WELL PROTECTED

Guarded by barriers and the Gordon Highlanders and
the rain should help stop the needles falling off.

Stavanger has gifted a tree to Aberdeen from one of its parks -
an annual tradition - but recently has had to find its own tree
from a different part of the country.
Aberdeen first received a Christmas tree from Stavanger in the 1970,
but the annual tradition didn't begin until 2005.
The Stavanger country park is filled with Norwegian Spruce
and they stretch right across the country. But this year only one of the trees
in the park is suitable for Christmas. Experts say it will be 20 years before
another will be ready for gifting to Aberdeen.
You see a tree and go 'woah' but when you go around to the other side it's terrible.
This was the nicest tree we found this year” said Per Marcusson park manager.

Historian Harald Hamre says the links between the two cities go way back.
"We know from the earliest times there has been close contact, most important during 16th and 17th centuries when dozens of Scottish skippers came with their ships to this region to buy timber and planks and that time was even called the Scottish Time."