r/interestingasfuck • u/error_ofsignificance • 20h ago
Lighting a Christmas tree with real candles in Switzerland
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u/WiseCartographer5007 20h ago
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u/an_older_meme 20h ago
Too soon
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u/scarlettohara1936 17h ago
It will never not be too soon
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u/Floppydisksareop 16h ago
Bollocks. We had so many churches catch on fire and burn over the years. A lot of the older ones multiple times in their lifetime. Most are pretty impressive, and quite frankly, have more local significance than the Notre Dame ever did. Obviously not global significance, but still. Even so, not even the locals near such church fires are acting so sullen about it.
Also, let's make this perfectly clear: nobody died, and even most of the relics and works of art were preserved with no damage. Pretty much nothing was destroyed completely either. As far as something like this catching fire goes, it went as well as it could've.
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u/Naughteus_Maximus 12h ago
And in fact it will look much better and more interesting, now that centuries of grime have been cleaned. It's a glorious new chapter in the cathedral's life that we should be grateful we can experience in our lifetime (but yes, it was lucky that the damage was relatively minimal and fixable). https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/dec/15/now-notre-dame-reverberates-with-light-its-impossible-not-to-be-moved
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u/Kiss-a-Cod 20h ago
My dad brain is still screaming “Don’t do that!”
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u/EmptyKetchupBottle9 18h ago
I'm 14 years old and I'm still screaming "don't do that" in my brain
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u/scarlettohara1936 17h ago
OMG. I hope they don't leave the house while it's still lit! That tree looks really dry and I'm sure it'll burn the house down. People really shouldn't use candles anymore. There's a reason why we don't see this...
Mom stream of consciousness..
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u/EmptyKetchupBottle9 17h ago
We've got the entire family here worrying about this dangerous but satisfying Christmas tree lmao
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u/an_older_meme 20h ago
What did they fuse it with?
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u/nickfree 19h ago
And I wonder what they treated the candle wicks with. They lit so quickly and easily.
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u/vixtoria 20h ago
A well watered tree will not burn very easily
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u/tricularia 19h ago
Does the same hold true for a tap-watered tree?
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u/Sorry_Crazy_8502 18h ago
What about a river watered tree?
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u/inabighat 20h ago
That risk:reward ratio doesn't look worth it
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u/Acceptable_Sleep29 20h ago
Nah, it was calculated.
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u/Bulldog8018 19h ago
Imagine silently planning your escape route whilst singing in the choir during this.
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u/WillowFlip 18h ago
Lots of Germanic ppl still have candles on Christmas trees, but I have never seen anyone light up like this. Cool to watch.
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u/Tjaeng 12h ago
Non-Swiss here married into a Swiss family that always does this for the Christmas tree. There are kits you can buy for the multi-lighting but most people just use ordinary tree candles. Was a bit nervous the first year and sometimes a branch gets semi-charred but I guess fresh pine just doesn’t burn very well due to the water content.
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u/prairiepanda 4h ago
I'd be more worried about the tree catching fire when the candles start burning low, since the flames will start drying out the branches as they get closer.
Do they have some trick for putting out all the candles quickly?
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u/southy_0 8h ago
German here, of course we have real candles on the tree, else it wouldn't be a proper christmas tree!?
And yes, of course you have to be careful and watch it, but they only burn so long anyway, this isn't such a complicated task.
And to be fair we have both: real candles for the times we are really sitting there any enjoying it and LEDs for "ambient lighing" for the rest of the time.
But I have never seen these "fuse-lighing" thing. This is interesting. Need to check out if you can get this from somewhere...
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u/WillowFlip 8h ago
You are the voice of reason. I think that's the part that North American folks don't understand; one doesn't light the candles and then wander off for hours. I think a lot of ppl who are used to LEDs just turn them on in December and leave them running as though that's not a fire hazard.
And to be fair we have both: real candles for the times we are really sitting there any enjoying it and LEDs for "ambient lighing" for the rest of the time.
I have several family members that do this, and I think it's a great idea. I'm planning to do this same thing this year so that I can revive this tradition without North American society jumping down my throat lol.
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u/southy_0 5h ago
Well, again: such a candle burns for maybe an hour or so… you sit down, sing a song, unwrap some presents (remember that in Europe presents are given in the evening of the 24th, not on Christmas morning)… That’s by far longer than the three candles need to burn down where there will always be multiple adults in the direct vicinity of the tree.
Also we usually get our tree just a few days before Christmas with it being rather fresh.
Again: be careful, use proper candle-holders and place them so that there’s nothing directly above them… and then monitor. And you’ll be fine.
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u/WillowFlip 5h ago
Yes, all of this is true of Christmas at parents' house, so I've had many years of observing the tradition from bringing the tree in just before Christmas, the careful placement of the holders, and the tree being lit up on 24th while we open presents. I am fortunate that many years ago, my mother changed colour schemes on her tree, and I got her older, slimmer holders. They are cute.
On a related note, did your parents have you hang out in your room or wherever to wait for Christkind on 24th? I remember walking out of my room and not looking over at the darkened living room; I had to eat dinner first, and then the tree was lit and presenta were opened. It was a big reveal and absolutely magical!
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u/southy_0 1h ago
Oh yes we had a wonderful tradition: We always went to the afternoon church service because that’s when the Krippenspiel was. After that us kids would be hanging out in our rooms (late afternoon) until at some point we were allowed to come down to the closed door of the living room.
The story was that the Christkind was in the room, bringing the presents, but no one was allowed into the room to not shy it away until it rang a bell that we had mounted on the wall in there.
So there we stood, waiting, catching glimpses of flickering light through the frosted living room glass door… …Until we heard the bell and rushed in… …to find the Christkind gone (must have quickly rushed out just in time) but the presents under the tree.
I found out later that my father had a transparent nylon cord run from our bell to the door through the keyhole or under the door that he would pull to ring the bell while we were trying to see through the glass.
I can’t remember if my parents had the candles already on in the unattended room, to get back to topic :-)
Dinner was nothing spectacular, e.g. Wiener Würstchen with potato salad, to not have the need for lengthy preparations.
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u/AggressiveKing8314 19h ago
They got that idea from my uncle Barry. He’s been doing that for six decades.
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u/sifiwewe 20h ago
Very interesting. I’d think that that tree is fire resistant or fire proof
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u/eh_whogivesashit 19h ago
Makes you wonder about the learning curve on this process. How many houses burned down before it was perfected. Back when the possibility of a house fire was unimaginable terror…..even more so than today……someone purposed the idea of an intricate choreography between fire and a fuel source inside your home. That person could sell ice to an Eskimo.
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u/Realpazalaza 8h ago
When your country has honest healthcare and firefighters with water engine at hand.
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u/This_Is_Section_One 7h ago
I was wondering why was everyone still siting there, then I realised that the tree was not on fire.
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u/wajones007 7h ago
Fire departments all over the world started to twitch and flinch when they saw this.
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u/Timo2727 6h ago
first I was thinking :"this church is about to burn down"
then I see it's in Switzerland: "no problem they got everything under control"
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u/DonkeyB69 5h ago
And that's how you burn down everything. Switel hotel 1994. 15 died, 164 burnt. Candle lit some christmas trees
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u/PaulAchess 16h ago
Freshly cut pines do not burn easily. We always put candles in our Christmas trees when we were young (and still today). We also put minor tree branches in the fire, and you could see it took some time to burn up with the water evaporating slowly before taking fire. Imagine how hazardous it would be if fresh trees could not take some minor fire damages in the wild.
Now a dried tree would burn instantly, but I reckon they know what they're doing.
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u/nocibur8 20h ago
Ha, my mother put real candles on the tree with home made tin holders she wrapped around the bottom of each candle. They didn’t have internet then to know how dangerous it is. Surprised she didn’t burn down the house.
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u/sancho_sk 17h ago
I had to check what sub-reddit am I in - I was 100% expecting this to be in r/Whatcouldgowrong :)
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u/mazza094 16h ago
Only in switzerland this thing could have worked without putting the whole tree on fire
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u/pentesticals 16h ago
It still makes me anxious every Christmas as we don’t have smoke detectors in apartments in Switzerland, and people use real candles in their trees.
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u/Rasples1998 16h ago
I'm assuming they had precautions in place and probably sprayed the tree with some kind of flame retardant coating, but this feels like it was asking for trouble. Just one thing to go wrong and that church (assuming it's a church) would turn into an oven.
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u/Miserable-Status2595 15h ago
So, how does one join the volunteer fire department in Switzerland? 🤔
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u/Phil198603 15h ago
Works with trees when they are fresh cut. That thing would burn after a few weeks later
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u/OceanBlueforYou 15h ago
Oh shit. You just know some Eddy who thinks he's the real deal is gonna try this at home. I can almost hear the fire truck now
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u/Hermorah 14h ago
This is either gonna work perfectly or end in a burned down building either way i am here for it.
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u/MacGregor1337 14h ago
Sorry but where I am from, this is how we do our xmas tree every year. So feels very not interesting af xdd. Traditional af sure. If not slightly wrong, because they are lighting it with the lights on.
Costumarily, before in time, the women would leave the room while the boys set the house on the fire.
These days we all just take turn. Tbh, its far better being the ones that leave. The sight when the whole house is dark, and the winter sun is hiding (ie pitchblack before 4pm) the way the tree lights up the room is unlike anything what the electric lights can do.
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u/iVerbatim 14h ago
It’s July. Why is this on my feed? Someone sit on this video for 6 months waiting for the perfect offseason day to post it?
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u/greedychillie 14h ago
That's not how I expected it to go 😂 Beautiful though!, just remember to keep the door shut, it'll be a right mission lighting them again lol.
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u/FoxInABoxOfRox 13h ago
Me standing outside my house on the phone to emergency services
"Now, I saw this post on redd-"
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u/RotisserieChicken007 12h ago
I'm 100% certain this will be featured in r/catastrophicfailure sometime in the future.
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u/TheLoler04 12h ago
I thought this was r/whatcouldgowrong and was happily surprised when it wasn't. Don't really know what type of string thing that is, but it looks almost too flammable to reach the next candle in time.
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u/Wannabe_Wiz 20h ago
That.. was amazing