The people/animals you keep seeing are part of the six-member household in which this Christmas Tree lives. These members are:

Plasma is very inventive and is constantly working on various electronic projects. He prides himself in being a geek, and this is just another idea that popped into his head one day, and he created it. There really isn't more to it than that; his mind is simply amazing. If you would like to see some of his other projects, check out www.plasma2002.com.

When we started the Schwippy Christmas tree back in 2007, it was just a simple tree with 3 basic colors; red, green, white. Since then, a lot of things have come and gone. Check out the history!

• 2011 - This year, there is a complete overhaul of the tree, the website, and the interaction. Instead of Party Mode, there is now a system to display REAL choreographed light shows. As is tradition, users who donate to the Tree will be able to do a few extra things, such as start light shows whenever they please.
• 2010 - A scrolling L.E.D. sign was hung from the ceiling with care, letting people post small messages that would be streamed to all of the internet viewers. The best messages were saved, then re-broadcast throughout the entire month.
• 2009 - PARTY MODE was added! Inspired by another of my projects, the Emergency Party Button, Party Mode let users automatically turn off the room lights, then turn on a disco ball, and finally, for the first time in the Tree's history, stream music to all the viewers. The music was a simple ~30 second clip of a random popular Christmas themed song.
• 2008 - A toy train was added that would continually circle around the tree. People loved playing chicken with our two cats and the train. Of course, our cats were too smart to ever get hit, but people still tried.
• 2007 - An idea was spawned to have a Christmas tree display that would be controlled by the internet. A few simple relays and a webcam later, the Schwippy Christmas Tree was born! Then instantly flooded with trolls.

Hey, who you callin' crummy?! Actually, realistically, we know that featuring a choreographed light show via live streaming webcam would cause some issues. First of all, it looks better when it's dark at our house - so come back and watch the show between 6:00PM and 6:00AM PST. Second, depending on issues such a your internet connection, you might notice a slight delay between the lights and the music. This is pretty much unavoidable - but we will be uploading an HD recording of each light show for your super-spiffy-high-quality viewing pleasure. Watch for the link for each light show's video to pop up while the show is streaming

Yes, we promise you, its all real. You really are controlling the lights, (along with the other users on the site at that time), and the webcam feed really is live. They are really turning on and off in our house when you turn them on and off. Occasionally you will see a dog or cat walk by, or even one of us. Occasionally you will see us do funny, random things because people still don't believe we are really live, such as holding up signs with their names or doing jumping jacks. And yes, the light shows really are choreographed manually... over many grueling hours.

There could be a couple of possible causes for this. The mostly likely reason is that there are just too many people trying to do the same thing. The lights can only turn on and off so fast, and can only take one command at a time. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Also, this website were programmed with, and therefore work best with, Firefox and Chrome browsers. If you are using another browser (such as Internet Explorer) and are having problems, try downloading Mozilla Firefox at http://www.GetFirefox.com. Chrome can be downloaded at http://www.google.com/chrome.

Simply type a message in the text box below the controls and hit "Post"! Please be appropriate, as our site is kid-friendly. Also, during high traffic times, you message might take longer to be displayed. Each user is allowed to post one message per day (this helps avoid spam and let's everyone have fun!). Messages are displayed in the order they are received. As long as it is appropriate, it will show up immediately, and be added into the regular rotation of messages. If you spam the sign or post inappropriate things, you messages will be removed and you will be banned from the controls.

Probably not, unless we're really bored. You'd have to bug either Plasma or Sarah in the chat room until one of us gives in.

Our home is in Southern California. We live in the Pacific Standard Timezone. (That's in the Unites States, if you havent figured that one out yet)

Prior to 2011, it used the x10 system. If you'd like more information than that, or want to know how to hook up your own system like it, you can visit Plasma's write-up at www.plasma2002.com/tree. However, this year, considering we wanted to add the light show (which is not feasible with x10), the entire system was given a complete makeover. Now, all the lights are controlled by I HAVE NO IDEA BRIAN PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL YOU DID.


....Sarah wanted me to change this to explain what I did, but I like the way she worded it. I think I shall leave it just the way it is :D

Prior to 2011, the tree was always REAL and ALIVE. We ventured to Home Depot the day after Thanksgiving and picked a perfect one out from the lot and brought it home. However, due to the added electronic components and lights and the very real fire hazard posed by that many lights on a live tree, Plasma made the decision to switch to a fake tree. While Mrs. Plasma was not entirely happy with this decision, it sure beats watching your house go up in flames via webcam. We're hoping to come up with a way in which we can switch back to a real tree in the future.

These features were created as a special thank you to our donators. With the help of donations, we are able to continually upgrade and enhance the Schwippy Christmas Tree experience. When users donate, we thank them by allowing them to start a light show whenever they feel like it, or post a bunch of messages. If you have donated, you should receive an email within 24 hours with information on how to log in. If you have not received your email, go into the chat room and bug us (Sarah or Brian, aka Plasma and Mrs. Plasma) telling us to activate your account... you deserve it!

All money that is donated is put right back into the tree. It goes towards things like the cost of the tree itself, additional controllable items, etc. For example, this year, we purchased ALL new lights, the new controllable board for the light show, and about 50 extension cords to hook it all together. Go look at the question near the top, "What's new this year?", to see a history of what has been changed or added to the tree every year.

Just start typing in the chat box below the Christmas Tree! If you'd like to change your username, simply type /nick username where 'username' is whatever you'd like it to be. In the chat room, you must have a unique username that has not been registered with ustream. If the login box appears, someone else has already registered with that name. Try adding some random numbers to the end of your name. If you'd like, you can register with ustream and keep your name for eternity.

Sure! If you have an IRC client, you can use it to access the Schwippy Tree chat room.
The server is: chat1.ustream.tv
The room is: #the-schwippy-tree

They are the administrators and moderators who help us keep watch over the tree. If we choose to add any other close friends as mods, we'll add their name above.

When many people are in the chat room, it can get a little chaotic. We may choose to turn on slow mode, which means that you can only send one message per minute. This will keep our chatroom from becoming overly flooded in high traffic times. We hope to not have to use this mode too often.

No, you can't, don't bother asking. If anyone else (besides those listed above) is carrying the name "Schwippy" in the chat room, they are either frauds, or friends or family that think they are funny. Sarah, Brian, Matt, Dan, Maeg, and Anth are the only people that will ever carry mod privileges. If we choose to add any other close friends as mods, we'll add their name above.

As of now, yes. We probably will not be broadcasting much longer after Christmas has passed. After the site is taken down, you can keep posted about Schwippy Tree news on the Official Schwippy Christmas Tree Facebook page. If you 'like' the page, you will get updates around Christmas time next year telling you when the tree will get turned on.

First of all, no. Second of all, no. Third of all, stop trying to burn our house down.

Unfortunately, these features will not be back this year. They have been retired in order to make room for new features! We hope you won't miss trying to derail the train, run over the cats, etc too much.

If you haven't been here since Christmas 2007, you may notice a complete change of scenery. We moved out of our little 2 bedroom apartment and bought a huge 4 bedroom/3 bath house in May of 2008. The tree is located in our entry/living room. The room is pretty empty, so we figured it'd be a nice place to set up the tree. In order to utilize the wall space for the Light Show in 2011, the tree has been moved into the center of the wall, instead of the corner.

Very few people know how it all started, and we'd like to keep it that way. The meaning and the origin are not as important as what it's become, and who's been affected by it.

Okay, now you can go ahead and ask around in the chat room!