For this year’s Brno Christmas celebrations, a 20-metre white-barked fir will be brought to the city, marking the 100th anniversary of the city’s holiday tree tradition. The tree, estimated to be around 150 years old, is a gift from Mendel University’s School Forestry Enterprise (ŠLP Křtiny). A horse-drawn carriage will deliver the fir tree to Brno from Myslivna Liška Bystrouška on 16 November..
The selection of the 2024 Christmas tree faced some challenges due to adverse weather conditions. “Originally, we had a huge one in the Křtiny Arboretum, but due to the June storm, it broke in the upper part. In the end, we were glad for that, because it turned out that there was rot right at the top of the crown, which could potentially be very dangerous,” said Petra Packová from ŠLP Křtiny.
In collaboration with representatives from the Brno Tourist Information Center (TIC Brno), the staff of ŠLP Křtiny found a suitable replacement to the original tree in the Habrůvka forest near the Křtiny Arboretum. The chosen white fir is 20 metres high, with a diameter of 40 centimetres at 1.3 metres (known as “Diameter at breast height”).
“It is not easy to find a tree in the forest, and by the road as well, which meets what people expect from it in the square,” said Packova. “It should be symmetrical, with dense branches, straight. This presupposes enough evenly distributed light, sun and nutrients. Achieving this in a canopy of trees is very difficult. What is the essential benefit of this Christmas tree is its locality and the fact that it grew uncontrollably, freely in the forest, which is also part of the Mendel University in Brno.”
The fir tree will be brought down using a special technique. “The tree will be held by a hydraulic hand the whole time, because it must not fall to the ground, so as not to break the branches,” Packová explained.
This will also be the moment when the conifer’s health will be assessed and its age verified. On 16 November, the tow truck will transport it to Myslivna Liška Bystrouška, where it will be transferred to a horse-drawn carriage. After a short festive ceremony, the tree will leave on its journey to Brno. After a stop in Líšen at the Belcredi chateau, it will continue to Židenice and from there to Brno’s Náměstí Svobody, where the carriage should arrive around 5pm. It will be welcomed in the square by the trumpeters of ŠLP Křtiny.”
The tradition of the Republic Christmas tree has its roots on 22 December 1919, when the writer Rudolf Těsnohlídek discovered a little girl on her own in the forest near Bílovice nad Svitavou, while on a walk with friends. This encounter led him to consider ways to help abandoned children. Inspired by a trip to Copenhagen, where he saw a charity collection for impoverished children held under a decorated Christmas tree, Těsnohlídek proposed a similar tradition to help Czechoslovakian children living in poverty.
On 6 December 1924, the first “Christmas Tree of the Republic” was cut down in the Bílovice forest, and illuminated a week later in Náměstí Svobody, where a charity drive was held. The funds raised under the tree contributed to the establishment of the Dagmar children’s home in Brno.
