The Geek Tree is back. There are no major upgrades this year; same white lights, same Buck Rogers-style lights, same Santa Yoda tree topper, same blue rockets-and-planets tree skirt. There’s a new ornament — Hallmark’s 2007 three-warp-nacelled, alternative-future Enterprise-D — but that’s about it.
Not that I didn’t try.
I found some cool pulsing LED stars at Target, which could have added some needed color to the tree, but unfortunately they flashed far too frequently and they had to be returned. I took the kids on a geek ornament shopping expedition to Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot and Target, but surprisingly I found nothing. It’s disappointing, given that all four stores have had science fiction/fantasy ornaments in previous years.
I contemplated getting out the Harry Potter train set my wife got me a few years back but Sue nixed that after pointing out that our train/car obsessed son would want to play with it constantly.
So … different year but pretty much the same tree.
I am hoping to add a few new ornaments to it this year, specifically the U.S.S. Reliant (from Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan) and the Imperial Shuttle from Star Wars but there won’t be any other major geek trees.
The Mini Geek Tree is back again this year as well. It’s mostly the same as last year, with a few tweaks such as the addition of a few more Star Wars micromachines and LEGO minifigs.
One thing I’m thinking of picking up for next year’s Geek Tree is a small set of LED lights. I’ve seen strands of 50, and I think they’d be a good fit. They’d also be a good test run for using such lights on the big tree.
I’m also strongly tempted to get the LEGO Star Wars Hoth set to serve as a base for the Mini Geek Tree. It’d be a lot of fun to build and display, but nearly $90 for a LEG kit is a bit steep.
As in previous years, you can check out full-size photos on Flickr.