After 2021’s Star Trek geek tree, and 2022’s Star Wars geek tree, it’s time to feature every other geeky ornament in my collection with The Multiverse Geek Christmas Tree.
Leading this year’s ragtag fleet of geeky ornaments is the Battlestar Galactica by Hallmark. She’s every bit as beautiful as her full-size namesake, especially with her engines and hanger bays lit up. My only regret is that she doesn’t play the Battlestar Galactica theme song (either the new theme or the old one).
As for the other ornaments on the tree, we’ve got a few themes:
- Aliens vs. Predator: The original xenomorph and the Alien Queen face off against the power-loader armored Ellen Ripley and a ready-to-fight Predator.
- Harry Potter: I accumulated a number of Harry Potter-themed ornaments over the years. There are a few Hallmark ones (Harry chasing the Golden Snitch, Harry preparing for Hedwig to land on his outreached arm) as well as some generic ones picked up at Walmart (including Hagrid, Hermione, and Ron). In an after-Christmas sale I picked up two of the Storyteller ornaments as well (Hermione, Dumbledore), which adds some light and sound to the tree, but unlike the Star Trek and Star Wars versions of the geek trees, I don’t have enough for them to be a particularly impressive chorus.
- Superheroes: There are a mix of comic book-inspired ornaments including Batman, Captain Marvel, Groot and Rocket, Iron Man, and Star-Lord (who?).
- Space Age: I inherited a number of the old-school space ornaments from my parents including a moon rover, a space-suited astronaut, a Redstone rocket in-flight, and a Mercury space capsule. The Redstone rocket is the most impressive when powered, providing the Geek Tree with a countdown followed by a rocket launch.
- Random Geekdom: An old-school floppy disk ornament from high school (or maybe college), Opus from Bloom County, HAL 9000, Scully and Muller from the X-Files, and many more.
All things considered, the Geek Tree is pretty subdued this year. It lacks the boot sequence cacophony of the Star Trek and Star Wars trees (one of the Geek Tree’s signature, ahem, “features”) but this does mean I can turn on the tree without waking up the house.
New Additions for Geek Christmas Tree 2024
Of course, it wouldn’t be the Geek Tree if there weren’t a few additions to the tree:
Battlestar Galactica: The mighty Battlestar finally makes it to the Geek Tree! With battery-powered lights (but sadly, no sound – I’d LOVE to have had this play the 1979 theme song). It’s a big, beautiful ship that has a place of prominence on the Geek Tree this year.
The Mandalorian’s N-1 StarFighter: The Mandalorian’s custom starfighter takes flight this year. It’s a sleek-looking, delicate ornament without lights or sound, so it’s one of the more subtle ornaments on the tree.
The Hand of Apollo: Easily one of the nerdiest ornaments on the tree, the Hand of Apollo features the starship Enterprise in the grasp of … a giant blue hand. The best part? You can insert a Christmas tree light into the hand, which makes it glow in a very 1960s sci-fi sort of way.
Morpheus: I already had Neo, so it made sense to add his mentor, giving his classic blue pill / red pill speech. Sadly, he’s unpowered, so you can’t actually hear him give the speech.
Themberchaud: Everyone’s favorite pudgy dragon (as featured in the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie) tumbled his way onto the tree. He’s the first D&D ornament ever to appear on the Geek Tree (which is kind of amazing when you think about how long I’ve been 1) putting up geek trees and 2) playing Dungeons & Dragons). The dragon lights up when you press a button on his base.
Ahsoka Tano: My family (particularly my daughter and I) love Ahsoka, so I picked up two copies of her: one for my geek tree and a second for my daughter’s college tree.