During the Christmas season, public trolleys in Budapest, Hungary are outfitted with over 30,000 twinkling LED lights. The tradition began in 2009 and has been a hit with passengers ever since. The lit up trams have become a beacon for photo ops and creative photographers have found interesting ways to capture them.
In this eight second long exposure photograph by Viktor Varga, the moving tram looks like it’s moving through space and time. Reports of Doc Brown and Mart McFly at the trolley’s helm have yet to be confirmed 🙂
Just like many families today, Richard and Anna Wagner took annual holiday portraits, sending out the photos as Christmas cards to friends and family. From 1900 (when the couple first married) until 1942, the couple took portraits in front of their Christmas tree (sadly Richard passed the following year).
It’s fascinating to see not only the couple age, but the small additions here and there to the household as time passed and technology improved. 1900 – 1942 was also a period of great change in the world. From the Great Depression to World Wars I and II, you can spot some interesting items in the background such as a map of the German troops advances in WWI (1915) and a vacuum cleaner in 1927.
In this incredible capture by Scott Rogers we see trees bathed in snow and sunlight on Christmas eve in Toronto, Canada (the Sifter’s home town!).
Unfortunately Christmas was a difficult time for many Toronto residents this year. Last Saturday (Dec. 21) the city experienced a violent ice storm that left hundreds of thousands without power while the roads were covered in trees and branches that could not sustain the added weight of the ice on its limbs. After more than 72 hours, there are still an estimated 54,000 customers without power.
The photograph was uploaded to local Toronto site blogTO’s Flickr pool. It was featured as their Photo of the Day on December 25 and also shared on their Facebook page where I came across it.
Seen here is a rare red aurora beautifully complementing the green band of colour below. The image was taken at Hakoya island, just outside of Tromsoe, Norway on October 25th, 2011 by photographer Frank Olsen.
An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere (thermosphere). The charged particles originate in the magnetosphere and solar wind and, on Earth, are directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere.
In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis (or the northern lights), its southern counterpart is known as aurora australis (or the southern lights). [Source]
One of the great Christmas traditions is to dust off the old DVD player or flip on the television and watch a film that you seem to only watch at Christmas. Some are holiday classics while others have come to be associated with the holidays through pop culture and tradition. Below are 10 films that I found on a number of ‘Best Christmas Movies Ever‘ lists.
A little known fact: practically any movie ever made will have a well-populated entry on IMDb. From there you will usually find a ‘trivia’ section filled with quirky and obscure facts about the movie. So with that, here are 10 things you never about 10 famous Christmas movies, happy holidays everyone!
1. Home Alone (1990)
This gif explains why Kevin’s parents didn’t notice an extra airline ticket when they checked into their flight
When the Ghost of Christmas Present (Carol Kane) grabbed Bill Murray’s lip she tore his lip so badly that filming had to be halted for several days. [source]
3. Love Actually (2003)
Actor Kris Marshall, who played Colin Frissell in the film, returned his pay check for the scene where the three American girls undress him. He said he had such a great time having three girls undress him for twenty-one takes that he was willing to do it for free, thus returning his check for that day. [source]
4. Elf (2003)
Almost all of the footage of Buddy first arriving in New York City was filmed on the last day of shooting. It was actually just the director (Jon Favreau), Will Ferrell and a cameraman driving around the city looking for locations to shoot. They would jump out and ask pedestrians if they would be willing to be extras for some quick cash while Ferrell paraded around acting like Buddy. [source]
5. Die Hard (1988)
Bruce Willis was actually the sixth choice for the main character! It originally went to Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Sylvester Stallone, then Burt Reynolds, then Richard Gere, then Harrison Ford, and then Mel Gibson before Willis eventually got the part. [source]
6. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Apparently the prosthetic make-up Jim Carrey wore for the film took over 3 hours each day to apply. Carrey felt so horribly confined and uncomfortable in the latex skin he actually got counselling from a Navy SEAL who taught him torture-resistance techniques for coping. [source]
7. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Although Tim Burton is typically associated as the creator and director of the film he was not greatly involved in the process. On the film, director Henry Selick reflects: “It’s as though he [Burton] laid the egg, and I sat on it and hatched it. He wasn’t involved in a hands-on way, but his hand is in it. It was my job to make it look like ‘a Tim Burton film’, which is not so different from my own films. I don’t want to take away from Tim, but he was not in San Francisco when we made it. He came up five times over two years, and spent no more than eight or ten days in total.” Burton found production difficult because he was directing Batman Returns and in pre-production of Ed Wood at the time. [source]
8. The Polar Express (2004)
The real name of the Hero Boy is never mentioned in the film. [source]
9. The Santa Clause (1994)
Disney, who has a policy of not hiring any ex-convicts, made an exception for Tim Allen, who starred as Scott Calvin/Santa Claus in the film [source]. On October 2, 1978, Allen was arrested in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport for possession of over 650 grams (1.4 lb) of cocaine. He subsequently pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges, and provided the names of other dealers in exchange for a sentence of three to seven years rather than a possible life imprisonment. He was paroled on June 12, 1981, after serving 2 years and 4 months in Federal Correctional Institution in Sandstone, Minnesota. [source]
10. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Despite being a “Christmas movie,” Christmas Day is never actually seen. The film ends on Christmas Eve. [source]
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