Christmas is a time for sharing and spreading good will, and at Embecosm this is something we are passionate about. Every year for the last 3 years, St Thomas Church in Lymington holds a Christmas Tree Festival in December, where local people, groups and commercial organisations sponsor or decorate a Christmas tree — often to support a charity. The festival lasts 5 days and involves over 30 Christmas trees, all decorated in different and typically unique ways.
Each year at Embecosm, we aim to use a mixture of traditional decorations and electronics to bring smiles to the local community. These electronic decorations have generally included Cuttlefish and Seahorse boards with red and green LEDs, which would flash and twinkle to spread the Christmas spirit. But this year, we decided to take this further by putting the control of the twinkle into the hands of the local community. Embecosm created a tweetable tree, in which a person could tweet @cuttletree, and the LED flashing pattern would change. Alongside this, the tweeter would also receive a Christmas pun in return.
After a long day of the Embecosm team soldering, and wiring up the Cuttlefish and Seahorse boards — and even some last minute soldering tree-side — the tree was a success, with the local community not only commenting on how good it looked, but by also tweeting the tree as well.
So from everyone here at Embecosm, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!