First Christmas tree powered by Canada’s Christmas spirit – Canadian Tire Christmas Spirit Tree (video)
The 30-foot Christmas tree in Toronto’s Union Station is wrapped in 3,100 LED lights which flashes in green, red, white and blue. These aren’t just your regular Christmas tree lights though, these lights represent Christmas chatter online.
When the holiday is being talked about in the news, the tree’s green lights flash. White represents when Christmas is a topic of conversation on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. When the red lights are on, it means blogs and forums are are flooded with holiday posts, and the blue lights represent Christmas talk on the tree’s very own homepage Christmas Spirit Tree.
The tree picks up on words like Santa, merry, holiday, gift, time, and year. When these words are posted online, they help to power the Union Station light show. The coloured lights get brighter, depending on the number of messages being posted in Canada. Underneath the tree is an interactive map which shows where in the country the online messages are originating.
The Christmas Spirit Tree will be on display at Union Station in Toronto from now until December 26th from 6am to midnight. If you are unable to visit the tree in person, you can check out a live stream on the tree’s website, or on screen at Dundas Square in Toronto.
YES finally! Beginning to think the spirit of CHRISTMAS is dead with all the chatter of Holiday Trees, and being all prim and proper ;) I thought for sure next year we would just have to ask for spruce trees!! Funny thing is I really want to walk into those stores advertising just Holiday Trees and asking “Do you have a Christmas tree?” and when they point me in the right direction state, “Sorry nope those are Holiday Trees, I want a Christmas tree!” ;)