It’s a tradition for millions of families across the world every holiday season: when the final strand of tinsel is in place, all of the ornaments have been hung with care, and the Christmas tree is lit up for the first time. But lets be honest, you look forward to that moment for 12 months, and then it just kinda comes and goes. It’s very easy to flip a switch, or to plug into a socket, so how can you savor something that happens that quickly? You can’t, but the answer to that problem is easy.
Well no, actually the answer is super complicated, because the way you do it is by building a world record Rube Goldberg machine to do it for you.
We first came across this official Guinness World Record breaking contraption at Sploid, and it was built by the Latvian e-commerce company Scandiweb for the public Christmas lighting ceremony in Riga. It uses a whopping 412 individual parts and was built over two months (and you think your local radio station drags out the Christmas season), all in the name of turning on the lights.
There’s way too much going on here to break down all of it (though all Rube Goldberg machines should utilize rubber duckies), but we’re fairly confident in saying this is the coolest, most unique holiday lighting ceremony we’ve ever seen.
Although to be completely honest, in the name of another yearly holiday tradition, it would have been amazing if just moments after going on the lights flickered and went out.
Images: Guinness World Records