Custom Newtonmas ornament

Reader synapselapse had this made for his family's tree. He says:

This came from an episode of Big Bang theory. They observed that Dec 25th isn’t actually Jesus’ birthday, he was most likely born some time in Sept, but it is Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday. So it makes more sense to put him on the tree!

My wife thought this was awesome since we’re trying to establish Christmas traditions that are dictated by our lives, not our parents lives.

I approached a friend of mine who’s a very talented artist about the project. He liked the idea and agreed to take it on. The tough part was getting it to look nice without being unnecessarily flippant. It’s a wire armature covered in Sculpy, then painted white with a finishing layer of varnish.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: Holiday • newton • ornaments • Science

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We had one of these but it fell on the cat.

He’s been off in the corner scribbling furiously ever since.
- daniel cutler
  
  omg lol made my day
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IGYWS4DOAXDBO7L2TAFZPXNMFA Guy

Ah, at Uni my alls Christmass tree had a rocket on top, fitting for imperial.
http://twitter.com/BJNicholls2 BJ Nicholls

OMG, December 25 is Karl Rove’s birthday! Does that mean someone has a bust of Rove collapsing a Christmas tree and perhaps the first floor of their house? Where’s the hand sanitizer for my keyboard?
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  I thought that was Tuesday the 7th week before Easter…
  
  (rove tuesday)
mesocosm

Jesus was most likely born in September? I’d like to see the evidence for that statement, given that the historical reliability of the gospels approaches zero.
- zombienietzsche
  
  I lol’d.
Kommkast

Hehehe….. Newtonmas… Newton mass… I get it. :3
- retchdog
  
  why are you forcing your beliefs on us?
  - Kommkast
    
    Because no-one expects the Newtonian Inquisition!
Petzl

Poor Newton. He’s a heavily-used shill in the creationist “controversy”. Because Newton was a believer and invoked Him constantly, they invoke him (Newton) constantly in Evolution debates (never mind that Darwin came 200 years after Newton and the guy probably would’ve taken evolution and ran with it if he’d been born more recently).
- Wreckrob8
  
  Religion is full of inconsistencies and the inconsistencies can be filled with more God or science. Science is full of inconsistencies and the inconsistencies can be filled with more science or God. Fundamentalists exist at both extremes. Somehow I feel the real problem is belief and the pre-historical? schism between religious and artistic expression.
miasm

You know, my local Church has this multi-denominational thing down pat.
http://blog.insightvr.com John Harrison

I would love to see support for a September birth date as I have never seen that suggested before.
heckblazer

There’s a decent chance that Newton wasn’t born on the 25th either. Christmas celebrations were banned in England at the time, and a birthday celebration was a way to covertly observe the holiday.
TimRowledge

You can always celebrate Nigelmass – it’s my younger brother’s birthday.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

They observed that Dec 25th isn’t actually Jesus’ birthday, he was most likely born some time in Sept

What’s with this whole “Jesus existed” assertion? Did somebody unearth convincing extrabiblical evidence while I was out shopping today or something?
- LikesTurtles
  
  Of course Jesus exists… he usually is the one running the register when I go to the bodega for cane sugar Coca-Cola.
- Cefeida
  
  Well, something important enough existed to create this huge religion and all the source material it’s based on. Might not have been one actual real individual called Jesus, but then again, might. Still under research, innit. And even if the conclusion ends up being that he didn’t exist, he can still have a birthday. Just like Robin Hood and King Arthur.
- WhyBother
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus
  - http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
    
    Oh man, I just got Sent to Wikipedia
Bodhipaksa

I thought Newton’s birthday was only December 25th in the Julian calendar. Since we now use a different calendar shouldn’t we celebrate his birthday on Jan 4th (which happens to be my birthday, or “Bodhimas”?
CLamb

The word “Christmas” does not refer to Jesus’ birthday but to the ritual celebration commemorating Jesus birth. Therefore Newtonmas would refer not to the day but to a special mass to celebrate him.
- MythicalMe
  
  Actually, it doesn’t have to be a special mass, any matter will do.
brerrabbit23

WAR ON PHYSICS!

(or calculus, as you prefer)
chipsandchips

Are you sure that’s not Neil Gaiman?
ackpht

You could always go with Bogie.
niktemadur

A good enlightenment holiday like Newtonmas deserves a good secular calendar, the Tranquility Calendar ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tranquility_Calendar ).

Fun fact, Newtonmas falls on the 17th on the month of Faraday.
Curiously, no Tranquility month is named Newton, so let’s give him this day!

The months in order and starting on July 21th, are Archimedes, Brahe, Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein, Faraday, Galileo, Hippocrates, (Aldrin Day on Leap Years), Imhotep, Jung, Kepler, Lavoisier and Mendel. Finally, the New Year’s blowout would fall on Armstrong Day, July 20th.
http://newnumber6.livejournal.com Peter

I prefer to celebrate December 24th. The day that man first orbited the moon, proving that our bonds to this Earth can be overcome, and inspiring us to gorge ourselves to increase our mass and gravitational attraction to the Earth, and also to hold close to our family lest some explosive application of physics take them from us.

It also tends to be the day that my family tends to do most of our Christmas stuff, so it works out well, they celebrate their holiday, I’ll celebrate mine, and we can do it together.
Joe Saul

I would buy one of these if they were available. Just saying.
snagglepuss

HEY! Where’s the Carlos Castaneda ornament ?! And Shane MacGowan? They were born on December 25th, too.

Hmmph. I always knew that Christmas was loaded with prejudice and exclusionism.
chortick

Posting an anti-Christmas message is sure to generate an equal and opposite reaction…
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  I don’t think this is particularly anti-Christmas. A reader is describing how his family celebrates the holidays and why, and showing off an ornament that goes with that. Submitterate your awesome, creative, custom-made nativity scene and I’d post that.
  
  I’m celebrating Christmas today. But that’s not true of everybody who reads BoingBoing and to pretend otherwise would be to dishonor their traditions.
  
  This is not anti-Christmas. This is pro-pluralism.
Jim Moskowitz

It wouldn’t really be appropriate to put Jesus on a tree at Christmastime — Spoilers.
ferd

If you lay under the tree and this falls on to your head, will you know the next Apple product?
- Kommkast
  
  No but you may just discover a GUT that works.
Roy Trumbull

Shouldn’t be too hard to make ornaments consisting of integral symbols or dy/dx.