I too loved the graphic at the end. I also enjoyed that the O's of the tree were the only O's in the grid.
@Mark Abe agreed, elegant touch having no other Os.
"You own a Christmas tree farm?" "Yes! But maybe I should branch out." ("Whatever works fir yew!")
@Mike Your "presence" throughout the year are true gifts to us all, not just at the holidays. Thank you for your punniness! Happy Always!
@Mike Not to needle you, but is that a noble pun?
@Mike Have a splintered holiday!
@Mike You always spruce up the comments!
@Mike I was hoping you'd spruce things up fir the holidays... Thanks for your presents on all the days that aren't Christmas.
This finally appeared, many hours after I posted it on yesterday's puzzle, so I'll post it again.. One year we had a passel of kittens in the house and we forgot to coral them before we went to bed. We were half asleep when we heard sinister little tinkling sounds from the living room, along with rustles as creaks, then c r a s h! as the whole Christmas tree keeled over. We jumped out of bed and rushed to the disaster site just in time to see the perpetrators crawling out from under the branches and scampering in every direction. We righted the tree and went back to bed, assuming they had learned their lesson, but they were kitties, and the only lesson they learned was how exciting and fun it was to crash a tree, so of course they did it again. We decided to wait until morning to deal with it.
@dutchiris As you said, they were kittens. That was their duty, toppling the Christmas tree 🎄!! My cats have always been fascinated by Christmas trees. I often found my (late) Lynx Point Siamese somehow perched IN the tree, almost like a decoration. We couldn’t be angry with her because she was so DARNed cute! Our current cats are more of the toppling variety 😼😹.
@dutchiris My recently adopted senior cats have pretty much left the tree alone so far🤞- only one low hanging ornament lost to curiosity. (They were strays, but must have been in households at some time because they are quite adapted to indoor life.)
Sweet puzzle. Happy holidays to all. In the Wordplay tradition of Christmas/holiday verse, here’s a modest offering: Jesus dreamed big Bigger than most Though he was not want To brag or to boast, Turned water into wine Rose from the dead The guy was the son of God Or so they said, But that day he was born Even he could not imagine Pulling off a trick That eluded Aladdin, A Thursday puzzle with Rebuses galore Black squares opening like doors Crazy entries running in all directions, Some even below the puzzle floor, But most amazing of all Surely the angels would adore Instead of “Boo hiss!” in the Comments, It was all “More, More, More!”
@Puzzlemucker Happy Holidays, @PM.
@Puzzlemucker I was hoping to see a poem outa you and you did not disappoint! Lovely poem: more more more! Aladdin/imagine was particularly admirable. A happy season to you & yours and may the new year bring you good cheer.
@Puzzlemucker How do I like it, how do I like it? I like it a lot. But I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Too common a conundrum for me of late. Happy holidays! Always a pleasure to see you here. (And Sam, of course!)(Hi, Sam!)
@Puzzlemucker More, more, more indeed!! Thanks very much for this!
@Puzzlemucker Happy Holidays and thanks for the smile!
Merry Christmas 🎄! Feliz Natal! Happy Hanukkah 🕎 Gee, I thought this was like a Monday… until it wasn’t! I tried “emigree”, “escapee”, “refugee” — all obviously wrong — until the fairly obvious EVACUEE came to mind. SEDANS was a clever misdirection. I was worried that my alma mater would have been erroneously used for 12A — it’s in Pennsylvania but nowhere near the Allegheny River or PITT. I was ready for a scrap until the correct answer emerged 😊 Regarding Christmas trees, there are no cut Christmas trees in Portugal, so it’s a moot point for us. There are some potted trees in stores like Leroy Merlin (our Lowe’s). Otherwise, everyone buys and *keeps* artificial trees. The Portuguese people have a very odd Christmas legend. Their Santa Claus is Pai Natal. It’s said that if butter is not left out for him, he will eat the toes of the little ones 😫😳😳🫣. Yikes!!! Gotta go set out some butter… Boas Festas! 🎁
@Pani Korunova SEDANS was clever, but there’s probably a better clue as Civics are just as likely to be coupes.
Awww… sweet! Loved it! I think tradition is more important than any specific act. If your family’s tradition is to bring home a big pine from the tree farm, then that’s what will bring you joy. But if your family’s tradition is to bring down the big silver tree from the attic, then that can bring an equal amount of joy. The point is to do something together, do it with love, and do it over and over again. Tradition is the thing that builds both anticipation and memories, and it can be whatever you want it to be. Whatever you may celebrate, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, or simply a day off from work, I wish everyone here a happy and joyous holiday.
@Heidi Our tradition for years was to buy a $5 Charlie Brown tree from Chubby & Tubby. I do miss Chubby & Tubby! Merry Christmas, all.
I'm on team "no tree." However, it's worth noting that, when I was a kiddo, we always had a live tree. And I really mean "live" - once you cut a tree, it's not really alive any more. It would more accurately be termed a "dying tree." Our Christmas trees were dug up, roots and all, by my father and, when I was older, by him and my brother and me. We would go out before the ground was frozen and dig one up. He would encase the roots in burlap and it would sit in a tub in our cold garage until it was time to set it up indoors. It would be moved into the house, tub and all, and a decorative fabric draped over the galvanized tub. Once the holidays were over, it would be returned to the garage until Spring, when we would plant it on the hill behind our house. I would estimate we had a success rate of well over 50% -- probably close to 75%. Some trees did succumb to the trauma, but it's still a lot less trauma than having the trunk sawn through. We eventually had a pretty substantial and attractive grove of mostly blue spruces on that little knoll. I returned to that house a few years ago, over 50 years after my parents sold the house, and they are still there, easily seen because all trees growing naturally in the area are deciduous. Other than these tall blue spruces. No, they are not propagating, so they are not invasive (and blue spruce habitat is less than a mile away). So, put me on either team "no tree" or on team "truly live tree." Merry Christmas, one and all!
@CaptainQuahog Loved reading about your "truly live" tree tradition! That sounds like a fantastic option.
RANDO thoughts: • I love the clues where what you think is a verb turns out to be a noun, such as [Votes for] for AYES, and [Handle things?] for AT SIGNS. • Thank you, @Mark Abe, for pointing out that the O’s of the tree are the only O’s in the grid. That made this grid much tougher for Jacob to fill in, and bravo on that, Jacob! • When I saw the cross of CAT and CANARY, what sprung into mind was Sylvester. • Lovely PuzzPair© of the watermelon clue and PITT. • So witty of Jacob to come up with the idea of a literal O Christmas Tree. • I was given a stern talking to by a relative living in Phoenix after I pronounced the G in SEGUARO. To all, a wonderful day, for whatever reason, and to Jacob, thank you for a sweet mood-lifter of a puzzle!
@Lewis Yes, another example of English taking a foreign word and doing stuff to it, in this case, the pronunciation. SAGUARO, properly pronounced in Spanish, has the same intervocalic G as the word AGUA, which means the point of articulation in the back of the mouth is barely grazed rather than occluded as is in initial G or any English G. This variant sound of g, which is not found in English, is represented by linguists as [ɣ]. The fact that the following U minimizes the G further doesn't help the fact that English speakers cannot hear it at all and take it as a silent G. So they pronounce the cactus or the national park /səˈwɑː.rə/ (as per Cambridge and M-W), using the definitively un-Spanish schwa as the first and last vowels as well. This is as wrong as pronouncing the middle of the word with a full English G. I wonder how your Arizonan friend pronounces Turkish President Erdoğan's name.
@Lewis Did you really spEll it SEGUARO? Tsk
Avast, matey! A good chewy Wednesday that didn't roll over too easily. I would have liked to decorate the tree still further, with candy canes, globes and baubles, but that would have taken Sunday dimensions, and more could easily turn into too much. Good to see Pitt in there, my alma mater, and where I've taught a course or two with ESSAY TESTS, not that I've ever associated it with the Allegheny River. Pittsburgh was founded in the late 1740s when a contingent of Frenchmen journeyed down the Allegheny starting a little SE of Jamestown NY. Along the course of the river they embedded on its banks large leaden plaques declaring the surrounding land to be property of the king of France. A priest named Celoron, who accompanied the French, kept a journal that included an account of dining with Queen Aliquippa, a Seneca, and 27 others -- inside a hollowed-out tree! When they reached the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela, which forms the Ohio, they established a fort -- Fort Duquesne -- which the English burned down in November 1758, rebuilding it and renaming it Fort Pitt, after William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. Re Jacob's notes: as a Jew who married a shiksa, we get a Christmas tree for its joyous odor, and the city has a recycling program that turns them into pine mulch for residents' gardens. But most organized religions have rites & beliefs abhorrent to us as modern liberals, which is not to dismiss all the good they do: charity, ethics, community, faith...
@john ezra Comments like yours, full of little-known history (inside a tree!) and anecdotes, are why I love the NYTXW comments section! Enjoy your day 😊
The end graphic was a nice Xmas Eve treat. Peace on earth, good will toward men, women, and animals.
What a lovely Christmas tree—whether you’re a tree putter-upper or not. Which I am. Except not this year, what with all our tinsel etc. still crossing the North Sea. Which, in a way, has made our holidays more peaceful: There was no panic this morning of, “Is Gato still hogging the bed or is he downstairs chewing on the tree?” Normal cats break Xmas tree ornaments; they swing from Xmas tree branches; they topple trees with festive clatter. Gato strips them of their plastic bark. He also tries to eat the fake snow off them, which we learned after Sam's Great Flecked Xmas Tree Purchase Fiasco of 2022, but that’s ancient history, and besides the flecked tree never saw the outside of its box again, and besides I don’t like to talk about it, and neither does my husband because he pinched a nerve getting that monstrosity out of—and then right back into—its box, only to find that our living-room ceiling was not, in fact, 9 ft tall, which is the only part he will talk about—with some relish, I might add (“You don’t have to be an engineer to check the dimensions under the product description link, Sam, blah blah numbers blah”). I find such comments entirely superfluous post hoc. Besides, the 12 in. of the tree proved to be very pliable and, in fact, looked very avant-garde. Or avant-plafond at any rate. It'd've undoubtedly proved to be a conversation piece, had it not proved to be cat food first. Or, rather, a cat emetic. But I digress.) Ah, memories. Happy Holidays to you all!
@Sam Lyons: your first paragraph makes it sound like you have moved to Europe? Inquiring minds want to know more.
@Sam Lyons One of the good things about being Jewish this time of year is that any menorah will fit in any room, and you don't have to go to the forest every year to cut one down. And oh yeah, you never have to pick up the needles off the floor (although it's a pain in the neck getting the unburned wax out of it at the end of the week).
@Steve L Happy Hanukkah! Try putting your menorah in the freezer for a couple of hours at the end of the week and most of the wax will flake off 🕎❄️
@Brendan That’s funny, we do the opposite and melt the wax out with a hair dryer! Never tried the freezer approach before.
@Sam Lyons When you mentioned your move previously, you said something about a teaching position, so I don’t think Steve L is likely correct about you just traveling around. When you mentioned that Sr. Gato had traveled with you, it reminded me of when I first went to Holland with my cat. I did all the right exams, paper work, and fees, but when we arrived at Schiphol they just ignored us and the cat just went through with the rest of our luggage. (Very different on subsequent trips with a dog.) Had many a Sinterklaas Dag over there. Once again, suggest you might try what3words to clue MOL and others in…..
Our artificial tree is 44 years old and still going strong. So I think we're doing OK, environment-wise.
Great final result! I love the animation. Props to Jacob for his vision and to the Times' IT staff for making it real. Happy Christmas, all! 🎄
I wish you all peace and joy. As I am spending Christmas in Wales I add Nadolig Llawen! 🎄
Cute puzzle, appropriately themed. I got the theme easily enough, but didn’t actually see the tree until the graphics revealed it. Unlike AI I am not much of a threat to be AWARE. The placement of the Os as ornaments and as the connecting points for the outline of the tree is a very nice touch.
A fun bedtime snack on Christmas Eve!
Oh tidings of gold stars and joy Gold stars and joy On tidings of gold stars and joy 🌍
Yesterday I started my comment with “What a delightful puzzle “. and that certainly describes this Christmas puzzle as well. The graphics at the end took me completely by surprise, a lovely start to Christmas Day. Many thanks, Jacob.
Fun puzzle with a cool graphic. I didn't get the 'O' until I read the comments, but I'm still working on my first cup of coffee. Team live tree here if the tree comes from a tree farm. That makes it a crop, a renewable resource, and an income source for the farmer, plus the wildlife haven and carbon sink others have mentioned. Artificial trees are plastic, which is bad in so many ways, and, apparently, a cat emetic, too. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, belated Happy Solstice, and if you celebrate a winter holiday I haven't mentioned, Happy Holidays!
@Pat There’s Festivus for the rest of us!
Nice Christmas puzzle, and a "Merry Christmas!" to those who celebrate it. Hope your day has just as much excitement as you wish it to have, you get gifts that you like, and that anyone traveling gets to their destination(s) safely. Other than wanting to try "O, tannenbaum" and quickly realizing that it wasn't going to fit, I wasn't snowed by this puzzle. Enjoyed the seasonal answers and appreciated the graphic at the end. As far as trees, we have two artificial trees, small enough that we can store them in the limited storage space in our apartment, and are planning to use them for several more years or until they wear out. It also looks like there's not much of a market for real trees in our area—chains that sold trees in northern states are not selling them here, and I have not seen any tree lots at all. Thanks, Jacob!
@JayTee There are tree farms in Mississippi...and several years of challenging weather--hard frosts/freezes, drought, and windstorms--have devastated them. We gave up live trees fairly long ago...and divested the large fake tree (which had lights and cones) when we moved here. The chandelier serves us well to display the fairly small number of ornaments we kept.
Loved the tree revealed at the end! Thanks graphics people! Based on the clues (and the date) I knew there would be a tree, but it was fun to see all the "O"s used! I enjoyed the clues! Needed to get to the column through a side door as the usual link didn't work. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays to all!
Aw thanks for this! I came here hoping for just this sort of puzzle to wind down with after a busy day. Happy little graphic! Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah everyone!!
Gorgeous and Christmassy thank you, loved it!
What a fun puzzle with an adorable animation to wrap it up! We - okay, I, since my husband tends to go along agreeably with whatever I have to say in this arena - have had a fair amount of (artificial) Christmas tree uproar in the last couple of years, thanks to moving and hospital stays and hard-to-ignore summertime tree discounts etc., but ours is up and tall and lit and decorated and awaiting only gifts and a collar to wrap the base, which I will finish shortly; my sister is a nurse hard at work for the day, so we will do most of our celebrating tomorrow (and I will be grateful for the extra 24 hours in which to cram tasks :-) Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Joyous and healthy holidays to all my fellow puzzlers.
When I was a tot, back in the 40’s, our tree stand was also a music box and built so that the tree holder revolved while the hand cranked music box played Stille Nacht and Adeste Fideles. It came over to the US with the great grandparents from Bavaria in the 1890’s. A real tree would have been too heavy for the mechanism and so our artificial tree made of mostly wire, paper and cardboard did the honors. Decked out with equally old glass ornaments and icicles and strings of electric lights, yes it was wired, it was in our eyes beautiful. We also followed the German custom of presents on Christmas Eve followed by midnight church. The music box/stand was inherited by an older cousin so I have no idea if it is still in use these many decades later but I will never forget the enchanting way it sang and revolved.
Nice graphic on solving. Merry Christmas, everyone.
A very cleverly constructed puzzle with a great reveal! Evocative of the feeling one gets when a real tree is lit for the first time. I was greatly amused when I saw that the O's represented ornaments. Thanks, Jacob, for all that went into constructing this crossword! A fairly straightforward puzzle otherwise, but took me two minutes longer than my best time for a Wednesday.
Breakfast with kids, grandkids & 3 dogs. Presents opened. Nice puzzle just finished. Nap approaching. Dinner to come with candles glowing. Not a bad day with family all safe in "America the Beautiful." Let's spend 2025 with less complaining & lots more helping. Merry Christmas to all...........!
A puzzle I had to jump around on, but I never got stuck and had to stop jumping, and at the end, voila, a charming, lighted Christmas tree. At our house we opened packages on Christmas Eve, so this was an appropriate gift, one I was delighted to receive. Thank you Jacob McDermott. You did indeed make my day.
Enjoyed this one! ALTHO it was admittedly pretty funny to see some of those words appearing in the middle of the Christmas tree…
I know I am in the minority, but I am Jewish and personally don't celebrate Christmas. It would have been nice to have an escape from everything Christmas even in my lovely morning routine puzzles 😭 like, I get it, I understand why things are the way they are. But still. I mean Hanukkah starts this evening, why not a Hanukkah and then Kwanzaa themed puzzle in the subsequent days! That would be fun, we could get to learn about other holidays.
@Rachel There are 7 more days..here's hoping you get your wish. And plenty of time for Kwanzaa too--hoping for those celebrators also. But Christmas comes but once a year.
Thank you, Jacob, for a fun puzzle! I loved the after finish graphic and how the 'O's were ornaments. Merry day everyone, whatever you celebrate!
I got a little worried when I was going through the across clues and didn't see any holiday theming, but then I looked around a bit more and saw what was going on. Great theme idea, and the perfect difficulty for a nice relaxed solve. Hope everyone has a great Christmas!
Loved the graphic. Fun puzzle. Hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas Day.
Well! Spent an eleven-and-a-half hour day at the workplace, hosting (and for four hours, flipping omelets for) the fighting Panthers (football team); then came home to the puzzle--what a coincidence. In our living room, we have growing a tree-sized pencil cactus, *Euphorbia tirucalli*. We decorate it with lights and ornaments for Christmas, and lay our presents below it. Gather round, all, and sing: "O Poison Tree, O Poison Tree/ How toxic are thy branches!" Merry Christmas to all who celebrate--and Peace to those who don't--and, since it's after sunset--Happy Hanukah!
Cute theme. The inclusion of 14A, 20A, and 46A within the frame of the tree gave this a Fairytale of New York vibe and made me laugh.
@Nancy J. Three cheers for off kilter songs that become associated with Christmas like River and the aforementioned Fairytale of New York. RIP Shane MacGowan and Kirsty MacColl.
For all the paper solvers out there, here's your present from Jim Horne at xwordinfo.com <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/25/2024" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/25/2024</a> Season's greetings to all.
This was an interesting solve for me, as I made one little tactical mistake: not reading the entire revealer clue the first time. I read "Holiday carol" and already had enough letters to slide O CHRISTMAS TREE into the grid without any problem, so I just moved on. Then I saw the other bonus theme answers, GARLAND, LIGHTS, PRESENT and TINSEL, and I got the feeling that this was like the Monthly Bonus Puzzle in that there was a theme, and the goal for the constructor was just to throw as many related ideas into the puzzle everywhere. (They have moved away from this idea in the Bonus Puzzles recently.) Imagine my surprise when, upon completion, the tree overlay lit up! I went back to the revealer to see what was going on, and I saw what I'd missed the first time. Anyway, my opinion of the puzzle went up by several degrees at that point!
@Steve L We paper-and-pen solvers have to make our own fun...so I turned each O into a sun/star. If I bestir myself, I could fetch some colored markers... but I still have coffee in my cup, so....
Fun way to start my day’s festivities! I decided no tree for me this year and strung golden ribbons across my front window and hung my favorite ornaments, illuminated by a frame of Christmas lights and cranberry garlands. This will leave more room for my guests of all religions and denominations, but mostly one political persuasion, to gather and celebrate. That’s was a long way to go to say, I loved the pop up tree and the 🅾️’s Happy Christmas. Merry Hanukkah and Joyful Holidays to all.
@Elke Thanks to our Resident (Charlotte the Kitty) our ornaments, GARLANDs, and bells from the chandelier over the dining room table. Said cat ostentatiously ignoring this on her way to molest the poinsettia someone gifted us. 'Twas ever thus!
Thanks, Jacob McDermott! I'm stuck at home this year due to illness, and your puzzle made the day seem a little more like Christmas. Well done!
@Jeff Z Feel better soon! ZiCam! Fluids! Woolly socks!
Someone just did something lovely for me this Christmas morning and the puzzle has gone right out of my head. Oh, yes, I remember now -- it had something to do with my being urged to connect squares and draw something. You all know I never do that sort of stuff. But I'm sure that if I did, what I would end up with is a tree. I'll go to Rex's column now and see what it's supposed to look like. Just between you and me, though, this has given me an idea -- no, not the drawing a tree part -- for a Christmas-themed puzzle for next year. I think it's a crunchy idea if it can be made to work. Alas, I will not have the invaluable puzzle knowledge and keen insights and grid-making brilliance of my usual collaborator who is in the midst of a boycott of the NYT for political reasons and refuses to submit there "for the foreseeable future." So I shall have to find a new collaborator. But at least I have a fresh theme idea that I like. Sometimes they seem so darned slow in coming... Happy holidays to everyone.
@Nancy Quite the tease! Tsk tsk AND on Christmas!
I loved this puzzle! Thank you! Aaaand … we used to cut trees, (we lived in a national forest where this was allowed) and then had a fake tree for several years. (Harder to put together!) New town, new partner, new-old tradition: For the past decade, we’ve gone to the same tree farm to cut our tree, and then to lunch at a perfect diner called The Fork in the Road. Peace to all my fellow puzzlers on this holiday.
O O O! I "saw" the theme on my stone tablet.
But the stone tablet doesn't turn green. We print solvers must use our imagination. Fine by me.
@Barry Ancona I hope you chiseled the tree in on yours! :) Happy Holidays!!!
For everyone, there are three ways to get to the puzzle: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/daily-crossword-column" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/spotlight/daily-crossword-column</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily</a> I just have bookmarks for all three. A wrong link shouldn't hold you up for long.
Loved the tree!🎄Thank you for a sweet first gift in the hush before joyful chaos to come. Blessings and peace, one and all.
lovely puzzle though I wish the O's hadn't needed the pejorative 30A. I am tentatively on team Live Tree on the grounds that most of them are deliberately planted and spend an average of 7 years sequestering carbon before harvest. But a Christmas tradition of being mindful is a great one to start. Here's something from the Farmers' Almanac but hardly by a disinterested person [astride my hobby horse of keeping the correct meaning of that word alive!]: "These trees around us do so much work, storing carbon dioxide and emitting fresh oxygen. Christmas trees also stabilize soil, protect water supplies, and provide refuge for wildlife while creating scenic green belts. They have a positive impact on the environment that you can feel good about"
@RozzieGrandma The pejorative 30A?
I'll have to break out the red and green markers to make this cute puzzle a little more festive. I helped a REFUGEE in the SW and nearly felled the TREE. Saved by the sailor's shout... "Outfits" could be EQUIPS, if a verb. Could be TROOP if a noun. And, I suppose, if you pay a lot of attention to clothes, it might suggest GET-UPS (though usually that's not overly complimentary! That corner took me as long as the rest of the puzzle. And isn't a RASP a rather hefty tool to bring to "shaping" your wood-carving? DHubby participated by giving me the U in Leopold AUER--was that entry/clue a gift for our Andrzej? O TANNENBAUMoops! who you callin' a SUCKA? Oh well. Frohe Weinachten!
@Mean Old Lady I've never heard of the guy - had to look him up 😢
@Mean Old Lady I had the exact same trouble. Eventually it occurred to me that refugee was unlikely to be the answer to a clue with the word refuge in it. A rasp is just a little handheld file. Very common in woodworking
Adding in to the cut tree versus fake tree debate: cut trees are a renewable resource and tree farms themselves provide many benefits (social and environmental). Think of all the live trees that exist as a result of cut tree purchases! Plus the cut trees can be recycled in many ways after Christmas (firewood, wood chips, mulch) or composted. Fake trees are often produced overseas and then used for only 2-3 years before winding up in a landfill where they basically will “live” forever. Using a fake tree for at least 10-15 years might (that’s “might”) be better in terms of environmental costs in the long run, but few are made well enough to last that long.
@Floridaworder Agreed! Well put. I am the rare person who has owned a 1950's vintage aluminum tree, made in the USA, since about 1982 when I found it in a thrift store. I go to thrift stores often, and at Xmas time there are lots of artificial trees. So, if a cut tree isn't feasible, or within your budget, or something you don't want to deal with, remember to check out your local charity shop. You'll be helping a charity, and keeping a fake tree from becoming landfill.
@Floridaworder I’m still using a fake tree my grandpa bought in the 90s!
I didn't fully get the theme until it was complete, but it was cute and had a nice animation at the end. Merry Christmas to all
I accept that "near" is subjective but, according to Google, I'm the same order of magnitude distance away from the North Pole as Siberia and I would describe my proximity to it as "nowhere near". Bah humbug, merry Christmas one and all.
@Steve Watch out! The magnetic north pole is going places fast! <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/05/magnetic-north-pole-moving-pretty-fast-towards-russia" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/05/magnetic-north-pole-moving-pretty-fast-towards-russia</a>
@Steve London, at 51º 31' N, is at the same latitude as PARTS of Siberia, but there are parts of SIBERIA much closer to the North Pole. Yakutsk, for example, at 62º 01', is about midway between the Arctic Ocean and SIBERIA's southern border. Pevek, an outpost on the Arctic Ocean (but still the capital of its region), is at 69º 42'. All things considered, I'd rather be in London.