For a bunch of years now, we've been decorating Christmas trees for the
Methuen Festival of Trees. By "we" I mean my family and my wife's best friend, Karen. The festival is a fundraiser supporting historic preservation in the Merrimack Valley (located in beautiful Northeastern Massachusetts). It's been going on for 22 years, and attracts over 25,000 visitors each year. There are over 200 trees every year, with a wide variety of different themes. And - this is really cool - the trees are raffled off at the end of the festival; if you see one you really love, you can buy raffle tickets and try to win it!
This year, as you can see from the photos, we chose a Dr. Who theme. We named our tree, "A Timey-Wimey Christmas." True Dr. Who fans (like my daughter) will automatically recite the complete quote:
Construction was fairly straightforward, using 3/4" plywood for the top and bottom with the corner posts made from 1" x 3" x 6' pine and 3/4" quarter-round molding. And lots of Oxford Blue paint! We added some depth and shape to the roof with 1" foam sheet, and added an off-the-shelf white strobe with a translucent cover.
The TARDIS disassembles into several flat pieces by removing a handful of screws - essential, considering it's 40" wide,while the doors of my house are only 36" wide!
The tree has some decorations every bit as cool as the TARDIS itself. In addition to some white lights, it's also got color-changing LED lights that cycle between white and blue. We've got a 17 foot long scarf straight from Doctor #4's closet as a garland. And we've got lots of ornaments: There are Dalek and TARDIS paper dolls; photos of all the various Doctors; famous Doctor quotes; even some Cybermen and K-9.
The following video is a tour of the tree and the TARDIS.
Did you notice the double red heartbeat in the tree? No? Well, go back and watch the video again. Or better yet, check out this one:
Timelords have two hearts, and the heartbeat was my daughter's awesome idea. I used an Arduino Pro Mini and a pair of red LEDs inside ping-pong balls to pull that off. She was
very disappointed, though, that I didn't make the tree spin!
We won 3rd place in the Best Use of Theme category - woo hoo! Last year, our Steampunk Tree won 1st place in the Most Creative / Unique category. I figure we should aim for 2nd place next year, so we get a complete set!
DIY Timelord Heartbeat
It's super-simple, but if anyone wants the schematic & code for the double heartbeat, just post a comment and ask for it. I'd be happy to post it!
