacapinta at 6:40 AM on December 4, 2015 [5 favorites]

Chiming in on vacapinta's comment to say that I just heard about Christmas tree rentals on the news last night! Here's a link, if anyone is interested. Living Christmas Trees
posted by Lynsey at 10:48 AM on December 4, 2015

You know, I'm not sure it says "Christmas ham" anywhere but in the video title, so we should all probably substitute "ham" for "bell" while singing carols this year to make up for the lost festiveness.
posted by knuckle tattoos


Okay. Jingle ham rock ham Jingle rock ham rock ham ham rock. Rock jingle ham ...
posted by artychoke at 6:57 AM on December 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

Rock rock jingle rock ham hock ham . . .
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:25 AM on December 5, 2015 [2 favorites]