Christmas is celebrated in many different ways in different locations. In the United States you find gigantic Christmas Trees and trees resplendent with thousands of lights. However, in Southeast Asia, an electronics store in Vietnam is celebrating the holidays in an unusual way this year. They have taken cellular phones that are no longer viable and have created a fifteen foot Christmas tree.

The store manager at Westcom Electronics located in the city of My Tho proudly said that it took ten workers around fourteen days to create the Christmas tree. The tree contains over 2500 cellular phones and the hope is that awareness for environmental responsibility will be raised. This spirit of doing well for the environment is an extension of the Christmas spirit to do good to your fellow man. In this case, fellow man becomes the planet.

The dazzling tree that glitters with thousands of lit cell phones has been up and available for view by the public for about two weeks. It has become a showcase with around a thousand visitors per day – many having photographs made while they are there.

Cell phones are ever present in Vietnam; as a matter of fact, greater than 50% of the population under thirty years of age displays electronics to mark their increasing wealth.

Westcom Electronics intends to sell at auction the cell phone tree and make a donation to charity. The store manager has added that it has become such a success that employees have begun collecting unusable phones now to try and create an even bigger tree next year. The spirit of Christmas and giving is being displayed even in the opulence of mobile electronics and wealth.

There are untold numbers of cell phones in circulation in Vietnam. Millions even but it is not possible to grasp how many are being thrown away every year. No data is being collected on such things and the impact on the environment has the potential to be enormous. This new found use for old phones indicates that giving live to discarded electronics can and will positively impact the lives of the citizens on this planet.

Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

The store welcomes the idea of raising awareness and putting to use discarded electronics. The good that comes to the environment is equaled by the joy that people that view the tree are getting as well. The spirit of Christmas in our world is being joined by the cyber world as people are coming together to impact our planet.