Computer Science profs save Christmas
FCS profs Drs. Hanieh Shakeri and Joseph Malloch helped Woody the Talking Christmas Tree make his winter wake‑up call.
By Ryan McNutt - December 12, 2025
Computer scientists aren’t usually asked to save Christmas.
A red-nosed reindeer who saves Christmas? Makes complete sense. An oversized elf? Perfect for the role. The occasional Grinch? Sure (even if he may have caused his Christmas calamity in the first place).
But… computer scientists? They have their own kind of magic, to be sure, but not the kind you expect to see called into action for a helping of holiday heroism.
But there it was, in mid-October: an email from Andrew Rau-Chaplin, dean of Dalhousie’s Faculty of Computer Science, sent out to faculty members with the subject line, “C++ programming needed urgently to help save Christmas.”
The crisis in question did not involve Santa Claus, or his domain over the far reaches of the North Pole. No, in peril was a decidedly more local symbol of the season, a towering figure of tinsel'd tidings that has delighted (and, at times, bewildered) mallgoers on the other side of Halifax Harbour for decades.
Woody the Talking Christmas Tree needed Dalhousie’s help.
Would Woody wake-up?
Mic Mac Mall owner Joe Ramia had reached out to the university looking for assistance in making sure Woody would make their scheduled seasonal wake-up on November 15 — at this point, less than a month away. Some of the mechanical magic that brings Woody to life each year, allowing the tree to converse with children young and old, was malfunctioning. Without a bit of programming prowess, Woody’s slumber risked extending deep into the Christmas shopping season.
Answering the call were full-time faculty members and part-time elves Drs. Hanieh Shakeri and Joe Malloch. And they couldn’t have been better suited for the task.
“I think in most computer science faculties, you might not find people with our particular expertise,” explains Dr. Malloch. “We’re used to using computing — specifically embedded computing — for making interactive art. So it’s kind of the ideal combination of interests and experiences for something like this.”
“We both work in human-computer interaction,” adds Dr. Shakeri. “Our research space looks at how humans interact with different kinds of computer systems. There’s a lot about Woody’s wake-up routine that we would typically encounter on a day-to-day basis in our own research, but it was a fun, different way of using it.”
A “very unique” tree
If you’re at all confused as to why Woody’s annual winter arrival is such a big deal, you’re not alone. When the tree returned to Mic Mac Mall in 2021, after more than a decade in the wilderness, the news generated international headlines and even late-night talk show jokes — much of it bewildered as to how and why a three-storey talking tree had become a thing in the first place.
But if you grew up in the Halifax-Dartmouth area in the 1980s or 1990s, or if you have kids today who make Mic Mac Mall a destination visit in November and December, Woody’s strangeness is all part of the appeal.
There’s no other tree quite like it, transported each year from the deep woods to the centre of the mall for five weeks just so it can talk to children about all the big feelings of the holiday season. Woody has even become something of a Dartmouth icon through the years, with local artisans frequently paying tribute and with a wide range of merchandise available for purchase at the mall.
Dr. Malloch is originally from Dartmouth and was quite familiar with Woody from his own childhood, but the talking tree was a decidedly new thing for Dr. Shakeri.
“I only moved to Halifax back in January,” she explains. “I had heard of Woody but had never seen them before. I thought it was amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it — just very unique.”
Wide awake and ready for Christmas
Drs. Malloch and Shakeri made multiple visits to the mall over two weeks, getting Woody ready for the big wake-up day. Once the tree was moved to the centre of the mall, this meant working off-hours as to not disturb mallgoers. On Dr. Malloch’s last night on the project, with two days to go, he was there until after midnight — with Woody’s snores echoing through the entire mall as he worked.
The two are careful in speaking about exactly what was involved in helping Woody meet their wake-up call. (We did say computer scientists have some magic in them, didn’t we?). But suffice to say, on Saturday, November 15, Woody’s wake-up went off without a hitch. In fact, in some ways the tree is talking better than ever — visitors may notice Woody’s eyes are moving a bit more smoothly than they used to, and the overall expressiveness continues to improve as well. (It’s as if Woody has a new dose of eyedrops!)
Mall owner Raima was grateful for the care Woody received from the Dal faculty and has even started to talk with them about ways they might be able to continue to support Woody next holiday season.
“We were incredibly impressed by the support Dalhousie was able to provide in helping us get Woody ready for Christmas,” says mall owner Joe Ramia of Rank Inc. “After we had exhausted our options to solve the problem, we reached out to Dal and couldn’t have been more pleased by how quickly they were able to react. Our thanks to the team from Computer Science for their help in bringing the spirit of the season to life this year.”
Those sentiments are echoed by Ben Goldberg, managing director of DalPartners, who helped connect Ramia to the Faculty of Computer Science.
“We’re so appreciative of them doing this,” he says. “There are so many different ways faculty members help in the community, and this is a particularly fun one for everyone. I’m very grateful to both of them for stepping up at such a busy time and making this happen.”
A “cool experience”
For the faculty members, it was all about a cool project that also meant something to the community at the same time.
“For me, it has a bit of extra fun attached to it because I experienced Woody as a child — it’s that idiosyncratic nostalgia thing,” he says. “And I was glad to do it with Hanieh, because it was much more fun to do this as a team. I’m very happy I said yes.”
Adds Dr. Shakeri: “It was a really cool experience.”