Even if the men in your life don’t ask for much, you’ll still want to surprise them with something thoughtful this holiday season. From refined to quirky to traditional, one of these 11 gift ideas will make the perfect present for every guy you know.

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1. FISHERS FINERY CASHMERE HAT; $40

You can’t go wrong with a classic ribbed knit hat, but you can make his gift special by going with this cashmere option. The soft knitted material will keep your favorite guy warm, cozy, and classy for many winters to come.

Find It: Amazon

2. SCOTCH INFUSED TOOTHPICK GIFT SET; $36

After a holiday meal with family and friends, scotch-infused toothpicks offer an unexpected post-dinner treat. Soaked in a single malt scotch and kiln-fired, they’re heartier than what you’d find at the grocery store, and the smoky flavor enhances what is normally an after-meal afterthought. It’s an ideal gift for the man who likes to expect the unexpected.

Find It: Uncommon Goods

3. LIQUID BODY FLASK; $45

For your brother-in-law who organizes epic tailgate parties or your favorite camping buddy, consider a sophisticated-looking flask. Its smooth, shiny exterior and unique shape add interest to an everyday object. And since it’s made of stainless steel, you know it will be durable enough for all kinds of adventures.

Find It: Amazon

4. WEEKENDER BAG; $55

Make sure his overnight trips and weekend getaways are handled, thanks to the Weekender bag. Constructed from canvas and featuring thick leather straps, the Weekender brings more style and polish to a man’s travel necessities than a standard duffle bag ever could. The guy who gets this durable and functional bag will probably want to plan more trips just for an excuse to pack up and explore.

Find It: BeSpokePost

5. PERSONALIZED WHISKEY BARREL; $85 – $200

Do you know someone who has always dreamed of opening his own distillery? That’s a guy who deserves a personalized whiskey barrel. He can age whiskey to his preferred level of oak-tinged flavor in either a 2- or 5-liter barrel. Regardless of size, the smaller barrels allow the alcohol to age more quickly, so he won’t have to wait until next December to enjoy a nice drink. (And if he’s really up for a challenge, include the rum and whiskey making kit as part of the gift.)

Find It: Uncommon Goods

6. LEATHER-WRAPPED CANDLE; $23

Guys enjoy scented candles, too, especially when the candle is handmade and wrapped in rugged, distressed leather. The letters are individually hammered onto the leather, further enhancing the personal vibe. Choose from scents like Bonfire and Cabin to add a masculine feel to any home—or actual cabin.

Find It: Etsy

7. BEVEL SHAVE SYSTEM; $90 FOR STARTER KIT

Let him be his own barber with an at-home luxury shaving kit. Each shave system includes a shave brush to lather and soften hair, a safety razor, and 20 blades. On top of that, the kit’s priming oil, shave cream, and moisturizing balm help to keep his skin free of razor bumps. With this carefully curated kit, he can achieve a professional-level shave.

Find It: Walker & Company

8. SYMA X5C-1 EXPLORERS QUADCOPTER; $69

Raise the bar with a quadcopter. This compact ‘copter is equipped with a 6-axis gyro stabilization system, which makes its flight pattern stable and precise. That’ll come in handy when he’s taking aerial videos with the attached camera. It also features an LED light so that it can be flown at night.

Find It: Amazon

9. WOOD WATCH; $99 – $160

A wooden watch is unexpected, fashionable, and perfect for the man who wants to keep something a little different in his watch rotation. The classic design gives this accessory a classy look and the lightweight feel makes it a good choice for everyday wear, which is great for the outdoorsy type with an office job, or anyone who appreciates a stately wood-paneled room.

Find It: Etsy

10. LEGO TECHNIC PORSCHE 911 GT3 RS; $300

You won’t need to clear space in the garage for this luxury sports car. The LEGO Porsche is an impressive showpiece for the car-obsessed guy who appreciates craftsmanship and attention to detail. Each model has its own unique serial number, a working steering wheel, detailed brake calipers, and tons of other highlights, making it even more fun to catch all of the special features as the model takes shape.

Find It: Amazon

11. BEARD PACK; $40

Help the bearded and mustachioed men you know keep their facial hair lustrous with the Beard Pack. The kit contains a wash, moustache wax, and oil designed to keep facial hair well groomed and healthy. And don’t think that beards are too manly to be maintained; a mechanic designed this kit, after all. Plus, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this is how Santa always looks so polished.

Find It: Uncommon Goods

Modern Christmas lore is expansive enough to fill an encyclopedia. We’ve got songs about reindeer and snowmen, weird elf traditions, and letters to Santa. But how much do we really know about Mrs. Claus?

Marriage is a relatively new gig for Santa Claus. There’s no record of his original incarnation, Bishop of Myra St. Nicholas, having a wife. Although it’s not impossible for a fourth century Turkish bishop to have had a wife, the figure would expand and morph until, by the end of the 18th century, the bishop had transitioned into a full-time behavior monitor, jolly-maker, and bringer of toys.

But even mythological love affairs don’t just pop up overnight. It would be years and years before Santa found his lady. The first mention of Mrs. Claus appears in the 1849 short story “A Christmas Legend” by missionary James Rees, in which a couple disguise themselves, angel-like, as travelers, and seek shelter with a family. As it turns out, the two strangers are not the Clauses at all, but long-lost family members in double disguise. Still, real or not real, Rees had created a legend.

Over the next few decades, the legend took shape. Mentions of Mrs. Claus appeared in short stories, poems, and songs. She also began accompanying her husband to Christmas parties. Some reported that she dressed in red; others, like the architect/narrator in E.C. Gardner’s 1887 fanciful essay “A Hickory Back-Log,” decked her out in green and plaid while simultaneously debating himself about her existence:

… if there is a patron saint who presides over this day which the nation devotes to feasting and giving thanks, as Santa Claus presides over the Christmas holidays, and if he has a wife, which of course he must have or he can’t be much of a saint, then this was the person who stood before me.

That person, “keen and nervous, but benignant,” has come to the narrator with a list of complaints about the hazards of contemporary kitchen design, and she intends to get through the entire thing. Several times the architect attempts to speak; each time, Mrs. Claus smacks him down. “Don’t interrupt me,” she says.

Perhaps as a foil for Santa’s benevolence and cheer, Mrs. Claus continued to develop a blunt, take-charge attitude. While often sweet and helpful, she was also feisty. The Mrs. Claus of “America the Beautiful” writer Katharine Lee Bates’s 1889 poem “Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride” demands to accompany her husband on his rounds and wants to deliver the toys herself.

Home to womankind is suited? Nonsense, Goodman! Let our fruited
Orchards answer for the value of a woman out-of-doors.
Why then bid me chase the thunder, while the roof you’re safely under,
All to fashion fire-crackers with the lighting in their cores?

See! I’ve fetched my snow-flake bonnet, with the sunrise ribbons on it;
I’ve not worn it since we fled from Fairyland our wedding day;
How we sped through iceberg porches with the Northern Lights for torches!
You were young and slender, Santa, and we had this very sleigh.

Jump in quick then? That’s my bonny. Hey down derry! Nonny nonny!
While I tie your fur cap closer, I will kiss your ruddy chin.
I’m so pleased I fall to singing, just as sleigh-bells take to ringing!
Are the cloud-spun lap-robes ready? Tirra-lirra! Tuck me in.

(He did.)

Over the last hundred-plus years, Mrs. Claus seems to have mellowed. These days she’s often depicted as a plump, cheerful helpmeet, filling Santa’s Thermos with cocoa and waving goodbye as his sleigh ascends. But no marriage is that simple. Mrs. Claus was a fireball once, and we like to think that, deep down, she still is.

In 1902, Scotland sent explorers on an official national expedition to Antarctica, headed up by polar scientist and naturalist William S. Bruce. In a uniquely Scottish twist, the two-year-long Scottish National Antarctic Expedition included a position that probably no other country found necessary: an official piper.

Gilbert Kerr, the official piper of the Scotia crew, was tasked with maintaining morale—but he became a postcard icon by posing for the photo above, in which he played the bagpipes in full Highland dress next to an Emperor penguin. The bird, according to the Royal Scottish Geographic Society, “was tethered to a large cooking-pot packed full of snow.” The photograph was taken by Bruce in March 1904 while the Scotia was stuck in the ice on the Weddell Sea.

The idea of Kerr bringing out the bagpipes for a bunch of penguins was apparently also intended to test the effect of music on them, according to the 1906 record of the voyage by Bruce and other members of the expedition, The Voyage of the ‘Scotia’: Being the Record of a Voyage of Exploration in Antarctic Seas. The penguins were not impressed. The explorers wrote that “there was no excitement, no sign of appreciation or disapproval, only sleepy indifference.” They further noted that “it was just all that one man could do to lead one up to the ship: with their beaks they bit fairly hard, and with their long flipper-like wings could hit out decidedly hard.” Kerr’s bagpipes were later donated to a Scottish battalion during World War I and lost at the Battle of the Somme.

These days, of course, polar explorers would not be allowed to tie a penguin to a pot for a photo op. All Antarctic wildlife is protected, and the continent is a nature preserve. However, in Antarctic weather, it’s possible that the man in a kilt (it’s hard to tell in black and white, but those look like bare legs above his socks) was almost as uncomfortable as the wild penguin tied to a kitchen pot. And who knows which poor crew member got bitten in the process.

By the end of the 1960s, the production team of Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass had a well-established niche in the annual holiday TV schedule. Their “Animagic” stop-animation specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and The Little Drummer Boy were eagerly anticipated each December and were well on their way to “classic” status. In 1969, the Rankin/Bass team introduced yet another holiday-themed special based on a song, Frosty the Snowman. The special premiered on Sunday, December 7, following the network’s annual revival of 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas. Here are a few things you might not have known about the legendary animated special.

1. IT WAS A HIT SONG LONG BEFORE IT WAS A TV SPECIAL.

The song “Frosty the Snowman” was written by Jack Rollins and Steve Nelson in 1950 (with a melody that is strikingly similar to 1932’s “Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee”) specifically as a means of capitalizing on the success of Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The record wasn’t as huge as “Rudolph,” sales-wise, but Frosty’s story was nevertheless perpetuated via Little Golden Books and Dell Comics.

2. RANKIN/BASS WASN’T THE FIRST TEAM TO ANIMATE FROSTY.

In 1954, United Productions of America (UPA) brought Frosty to life in a short cartoon that is little more than an animated music video for a jazzy version of the song. It introduced the characters mentioned in the lyrics visually, from Frosty himself to the traffic cop. The three-minute, black-and-white piece quickly became a holiday tradition in various markets, particularly in Chicago, where it’s been broadcast annually on WGN since 1955.

3. FROSTY WAS VOICED BY A NOT-SO-FAMILY-FRIENDLY STAND-UP COMEDIAN.

Deadpan comic Jackie Vernon was known for his “slideshow” routines, where he’d narrate slides (unseen by the audience) and “change” them with a handheld clicker. Quite often his routines ended with a graphic description of some sexual perversion that he’d innocently stumbled onto via the recommendation of some stranger, about whom he’d always comment “… and I thought, ‘Gee, what a neat guy!’”

4. THE NARRATOR WAS UNIVERSALLY REGARDED AS A NICE GUY.

Jimmy Durante was a jazz pianist, singer, and comedian whose career spanned a little over 50 years. In the 1950s, he was a regular not only at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn, but also at the Guardian Angel Cathedral, where he stood outside and greeted fellow parishioners with the priest after Sunday mass each week. Durante loved children, and is famous for turning down a performance fee at the Eagles International Convention in 1961. When asked by the organizers “What can we do, then?” Durante replied in his trademark Brooklynese: “Help da kids.”

5. LEGENDARY VOICE ACTORS JUNE FORAY AND PAUL FREES WERE REPLACED AFTER THE ORIGINAL AIRING.

The original film featured June Foray performing the voices of both the schoolteacher and young Karen, who accompanied Frosty to the North Pole. Paul Frees was the Traffic Cop and Santa Claus, and the two combined to voice the remaining schoolchildren. For reasons unknown (even to Foray herself), nearly all the children’s voices—including Karen’s—were redubbed by unidentified child actors for the 1970 airing. All subsequent TV appearances and video releases contain this new soundtrack. The original is only available on the 1970 soundtrack LP and a 2002 CD release by Rhino.

6. FROSTY WAS PARTIALLY MADE IN JAPAN.

Frosty the Snowman was the first Rankin/Bass Christmas special to utilize traditional animation (versus the stop-motion method used in their other projects). Paul Coker, Jr., a long-time MAD Magazine illustrator, provided both the main character and background drawings. The animation was done by Mushi Studio, the Japanese company founded by Osamu Tezuka to produce Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion cartoons.

7. FROSTY’S HOMETOWN IS ARMONK, NEW YORK.

Lyricist Steve Nelson lived in nearby White Plains and loved to visit the historic hamlet of Armonk as a young man. The Village Square mentioned in the lyrics of the song is now the Armonk Historic District in the town of North Castle. Local historians also claim that the traffic cop who hollers “Stop!” is based on former chief of police John Hergenhan. Armonk hosts an annual Frosty Day parade and celebration that is officially listed as one of the “10 Best Things To Do in Westchester County.”

8. FROSTY HAS MAGIC FINGERS AS WELL AS A MAGIC HAT!

Watch carefully when Frosty attempts to count to 10: He has five fingers on one hand for a brief moment, then when he clasps his hand and flexes his digits, he’s down to four fingers. Maybe that falls under the category of “animation blooper” rather than “magic.”

What’s the opposite of disgruntled? Chances are you’re thinking the answer should rightly be gruntled—but is that really a word you recognize? The problem here is that disgruntled, alongside the likes of uncouth, disheveled, distraught, inert, and intrepid, is an example of an unpaired word, namely one that looks like it should have an apparently straightforward opposite, but in practice really doesn’t.

Words like these tend to come about either when a prefixed or suffixed form of a word is adopted into the language while its root is not, or when the inflected or affixed form of a word survives, while its uninflected root form falls out of use. This was the case with disgruntled, which derives from an ancient Middle English word, gruntel, meaning “to grumble” or “complain,” which has long since fallen from use—although the gap left by disgruntled has led some dictionaries to list gruntled as a modern-day back-formation.

Some words and phrases, however, do have clear opposite forms, but they’re so rare or unfamiliar that they tend to remain forgotten. Eleven examples of precisely that are listed here.

1. AMBIDEXTROUS

If you’re ambidextrous then you’re equally skillful in using both hands (although perhaps not as successfully as President James Garfield). If you’re ambilevous however you’re equally clumsy using either hand—or, as Noah Webster defined it, “left handed on both sides.”

2. ANONYMOUS

Anonymous literally means “without a name.” Its opposite is onymous, which is typically used to refer to books, legal papers, artworks, musical compositions, and similar documents the authorship of which is known without doubt.

3. AUTOMATON

If an automaton is a machine capable of moving itself, then the opposite is called a heteromaton—a device that relies solely on external forces for movement.

4. CATASTROPHE

If a catastrophe is a sudden, unpredictable, and devastating event, then an equally sudden or unexpected event of sheer joy or good fortune is a eucatastrophe. This term was coined by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien in 1944, who originally used it to describe a sudden or fortuitous event in the plot of a story that turns around the protagonist’s chances or prospects, and brings about the resolution of the narrative. 

5. DÉJÀ VU

Over the years, psychologists have identified a number of different phenomena similar to déjà vu (literally “already seen” in French). Among them is presque vu (“almost seen”), the tip-of-the-tongue feeling that you’re about to remember something you’ve forgotten; déjà vécu (“already experienced”), a particularly intense form of déjà vu that makes it almost impossible to discern the present from the past; and déjà visité (“already visited”), which describes a person’s surprising foreknowledge of a place they’ve never actually been to before—like unthinkingly knowing your way around a foreign town or city while on holiday. The opposite of déjà vu, however, is usually said to be jamais vu (“never seen”): so if déjà vu describes the eerie sensation that something new has actually taken place before, in the case of jamais vu a person believes that a situation that is actually very familiar and has happened before is entirely new.

6. DISTRESS

If you’ve been through a difficult or disturbing situation that left you upset or shaken up, then you’ve suffered distress. If you’ve been through a difficult or stressful situation that left you energized and compelled you to work or act better than you might otherwise do, then you’ve experienced eustress.

7. EUPHEMISM

If a euphemism involves the use of a politer word or phrase in place of a more distasteful or objectionable one, a dysphemism is the deliberate use of an impolite or unpleasant term in place of a perfectly inoffensive one. Dysphemism is often used for rhetorical effect, in order to shock or shake up an audience, or simply for comic effect.

8. OPTIMUM

Just as optimist is opposed to pessimist, optimum is the opposite of pessimum. So while the optimum conditions are those that are most favorable and suitable for doing something, the pessimum would be the worst or least favorable conditions.  

9. PLACEBO

Placebo literally means “I shall please” in Latin, and the placebo effect refers to an apparent improvement or amelioration in a patient’s condition despite them deliberately being given entirely ineffectual “dummy” medication. The opposite phenomenon is called the nocebo effect, which describes a patient reporting that they feel worse despite being given an entirely harmless treatment; it might sound like a made-up name, but nocebo actually means “I shall harm” in Latin.

10. POSTPONE

To bring a date forward in time rather than postponing it is to prepone it.

11. STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

Taking its name from a hostage situation that unfolded after a bank robbery in Sweden in 1973, Stockholm syndrome refers to the psychological phenomenon of hostages becoming sympathetic towards their captors. An opposite phenomenon is called Lima syndrome, in which it is the hostage-takers who gain sympathy for their hostages. And just like Stockholm syndrome, Lima syndrome too has its roots in a real-life hostage situation that occurred after a local militia stormed a party being held at the Japanese Embassy in the Peruvian capital in 1996.

A gingerbread house can be just a house, or it can be a medium for fantastic creations, from mansions to spaceships. Check out these wildly creative gingerbread sculptures that go beyond just four walls and a roof.

1. FANTASY CASTLE

Christine McConnell constructed this huge gingerbread castle for a Christmas photo spread at Food.com. The entire castle is edible, with the exception of the lights. That means all the structural supports are made of edible materials, and the window glass is just sugar. You can see an album of the castle, its construction, and the intricate details here.

2. HOGWARTS

I made Hogwarts out of Gingerbread!

Redditor louisesiuol and her sister made an amazing gingerbread version of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 2013 for a competition, which they obviously won. You can see more pictures of the gingerbread school here.

Also in 2013, Mimicafe Union in New York made a gingerbread version of Hogwarts’s Great Hall for the Bake Christmas Wish Fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. You can check out photographs of that house here.

3. GRAND FLORIDIAN RESORT

Walt Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort displays a grand gingerbread house every year, and here’s the 2016 version. Creating the 16-foot-tall house required 800 pounds of flour and over a thousand pounds of honey.

4. FALLINGWATER

This gingerbread replica of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater was an entry in Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay’s Gingerbread House Contest in 2007. Another 2007 version of the same house comes with pictures of the building process, while still another was spotted at a Utah competition in 2010.

5. ST. FRANCIS ENCHANTED CASTLE

The St. Francis Enchanted Castle is one of two castles on display now at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco. The other one is a castle made of sugar—both of which were crafted by Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Francois Houdré and his team.

6. AT-AT

Rachel Klemek at Black Market Bakery is responsible for this awesome gingerbread AT-AT, which is perfectly posed to look like it’s trudging through the snowy planet Hoth from 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. The creation was exhibited at the Discovery Science Museum for Christmas 2011.

7. MENGER SPONGE

Here’s a delicious project for a hands-on lesson in geometry! Instructables user fungus amungus built this fractal gingerbread structure in the shape of a Menger sponge. Best of all, the directions are detailed so you can attempt your own version.

8. EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

New York pastry chef Mark Tasker built this replica of the Empire State Building with gingerbread for the 2007 Christmas display at the New York Botanical Garden.

9. UP HOUSE

Dave King added Dum-Dums to his gingerbread house to recreate the balloon house from the 2009 Pixar movie Up! He posted pictures at Instructables, but there’s a cautionary tale to learn from King’s piece: Always build your gingerbread house in the location it will be displayed, because moving it can cause a disaster, especially when there are heavy candies attached.

10. ROBOTZILLA GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Instructables member boston09 entered a competition a few years ago with a gingerbread cottage featuring icing icicles and gumdrop shrubbery. One extra detail made this creation stand out: The house is about to be attacked by a giant graham cracker robot!

11. THE WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE

Pam Sheridan won a gingerbread house contest in 1990 with this replica of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. As of 2013, the durable confection was still on display.

12. EWOK VILLAGE

Star wars gingerbread preview pic.twitter.com/szcoHdJd

— Darcy Yums (@theinfiniteyums) November 29, 2011

On the forest moon of Endor, under a canopy of trees, lies a village made of chocolate, breakfast cereal, and gingerbread! Darcy Yums constructed an entire Ewok village to display at a Christmas charity fundraiser. You can see pictures of the building process and the finished product at The Infinite Yums.

13. GINGERPRISE II

USS Gingerprise https://t.co/IAN0dkLxl5 #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/xQu6Lw2sS9

— Trek news and Views (@Treknewsviews) December 15, 2016

Redditor ejustice brings us a highly detailed gingerbread USS Enterprise (dubbed the Gingerprise) that is posed to look like it is crashing through the clouds. The ship got a viral boost when DuckPop edited it into a scene from 1994’s Star Trek Generations. Tastiest. Space disaster. Ever.

14. GRAND AMERICA HOTEL

Pastry chef Xavier Baudinet constructed a 2-foot-tall house of gingerbread and Rice Krispies for the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. It contains 500 pounds of sugar, 800 pounds of royal icing, and 600 pounds of chocolate. Oh, and it’s completely decorated inside with furniture made of chocolate! Check out this video report on the house.

15. FLYNN’S ARCADE

Instructables member GeekFilter built a gingerbread version of the arcade from the 1982 movie Tron for their gingerbread contest in 2010. On the submission page, you’ll see more pictures, including how this science-fiction gingerbread building stacks up against the real building used for the film.

16. DINE-IN GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Great Wolf Lodge has a life-size gingerbread house built every year, at all 13 locations! Every inch is edible, and families can make reservations to eat inside. Unfortunately, you have to order off the real menu instead of just munching on the walls. Reservation fees go to charity, and the gingerbread dining rooms will only be up until January 1.

17. THE WHITE HOUSE

Part of the White House’s extravagant Christmas display is the annual gingerbread replica of the executive mansion. This year’s gingerbread White House was constructed by pastry chef Susie Morrison and her team. It contains 150 pounds of gingerbread and 20 pounds of icing. The State Dining Room also has a display of 56 other gingerbread houses, representing each state and U.S. territory.

Portions of this list were originally published in three posts from 2010 and 2012.

Christmas trees are everywhere this time of year—in the mall, in the town square, in your living room. However, some cities around the world get creative and jettison the idea of what a traditional holiday tree looks like. After seeing the following 15 trees, you’ll never look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree the same way again.

1. FLOATING TREE // RIO DE JANEIRO

In the summer of 2016, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas’s lagoon in Rio de Janeiro was the site of the Olympic rowing competitions, but in the winter it houses a 27-story Christmas tree weighing 542 tons. Every minute, the nearly 3 million lights (75 miles worth) change colors. The tree appears to float above the lagoon, because it’s attached to 11 floats. During the weekends, the lagoon sets off fireworks and creates a carnival atmosphere around the tree.

2. GODZILLA TREE // TOKYO

In 2011, Aqua City Odaiba mall in Tokyo created a Godzilla-shaped tree, replete with glowing red eyes and steam billowing out of its mouth. ‘Zilla donned a Santa hat and had white lights strewn all over its green body. If the tree actually came to life, the mall—and Tokyo—would be in deep trouble.

3. LEGO TREES // WINDSOR, ENGLAND; SYDNEY

Every holiday season, LEGOLAND in Windsor, Berkshire, England, builds its resort tree out of LEGOs as part of its Christmas Bricktacular celebration. The 26-foot tree is made from 300,000 LEGO bricks and takes four weeks to build. In 2015, an angel made from 4550 LEGO bricks topped the tree. Over in Sydney, in 2014, a LEGO tree was displayed in Pitt Street Mall. It was built from half a million LEGO bricks, weighed 3.5 tons, towered at 32 feet, and took 1200 hours to amass, becoming the largest LEGO Christmas tree in the Southern Hemisphere. But the largest LEGO Christmas tree ever award goes to London’s St Pancras Station, whose 2011 tree measured 40 feet in height.

4. POINTE SHOES TREE // LONDON

Each winter, the English National Ballet performs The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum. For the 2015 season, dancer Amber Hunt had a brainstorm. “It all started by people asking me how many pairs of shoes dancers would use in a year,” she said. Turns out, it took 40 hours to stack 588 pointe shoes into the shape of a tree. “We had to drill over 1000 holes into the shoes so we could tie and hold them together on wires, and then we plated all the ribbons around the tree,” Hunt said. “We also added a pointe shoe star at the top.” It took 40 hours to complete the project.

5. EMIRATES PALACE HOTEL // ABU DHABI

In 2010, the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi created what’s supposedly the world’s most expensive Christmas tree. The artificial tree cost only $10,000, but the jewels that decorated it bumped the tree’s value to $11 million. Necklaces and earrings adorned the tree: 181 diamonds, pearls, emeralds, and sapphires. This year, though, the hotel’s gone back to a more subdued (a.k.a. jewel-free) tree.

6. GOLD DISNEY TREE // TOKYO

Not quite as expensive as the Dubai tree, in 2012 jewelry store Ginza Tanaka in Tokyo offered for sale a “tree” containing 88 pounds of gold, that stood eight feet high and three feet in diameter. The store hired 10 craftsmen to create 50 gold cutouts of Disney characters that were engraved on the tree like ornaments. The whole tree, which was created to celebrate Walt Disney’s 110th birthday, was worth 350 million yen, or $4.2 million.

7. CHURCHILL ARMS TREES // LONDON

During the spring and summer, the Churchill Arms pub in Kensington, London—which pays respect to Winston Churchill—covers its rooftop, windows, and exterior pub with an overwhelming array of 90 flowers and plants, like an unwieldy garden. For the holidays, though, they exhibit a swath of pine trees—80 to be exact. Several years ago they started with 30 trees, but this year have a record 80 trees and 18,000 lights. The pub’s interior is also filled with a lot of Christmas decorations, and random objects hanging from the ceiling. In 2013, Arms manager Gerry O’Brien told Daily Mail, “There’s no room for any more [trees],” but he apparently found more space.

8. MOUNT INGINO TREE // GUBBIO, ITALY

Since 1981, instead of assembling one large tree, Gubbio, Umbria, Italy, has taken advantage of its trees on the slopes of Mount Ingino and outlined them with 300 green lights. The lighting display covers 130,000 square meters; the base is 450 meters wide and reaches 750 meters, or 2460 feet up the hillside. In recent years, Pope Benedict XVI has initiated the lighting ceremony remotely in Vatican City via an Android tablet.

9. UPSIDE-DOWN TREES // BOSTON

The next best thing to an upright tree is an upside-down one. Every holiday season, the Liberty Hotel in Boston installs six inverted trees in its 90-foot rotunda lobby. The artful trees hang from beams, and are decorated with glowing lights.

10. CIRQUE DU SOLEIL TREE // LONDON

In 2015, the St Pancras rail station/shopping center in London displayed a Christmas tree made from plush Disney toys, such as Mickey Mouse, Marie the cat from The Aristocats, and Dumbo. This year, the station presented a Cirque du Soleil tree as a means to raise money for Oxfam. The Amaluna Christmas Tree, which is named after Cirque’s show Amaluna (based on The Tempest), stands nearly 40 feet tall and includes a water bowl orb with moving underwater projections, showing bits of the show.

11. SHOPPING CART TREE // SANTA MONICA

One of the more unusual trees, Santa Monica’s shopping cart Christmas tree is just that—a tree-shaped structure built from 86 carts that reach 33 feet. Anthony Schmitt founded the tradition in 1995 so he could communicate ideas of abundance, commercialism, and homelessness. The “tree” can be found on Main Street, in front of Edgemar, a mixed-used retail center.

12. ABSTRACT TREE // BRUSSELS

In 2012, Brussels’s main square, La Grand Place, strayed from its customary pine Christmas tree and instead opted for something abstract—and controversial. The 78-foot tree was a light installation made out of steel-framed boxes. At night, the square treated people to a laser show. The cost of the tree was one-third less than a real tree, so it seemed like a win-win situation. But some people were outraged about the non-religious tree—named Xmas 3—with 25,000 people signing a petition to have it removed (it was taken down on December 28). “For people who want a traditional religious symbol, we have the nativity scene here in the square,” Brussels tourism councillor Philippe Close told the BBC. “For people who want modernity, we have this new tree.” Since then, La Grand Place has stuck with conventional trees.  

13. LOBSTER POT TREE // PROVINCETOWN

Provincetown, Massachusetts is home to a lot of lobsters, so it makes sense to use lobster pots to form a tree. Artist Julian Popko started the annual event 12 years ago when he borrowed lobster pots from local fisheries and displayed the tree in Lopes Square. Today, 112 lobster pots make up the two-story tree, which also contains 3400 LED lights, 120 red bows, and 46 plastic lobsters.

14. PUFF PASTRY TREE // JAKARTA

Being the “The World’s Tallest Choux Pastry Christmas Tree” seems like a strange accolade, but that’s how hotel The Park Lane Jakarta rolls. (MURI—the Indonesia World Records Museum—anointed the hotel the coveted title). Last year, Park Lane debuted the tree, made from 18,000 choux pastries (croquembouche). The tree stood 29 feet tall, and the hotel staff used more than 250 pounds of flour, 169 pounds of butter, 2112 eggs, and 12.6 pounds of sugar to make the pastries.

15. WINE GLASS TREE // SEATTLE

The boutique-y Kimpton Hotel Vintage Seattle specializes in wine, with vineyard-themed rooms, vinos from local wineries, and, of course, a Christmas tree in the lobby constructed from wine glasses. The tree will probably make guests thirsty, so luckily the hotel hosts a daily wine reception for its guests, to squelch their thirst until they can reach Washington State’s wine country, which is comprised of 700 wineries.

On December 24, 1929, all was not calm at the White House—though it certainly was bright.

President and First Lady Herbert and Lou Hoover were hosting a Christmas party for children of White House staffers when White House Chief Usher Ike Hoover (no relation) delivered a quiet message to the president: The West Wing was ablaze.

Hoover immediately grabbed his son and members of his Cabinet and led them to the executive office, where they crawled through a window and began hauling out steel cabinets full of important files. Hoover’s secretaries grabbed his desk drawers while Secret Service agents saved the desk chair and the presidential flag.

With the critical documents and important politicians out of the way, firefighters broke the skylight and chopped holes in the roof to let smoke out and water in. As they battled the blaze, the children’s party continued and the Marine Band played on. When the kids left around 10 p.m., the First Lady and her sister joined the president on the West Terrace of the White House to keep an eye on the progress. The flames were finally doused around 10:30 p.m.

According to Lt. Col. Ulysses S. Grant III—the former president’s grandson—the inferno started when 200,000 government pamphlets that were being stored in an attic fell victim to faulty wiring or a blocked chimney. (Obviously, fire investigation forensics have since improved.)

Though 19 engine companies, four truck companies, and 130 firefighters acted quickly and heroically, the West Wing still suffered extensive water, smoke, and fire damage. It was unavailable for more than four months, not opening again for business until April 14, 1930. And though the children at the party that night were blissfully unaware that anything had happened, Hoover made it up to them the next Christmas anyway—with toy fire trucks.

By the way, if you find this pyro-presidential history particularly charming, you’re in luck: The 2016 Christmas ornament being sold by the White House Historical Association commemorates the occasion.