Want to cut down a Christmas tree in Estonia? There’s an
app for that
We only take trees that need to be removed anyway.
We’ve just chosen our Christmas tree for our home here in
Estonia.
In most parts of the world, choosing a Christmas tree
just means popping down to the local shops for either a plastic tree or one
that’s already been chopped down by someone else.
Here in Estonia though, we have a better (and very
Estonian) option.
In addition to good saunas, there are two things
Estonians particularly like: nature and digital services. And quite often, they
all work together here.
Estonia’s state forest management centre, known as RMK,
has a really cool mobile app to help you explore the Estonian wilderness
throughout the year. It works in Estonian, English and Russian.
At Christmas time though, the app has an additional
purpose. You can use it to find a Christmas tree in a state forest that you can
cut down for yourself.
It includes a map of where to find them, all the advice
you need, and how to pay for your one-time tree cutting license.
RMK began inviting Estonians to cut down their own
Christmas trees from state forests in 2008. Their main objective is to simply
maintain the tradition and encourage Estonians to spend more time in the
wilderness. Several state institutions and companies choose this option over
shop-bought alternatives and sometimes even see it as a team building exercise.
There are a few sensible rules to protect our wilderness
though, which are all explained in the app. Most importantly, you must choose a
tree that wouldn’t be able to grow to full height anyway, such as one
underneath power cables.
According to Estonia’s Forest Act, you are also allowed
to take ornamental branches, such as for a Christmas tree wreath, as long as
you do not harm the rest of the tree. Taking just the top off a tree, for example,
is prohibited.
The state forests where you can cut down trees are marked
in dark green, while private forests (where you can only cut down trees with
the permission of the land owner) are marked in light green, and nature
reserves (where taking trees is strictly prohibited) are marked in brown. Most
helpfully, power lines are marked as blue lines. Your own location is shown on
the map too so it’s easy to navigate.
We found our tree near Saku, underneath those power
cables marked above. After asking the tree if it would like to come home with
us, we cut it down and took it back to Tallinn to be decorated.
I confess that I made one mistake. You must pay for your
Christmas tree before cutting it down, not afterwards like I did.
The app lists prices for trees up to 5 metres, which you
can pay straight from your phone bill by calling a number listed in the app.
You can pay for trees above 5 metres too, although only
by bank transfer. In case you are interested, a tree larger than 20 metres will
cost you €640. Our tree was a modest 1.5 metres tall so it cost us €8.
Although this payment is difficult to police, it’s
possible that authorities may stop you when carrying a tree and ask to see your
proof of payment. And you can’t get away with saying you couldn’t connect to
make the payment because even the forests of Estonia tend to have good
connectivity.
RMK began inviting Estonians to cut down their own
Christmas trees from state forests in 2008. Their main objective is to simply
maintain the tradition and encourage Estonians to spend more time in the
wilderness. Several state institutions and companies choose this option over
shop-bought alternatives and sometimes even see it as a team building exercise.
You can watch the full video we made about this whole
process below here (and don’t forget to subscribe to our Estonian Saunas YouTube channel if you enjoyed it).
…But where’s the sauna?
We usually just write about Estonian saunas on this blog,
but there are actually a few similarities between Christmas trees and saunas.
Both traditions are enjoyed around the world, yet rooted
in the prehistoric culture of peoples living around the Baltic sea. Believe it
or not, the Christmas tree can also be traced back to Estonia.
About 500 years ago, Tallinn joined the Hanseatic League and
a lot of German merchants settled here. They saw local Pagans ceremoniously
burning a tree during their winter festival and decided to adapt the tradition
for themselves. The House of Blackheads in Tallinn erected their own tree in
1441 and then did the same in Riga in 1510.
Admittedly, this story is a little murky. The prehistoric
tradition isn’t well recorded and it’s unclear how this adapted version of the
tradition evolved into the decorated trees we use at Christmas today.
Estonians and Latvians still both argue each Christmas
season that theirs was the first Christmas tree. The Latvians even put up a
plaque and a monument to their first Christmas tree, which they insist
(incorrectly) was in Latvia. We might be a little biased of course.
The sauna tradition also comes from prerecorded history
and has been adapted a lot over the years. For one thing, there’s an app for
that too! We can control our modern Estonian saunas by using a HUUM app to
switch them on remotely. That’s what we did after choosing our tree so that it
was heated for us by the time we got home from the forest.
(This article was first published on medium.com/estoniansaunas, on
December 15, 2019)
Thank you Adam, for your comprehensive guide to the Estonian Christmas tree app! I’ve actually utilized the Latvian version of this program;
we cut down our own tree from a Latvian National Forest ten years ago while
visiting my brother-in-law in Rīga during the holidays.
Adam runs the blog Estonian Saunas together with Anni. Their global
online store will be launching soon, but in the meantime take a look at
EstonianSaunas.co.uk if you are in the UK, and if you’re visiting Estonia stop
in to see the two saunas that are open to visitors: the Tallinn smoke sauna and
the Tallinn Airbnb apartment with an e-sauna. Estonian Saunas is also a sponsor
of the European Sauna Marathon, which will be February 15, 2020! In addition to
the blog, you can follow Adam and Anni’s adventures exploring and exporting
Estonian saunas on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. You can also join the
Facebook group for fans of Estonian saunas.
With less than a week to go until Christmas, we here at
24 Days of a Baltic Christmas want to wish you patience and endurance to finish
your last holiday preparations! As my brother (maybe?) says, “the storm before
the calm!” We hope you’ll join us tomorrow on Day 20, for a Christmas story from the DP camps...
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