On Facebook a few days ago I posted a photo of what I described as my “white trash Christmas tree”. I went so far as to call it a Jeff Foxworthy tree since I faintly heard the tenor of his wonderfully whiny voice in my head while I snapped the photo–“You might be a redneck if…”.
Have I mentioned I’m Texan? Exactly.
Shortly after posting the debacle, Math extraordinaire and Facebook friend, Bon Crowder, commented, “Ummm…there’s totally fractions in your tree…HOLY COW you’ve got the funniest Christmas Math post ever in your living room!”
I quickly “liked” her comment and then sat back, looking at this poor excuse for a Christmas tree. Math? Do-Whu-hat?
Nope couldn’t see it. Some of us don’t SEE Math everywhere, after all.
Naturally, I did the only intelligent thing a person with my lack of number knowledge can do–I invited Bon to unveil the hilarity hidden within the branches of my tree, and at the junction of social media and collaboration, I CAN NOW SEE MATH IN MY TREE.
(You can too! Just read my new fairy math-mother’s tips (in red) below.
Live and learn y’all.
LIVE AND LEARN.
A Bit of Background
We purchased this perfectly-sized, pre-lit, plastic Christmas tree in 2002 at a post-holiday price. See what I did there? THAT, mah friends, was an example of alliteration; but wait, this is a MATH post–I’m getting off track.
Not really, sweet Heather… alliteration is a pattern of sounds. And patterns are math. #shrug
As with all pre-lit trees that are shoved into boxes and placed in 110 degree Texas attics for the majority of the year, the lights ONLY made it through about 4 years; all the while, we nursed it along by replacing light bulbs on an annual basis.
That heat thing has something to do with physics. Alas not really my area, but since physics uses the heck outta math, it’s kinda math. But now I digress…
Then, it began to glitch. Seriously, each year the lighting situation worsened until the tree finally waged a full-out revolt in 2008.
So, like anyone on a budget that does not include the purchase of a new Christmas tree when the only thing not working is the lights, Jeff and I spent TWO HOURS sitting on the ground, wire-cutters in hand, stripping the lights OFF the limbs of the lower 3/4 of the tree.
It was a NIGHTMARE.
What I wonder is: Exactly how many lights kicked the bucket back in 2008? And how many lights survived the great light purge of ’08?
Zooming into the 2008 picture it looks like there’s about 45 left. Which means if you’re correct in your fraction, Heather, y’all started with 45 x 4 = 180 lights on that tree. And you took out 45 x 3 = 135.
That’s estimation, by the way. A super important math concept in the real world.
Fast Forward to Christmas 2013
Forgive me for the novella, really. The tree and I have an incredibly dysfunctional relationship.
THIS YEAR I gave in to Meredith’s annual request for COLORED lights–probably because last week Target had their colored, LED Christmas Tree lights on sale for $7.22 ea (down from $14.99). Um… that’s a 52% discount. Not bad! I bought 6 thinking that would do the trick. Umm…they didn’t go as far as I hoped, so two days later I sent the girls to Target for more. I know, I know…I’m a dreamer. I should have purchased 16 at the congested rate I like to wrap tree branches.
At 60 bulbs per pack, you bought only 360 bulbs for an 8 foot tree. I put 600 bulbs on 5 feet of a trapezoid tree Ratio-wise, you’re seriously down.
360/8 = 45 bulbs per foot vs. my 600/5 = 120 bulbs per foot
Also, somehow I purchased a single strand of “twinkle” lights that I didn’t notice until I was two strands past it on the tree’s topper.
So the lights going on the tree are:
1/6 twinkling vs. 5/6 non-twinkling
THERE WAS NO TURNING BACK. I left the odd twinkle strand to confuse household visitors.
Anyway, the girls returned with 10 more strands (5 twinkling/5 not — I figured we’d just “go” with the chaos; insert foreshadowing moment here) and a receipt for nearly $140.00! WHAT?! Turns out the sale was OVER, and they were back to full price.
At this point you have:
6/16 twinkling lights vs. 10/16 non-twinkling lights
Since 6/16 = 3/8, you’re pretty close to having 1/2 of your tree twinkling. And if you wrap it right, it’ll look like EXACTLY 1/2 of it is twinkling.
There was no budget for $140 worth of lights, so we quickly returned them and started digging in our Christmas decorations again. This is where things get ugly.
Cancel all that. Clearly you’re not ending up with anything that looks like a 1/2 twinkling tree…
As in, REALLY ugly.
“Here’s a strand of clear bulbs!” hollered Jeff.
Oh wow. Things are getting interesting. We just added two more categories:
1/7 twinkling vs. 6/7 non-twinkling
6/7 LED vs. 1/7 non-LED
1/7 clear vs. 6/7 colored
We totally need a Venn Diagram right now!
“Great!” I said, and promptly strung them on the tree.
“Here is a weird strand with colored bulbs inserted into some flowery-type thing.” (Think circa 1974; I have no idea why I have these.)
“Pass them here!”–and on the tree they went.
Now 8 strands:
1/8 twinkling vs. 7/8 non-twinkling
6/8 LED vs. 2/8 non-LED
1/8 clear vs. 7/8 colored
1/8 groovy flowers vs. 7/8 plain
Oh, golly. I feel some serious probability fun coming on!
“Looks like all we have left are clear.”
“Let’s have them, then.” Once I started stringing the clear bulb strands, I realized I failed to throw out ALL the glitchy strands last year–oh well.
Two more strands of clear, both glitchy, gives us 10 total strands and all these fractions:
1/10 twinkling vs. 9/10 non-twinkling
6/10 LED vs. 4/10 non-LED
3/10 clear vs. 7/10 colored
1/10 groovy flowers vs. 9/10 plain
2/10 glitchy vs. 8/10 doing what they’re supposed to do
By the way, are you noticing that the two fractions on each line add up to 1?
And then, we were out…with the bottom two branch levels still left without lights.
I believe the words, “Somebody shoot me now!” escaped my lips.
With no lights in the house, and being too late to head over to my parents’ home to raid their supply, I took a photo, posted it to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and headed to bed.
The next day, Jeff picked up some colored bulbs from Walmart for $1.98 a box (non-LED, of course), and today the tree was finally completed; it is lit and ready for decorating.
Three more packages…
1/13 twinkling vs. 12/13 non-twinkling
6/13 LED vs. 7/13 non-LED
3/13 clear vs. 10/13 colored
1/13 groovy flowers vs. 12/13 plain
2/13 glitchy vs. 11/13 doing what they’re supposed to do
This is beyond a shadow of a doubt, the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Christmas Tree debacle.
I’m hoping once it’s covered with ornaments I can look at it without wincing.
I’m inspired. Now I want to check out the fractions in my own tree. So I’ve created a way to have some Christmas ornaments on the tree that describe the tree in fractions!
My tree may be a Math challenge when it comes to lights, but you can extend the Math activities to other decorations with Bon’s newly created and FREE Christmas Ornament Craft! Just download, print, color and label with the fractions found in your own Christmas tree!
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families across the nation. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods and homeschools her three children, Emelie, Meredith and Kenny.
Bon Crowder is a Math Mom and Education Advocate. She’s co-creator of That’s Math! – a site that helps parents talk real-world math with their kids. She writes at MathFour.com, a math education website supporting teachers and parents.