Interact with the real world via the block world, with the Minecraft Christmas tree from the team at BroCraft Gaming.
Illuminating
Last month, David Stevens of BroCraft Gaming reached out to us about hacking a real Christmas tree with Minecraft. How intriguing, right? Definitely. And after a few more emails, David has informed us the tree hack is now live and ready for the world to interact with.
Here’s a blurb from the BroCraft team:
If you haven’t already, join our Minecraft server at brocraftlive.net, complete the tutorial, and type /mcct to enter our snowy wonderland. Collect power from the power blocks scattered around, then select a pattern from the Technician, and watch as the tree lights up LIVE on the camera stream! Take a look at our attractions, play our minigames, and see what else we have to offer on our server.
The tree uses individually addressable LEDs and the Neopixel Python library from Adafruit. A Raspberry Pi feeds all Minecraft server instructions to the lights with the help of a Java plugin.
You can view the live Christmas tree camera stream here, along with a brief FAQ on interacting with the tree within the BroCraft Minecraft server. You’ll need access to Minecraft to interact with the tree.
Minecraft Pi
Minecraft Pi comes free with Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi! Sadly, you can’t access the Christmas tree with this version of Minecraft, but you can do lots of other funs things with our little computer and lots of blocks.
Building the Tree
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1Make the trunk of the tree out of 2 fences on top of each other. -
2Add the leaves. Make the leaves by putting 1 leaf block on top of the fences; stack them up more until they are the height you want them to be. Make a horizontal line from the bottom leaf that is the same length as the amount of blocks you put on top. -
3Fill out the shape. Form the shape of the tree by putting another horizontal line 1 block less than the other one. Build it up; continue doing this until you get to the top block.
Decorating (Optional)
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1Add a Christmas star. Add the star on top by putting 1 fence on the top of the tree and put a stack of 4 glowstone on top of the fence. Put 1 glowstone block right next to the top one and connect another one right next to it. Then connect one underneath the one you put next to the top one; break the one you put next to the top one and then put one next to the bottom one. Repeat this process upside down, and after that do the same on the other side; it should now look as shown in the picture. -
2Add presents under the tree. When it is close to Christmas. Minecraft changes to festive and makes the chests look like presents. Put chests under the tree and put stuff you really like inside those chests. Then wait until Christmas to open the chests/presents and then take the stuff you like.
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3Decorate the tree with snow. To make it look like Christmas, take snow decoration block and add it onto the leaves.
