Thursday, December 19, 2013

Day Three Hundred and Fifty-three - Extreme Christmas Trees, "Well, they're different, yes... but extreme?"

In between bouts of Whovian insanity, I feel it's time to get into the Spirit of Christmas. Well, I've already started, really, with White Christmas and The Nightmare Before Christmas, but I want to keep it going. So... shall we get going with Extreeeeeeeeme Christmas Trees?

Several different styles and locales are featured, from the Biltmore Estate's massive indoor display to the singing choir tree, to one made entirely of crab traps, to the crazy git who cut holes in his own house to fit a thirty foot tree in his twenty foot home. Each is definitely unique in either size or aesthetics and certainly interesting, but I don't think they can call them extreme. I want to make special mention of the antler tree. It's definitely a beautiful work of art, even if it was a bit too expensive... but that's art. Then there's the hundred thousand dollars worth of glass ornaments on the B&B tree in Brunswick.

Just wow. A hundred grand.

I can't say much about the cinematography. Several of the segments look horribly grainy and give the entire show the feel that it's just a compilation of b-rolls shopped to the home networks for just this occasion. I think that's what ruins the whole thing for me, really.

Still, it's hard not to get a little in the spirit, even with the mercenary nature of the antler tree, the Christmas cake that no one will eat, and the tree worth more than the sum total of my life (or so it seems... maybe I could use a visit from my own Clarence). Just the trees themselves are enough to get me a bit in the holiday mood. Plus, it's nice to remember the Biltmore. I was only there once, but still a fascinating place that inspires me still today (along with the Hearst Castle)... but that's another story.

I probably wouldn't recommend Extreme Christmas Trees for serious consumption, but it's not bad to have on in the background when you're wrapping prezzies and the like (which I happen to be doing).

Until tomorrow, Potatoes~

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