12 meter high Oslo tree felled in Heiðmörk

After receiving appropriate safety equipment from the Forestry Department for the work, the mayor was assisted by Sævar Hreiðarsson, a forester from the Reykjavík Forestry Association, in sawing the tree and felling it. Upon measurement, it turned out to be a 12.30 meter-high Sitka spruce tree which is about 51 years old and believed to have been planted around 1972.

For decades, the city of Oslo has given the people of Reykjavík a Christmas tree as a symbol of the cities' friendship and shared traditions and Christmas cheer. The Norwegian ambassador, Cecilie Willoch, was present at the ceremony in Heiðmörk and thanked for the friendship between the two cities and this beautiful tree. Although the Oslo tree comes from Heiðmörk, it has not changed anything about the friendship, because instead of a Christmas tree, the city authorities in Oslo give primary schools in Reykjavík books. 

Hanna í Horni, the ambassador of the Faroe Islands in Iceland, was also present at the ceremony when a Christmas tree was lit, which was a gift from the city of Reykjavík in Þórshöfn in the Faroe Islands last weekend. The tree in Þórshöfn was cut down earlier in the month and Eimskip transported the tree to the Faroe Islands.

The Oslo tree will be installed in Austurvellir and a lot of decoration will be put onto it this time to make visitors and pedestrians happy. The Christmas lights on the tree will then be lit during a ceremony on the first Sunday of Advent on December 3 at 4:00 p.m.