Cuxhaven Christmas tree collected from Hafnarfjörður Arboretum

The Mayor of Hafnarfjörður, accompanied by a distinguished entourage, arrived at the Hafnarfjörður Forest in the early morning to fell and collect the Christmas tree that will mark the centre of the Christmas Village during the festive season. It has been a tradition for the Christmas tree in Thorsplan to come from Hafnarfjörður's twin towns. For a long time, it came from Frederiksberg in Denmark, but in recent years from Cuxhaven, Hafnarfjörður's twin town in Germany. This year, there will be a change: the Christmas tree is coming directly from the Hafnarfjörður Forestry Service and has already been put in place on Thorsplan. 

^{Here you can see the group by the Christmas tree before it was felled. In the picture are: Steinar Björgvinsson, Director of the Hafnarfjörður Forestry Association and Cultivation Manager for Þöll; Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, Mayor of Hafnarfjörður; and Ingibjörg Sigurðardóttir, Gardening Manager for the Municipality of Hafnarfjörður.} 

Twin town for over thirty years 

Friends of Hafnarfjörður in Cuxhaven have been so enterprising as to plant a tree in the Hafnarfjörður Forest in a so-called Cuxhaven-lundi during their visits to Iceland, a practice that began in 1998, while the formal twinning agreement between the two towns was established over thirty years ago.  For all these thirty years, Cuxhaven has sent the residents of Hafnarfjörður a Christmas tree, and has followed up the delivery with a visit on the first weekend of Advent.  Unfortunately, that visit will not be possible this year, but a delegation will watch the Christmas tree lighting in a live stream from Thorvaldsen Square to Germany next Friday. 

^{The Christmas tree has been placed on Thorsplan where it awaits decoration.}  

Lights switched on at the weekend

The lights on the Cuxhaven Christmas tree will be switched on in the Christmas Village in
In Hafnarfjörður on Friday, 27 November, by Rósa Guðbjartsdóttir, Mayor of Hafnarfjörður, Dietrich
Ambassador Becker of Germany to Iceland and Gísli Valdimarsson, Chairman
of the sister city association Hafnarfjörður-Cuxhaven, in the presence of a handful of nursery school children
due to the situation in society. The installation of the Christmas Village in Hafnarfjörður has begun and it will be open from 13:00 to 18:00 every Saturday.
and Sundays in Advent.