Prague’s Old Town Square Christmas tree gets second life
Ever wondered what happens to your Christmas tree after the festive season is over? Well, in the case of one particular Christmas tree at least, it won’t end up on a scrapheap or in an incinerator. Apprentice carpenters from one of the capital’s vocational schools are turning Prague’s Old Town Square Christmas tree into useful wooden objects for old people’s homes.
Benches, moveable crates, and insect hotels – those are just some of the items being created in the carpentry workshops of the Secondary Vocational School in Prague 9 from the wood of the 22-metre-high spruce tree that adorned Prague’s Old Town Square until early January. Students from the school are working on giving the tree a second life now that the Christmas season is over.
Student Pavel Zeman describes how far along he is in the process of creating his windowbox.
"It's almost done, it's just being sanded down now. All that’s left to do is to finish the bottom, paint it, and line the inside with a mesh so the soil doesn't fall out.”
The products that the students are making aren’t just cute gimmicks – they will actually serve a purpose. They will be donated to senior citizens living in care homes, one in Prague 4 and the other in the Liberec Region north of Prague, where the tree itself came from, says Prague city councillor Michal Hroza.
"I was present for the felling of the tree in Pertoltice, and while I was there its owner asked me if part of the tree could be returned to the area. So that is what is happening – part of the tree will return to the Česká Lípa District in the form of a bench that will be donated to a home for the elderly in Mimoň."
The deputy director for vocational training, Vilém Kodíček, who is supervising the students as they work, says the project couldn’t begin immediately after the tree came down from Old Town Square because they first had to wait for the wood to dry properly.
"We first took the tree to the sawmill, where they cut it up into smaller pieces. They returned the dried pieces to us sometime towards the end of March and we immediately started working on it."
The students have to have everything finished and ready by June, when the Prague city government plans to give the gifts to the residents of the homes for the elderly.
