You know it’s really Christmas when the Christmas trees get put up in the Nobel Park. Carsten Koudal Bach is a skilled tradesman who works at the Faculty of Arts administrative centre. And every year, he and his co-workers put up the Christmas trees. And make sure they stay up, not least.

2020.12.17 | Anders Hylander

Carsten Koudal Bach and his colleagues make sure the Christmas trees are put up in the Nobel Park. Photo: Carsten Koudahl Bach and Pure.

There are two Christmas trees at Nobel Park: One outdoors and one indoors. This is the fourth year in a row Arts has put up Christmas trees here to celebrate the holiday, and Carsten Koudal Bach has orchestrated the process each time. He’s a skilled tradesman who works at Building Operations and Maintenance at the faculty.

“The Christmas trees come from a farm in Djursland, and we get them delivered in early November from an external partner. It’s a little early, but it means the students and employees can enjoy the trees for a long time in the period up to Christmas,” he said.

If you’ve been to Nobel, you’ll know that the outdoor Christmas tree is pretty tall. So Carsten and his co-workers had a Christmas tree stand specially made out of iron pipes the first year they put up one of these big trees at Nobel. But it wasn’t sturdy enough, they soon discovered.

“It didn’t work, darn it!” Carsten said, laughing. “The tree fell over all the time. So we had cement poured around an iron pipe in a concrete collar, and that’s what we use as a tree stand. It weighs about half a tonne, so we haven’t had any trees falling over since then!”

Every year, he takes pleasure in how much employees and students enjoy the Christmas trees

“Especially while we’re putting the trees up, staff and students will come over and tell us how hyggeligt they think it is. It’s really positive,” he said.

Christmas holiday in shifts

Carsten and his co-workers, who are responsible for Nobel, Kasernen and Trøjborg, have lots of other jobs to do in December.

For example, they’re on duty in shifts over the Christmas holiday. On these shifts, they monitor the buildings so they can react quickly if there are problems, such as a burst water pipe, for example. And if the weather gets frosty, it may be necessary to regulate heating systems. They also use this time to do general maintenance on the buildings.

When asked what he’s most looking forward to in 2021, he replied without hesitation:

“That we get back to normal again. It’ll be nice to be able to move around in a normal way and interact with your co-workers properly. It’s all kind of awkward now,” he said.

About the series:

In this series of articles, University Director Arnold Boon highlights important operational tasks being carried out in various corners of the administration. The aim of the series is to give administrative employees insight into what kinds of task administrative employees perform, and to highlight some of the tasks that are performed behind the scenes.