🎄🌟 This is no ordinary Christmas tree ...

🚗 If you’re commuting by car this morning: Be careful! It’s looking a little sloppy out there.

🍦 On a sweeter note, Van Leeuwen’s new Harvard Square location is offering $1 scoops to customers between 12 and 2 p.m. today only! Pro tip: Get the honeycomb flavor.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first …

On the first day of B-Side, the newsletter gave to me … a Boston holiday tree. 

If you’re new here, we make the last 12 editions of the newsletter before our winter break as holly, jolly, and festive as possible, aptly dubbed, “The 12 Days of B-Side.”

First up: Boston’s official holiday tree is being lit tonight on the Common. But it’s no ordinary tree … 

🌲 The tree is an annual “thank you” gift from Nova Scotia. In the winter of 1917, two military boats collided in Nova Scotia’s Halifax Harbour, causing an explosion that killed nearly 2,000 people, injured thousands, and damaged part of the city. Rescue efforts from nearby cities were stalled when a blizzard hit after the explosion, but that didn’t stop Boston from stepping in to help, sending medical teams and supplies by train. So, in thanks, Nova Scotia sent Boston a tree for Christmas the next year, and then another in 1971. Since then, they haven’t stopped.

📸 Choosing a Boston Common-worthy tree is a little like a reality TV show. According to WBUR, every year, citizens in Nova Scotia nominate trees for consideration, and then a committee selects the winner. Generally, a winning tree will be a 40- to 50-foot-tall red or white spruce, or balsam fir, or have good color and symmetry. Then, the tree gets the star treatment: It’s cut down on TV, gets a primo spot in Nova Scotia’s Christmas parade, and even becomes a micro influencer before hitting the road for a days-long truck ride to Boston. 

💡 Then, the setup begins … Once the perfect tree arrives, crews hoist it into the air, secure it into the ground, trim its branches, and after it gets a day to settle in, add lights. Every day until the official ceremony, the crew retests the lights and checks on the tree to make sure everything is perfect for the big day (squirrels biting through the wires are of particular concern, apparently).

🎄 This year’s tree is an absolute stunner. She’s a 45-foot white spruce (with gorgeous color and symmetry, of course) from the Mattie Settlement in Antigonish County of Nova Scotia. The tree was donated by couple Hugh and Liz Ryan, who watched it grow from a sapling for the last 30 years(!). Its journey began on Nov. 20, and it arrived on the Common on Nov. 26.

🙋 Want to get in on the action? The ceremony is going down tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. with music and refreshments, and the tree will be lit shortly before 8 p.m. You can also watch a livestream here.

A.k.a. our new year-end awards show that aims to recognize the best, worst, silliest, floppiest, and wildest things we covered in the newsletter in 2024.

We’ll be asking you to vote for the best of the best in each category through Dec. 19 (and reveal the winners Dec. 20). So without further ado, our next category is …

“The buzziest idea that got our attention.”

🚌 It’s the end of the bus as we know it. OK, we’re being a tad dramatic, but on Dec. 15, the MBTA is rolling out Phase 1 of its giant Bus Network Redesign Plan. Here’s the deal: Six routes (86, 104, 109, 110, 116, and 117) are changing in the name of efficiency, and four routes (104, 109, 110, and 116) will become “frequent bus routes,” getting service at least every 15 minutes during service hours. For deets on the changes, Boston.com’s got ‘em, or, take a gander at this only slightly confusing map from the MBTA.

🚦 First street? That’s “nekône taꝏmâôk” to you. Last week, Cambridge unveiled eight new street signs with Massachusett Tribe language translations on them. The signs were originally a 2021 participatory budget item, and now officially stand between First and Eighth Street in East Cambridge, meant to “acknowledge the continuous presence of Native Peoples” in the city. As for the translations, they appear on a purple stripe on top of the sign — representing the quahog clam shell, from which Native people make wampum beads. Check them out here.

🏘️ Harvard pulled an Uno reverse on winter housing. Remember when we told you that Harvard was denying winter housing to a bunch of international students who couldn’t afford to travel home? Welp, one petition and a whole lot of outrage later, they’ve changed course. Earlier this week, the affected students got emails saying the school decided to “reconsider,” and accept, their apps, and apologized for the confusion. But, they declined to explain what went into their decision-making process, aside from noting that students on aid receive a travel allowance.

🎭 Black artistry has a new home in Boston. This week, Mayor Michelle Wu announced that the city has awarded Boston-based Black arts institution Castle of our Skins (COOS) a new, huge performance venue and workspace in the former Harriet Tubman House in the South End/Lower Roxbury. It’ll be called Gold Hall, and COOS hopes it’ll be “a place for education, creative play, and community-building.” For now, the space will undergo a major renovation, and should be ready by 2027.

Two lucky winners are about to be enchanted by Greater Boston’s ultimate winter wonderland — for FREE — because our friends at Mount Auburn Cemetery are giving away tickets to SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on 12/5. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

In such a divided world, it takes something truly extraordinary to bring people together in service of change. And recently, a piece of art at Northeastern did just that … by being extraordinarily ugly. 

Since its installation last April, a bunch of 15-foot, Dr. Seuss-esque flower statues, called “Rooted,” had garnered an almost 2,000-signature petition calling for its removal. So, in October, Northeastern’s Student Government took up the issue. 

Long story short, it’s the silliest resolution of all time — and it passed by a landslide. 

The main arguments are basically, “they’re so ugly, and they’re ruining our grad photos.” But since we’re talking about a government document, what the document actually says is: “The art installation is idiosyncratic and incongruous with the iconic character of Northeastern’s historic modernist white brick architecture.” No notes.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🌸 Thanks for reading! FWIW, we think they’re kind of fun. But then again, we’re not elected officials. 

🚇 The results are in: 70% of B-Siders said that although T shutdowns stink, they're happy things will be better. One reader said: “still recovering from the red line shut down back in September.”

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