At first Backyard Road Trips traveled far and wide to find the best New England Holiday events this December, and now I’d like to clue you in on a Lamothe family Christmas tradition, the annual beer can tree.
After sneaking a Heady Topper (empty) can onto a branch of our family Christmas tree, an amazing idea dawned on me. I would collect a year’s worth of craft beer cans, representing the best in can art and taste and put them all on a separate tree!
Choosing the Perfect Beer Can Tree
Twelve months later, we purchased two (live) Christmas trees for the house. One was for the living room and the other for the sunroom, with the living room to house the family tree and the sunroom for the “beer can tree.”
I had collected around fifty noteworthy cans throughout the year. I selected my favorite 25 to decorate with. In all, around 35 fit comfortably on the tree. For the topper, of course, it was The Alchemist’s Heady Topper.
This original circa 2017 beer can tree became a smash hit, so much so that my wife actually requested it again for the following year. All of the cans from the first tree were recycled as the process started once again for 2018.
Friends would come over during the year with beer in hand, wondering if their contributions would be deemed “tree worthy.” In the end, come December 2018, I had another collection of favorite beer cans from the year.
Tidings of Comfort and Joy
The year in cans displayed proudly on the tree annually is a trip down memory lane. Even looking back at trees of years past, I reminisce fondly about Dominion’s Sun Split IPA or Long Trail’s Cooperator. Similar to a display of Christmas ornaments, each can tells a story: the acquisition of the beer and a recollection of its taste.
For the 2019 beer can tree, my wife suggested that we purchase a fake tree, that the task of maintaining two live trees with two active kids becomes a bit daunting. Although I’m a Christmas tree purist, I was fine with this, since the main objective is that it is used as a display mechanism for the collection of cans.
Displaying the possibilities for this year’s tree brought me back to a Tree House visit with friends at the end of the school year, this delicious beer from Vitamin Sea (with some really great can art), this summer’s Vermont vacation and my trip to Maine last spring.
This year is the first without the Heady Topper atop the tree, and although I had my share, I alas, forgot to save a can. Instead, there is a Focal Banger and a Rapture can, both awesome designs by Dan Blakeslee (the artist behind the Heady Topper can art)as well. The Lux can from Bissell Brothers became the tree topper for 2019.
What unique holiday traditions do you celebrate in your family?
