Every winter, the people of Nova Scotia send the province’s best Christmas tree to Boston Common. What did the people of Boston do to inspire Nova Scotians to spend some $180,000 each year to give them a 50-foot spruce tree? The answer lies in a forgotten disaster. [The Great Halifax Explosion]. …When [Massachusetts] Governor McCall’s second telegram to Halifax received no response, he sent a third: “Realizing time is of the utmost importance we have not waited for your answer but have dispatched the relief train.” …On November 30 this year, the people of Boston will light the Christmas tree, a testament to a time when the worst the world could inflict brought out the best in two countries. The hard-earned friendship those days forged has stood as an example to the world for a century.