Christmas Tree History - Of all the traditions central to the Christmas holidays, the Christmas tree itself is the most beloved of them all. Like all good traditions, the magic of Christmas trees has a long and rich history, dating back to the ancient times of the druids and pagans in Northern and Central Europe, and later to the early Romans, who decorated their Winter Festival trees with small shiny objects. Over the years, these traditions were adopted by Christians, who gradually incorporated them as part of their own Christmas celebrations.
For example, many centuries later during the Middle Ages, an evergreen called the Paradise Tree was decorated with apples to symbolize the Feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24. The Christmas tree as we know it today continues to evolve from its long history in Germany, where the practice of cutting down fir trees for indoor decorations has been documented as early as the early 1500s. Some believe that Martin Luther was the first person to decorate an indoor tree. After walking through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, he brought home a tree and decorated it with candles, so his family could understand the wonderful experience he had just enjoyed.
As Germans generally adopted the custom of indoor Christmas trees, they decorated them elaborately with candles, apples, candy, dolls and pieces of colored paper. So popular was the Christmas tree in Germany, that a law was passed in 1561 to limit the height of the cut trees to eight feet. During the 17th and 18th centuries, in both Austria and Germany, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner.
The first record of Christmas trees in America was for children in the German Moravian Church's settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, during Christmas in 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but instead, wooden pyramids were brought indoors, covered with evergreen branches, and decorated with candles.
Still, the custom of bringing fresh-cut trees was not widespread in the British colonies in America, and Christmas as a holiday was as-yet rarely observed. That all changed on Christmas Eve in 1776, when many of the 30,000 German troops aiding the British during the American Revolution were too busy celebrating the holiday and not paying attention to their military duties. So much so, that George Washington and his army were able to attack and easily defeat their enemy on December 26. And a new tradition began to take hold in America.
England itself didn't adopt the Christmas tree as a holiday custom until late in the 19th century when Queen Victoria married the German nobleman Prince Albert. After seeing photographs of the royal family standing about a gloriously decorated tree, the English people began also decorating trees and placing presents under them.
In the United States, it's said that Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in 1842 in Williamsburg, Virginia, and by 1850, the indoor trees had become quite the rage in the Eastern US and no longer considered a "quaint foreign custom."
The first retail Christmas tree lot in the US developed in 1851 when Mark Carr from upstate New York sent two carts filled with fir and spruce trees cut in the Catskill Mountains to New York City's Washington Market. He quickly sold out, selling small trees for 5 to 10 cents each and larger trees for a quarter each. The first Christmas tree farm was started in Trenton, New Jersey in 1901 when a farmer planted 25,000 Norway Spruce trees that were harvested 7 years later and sold for $1.00 each.
Franklin Pierce became the first US president to bring a Christmas tree into the White House in 1856, and the first National Christmas Tree was lit in 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.
By the early 1900s, Christmas tree ornaments became more sophisticated, with delicate handmade glass ornaments and figurines arriving from Germany in addition to all the traditional decorations such as candy, fruit, berries, cookies, toys, miniatures, candles, popcorn, cards, and the like. Just three years after Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric lights in 1879, electric Christmas tree lights became a much safer alternative to the dangerous open flames of candles.
Other countries around the world have their favorite national decorations. Bells, stars, snowflakes and hearts are a favorite in Denmark, while tiny folded fans and paper lanterns are popular in Japan. Lithuanians like to decorate their trees with stars, geometric shapes and birdcages, while trees in Czechoslovakia show off lovely handmade ornaments of painted eggshells called pysanky. Polish people favor angels, peacocks and stars, and trees in Sweden are decorated with painted wooden ornaments and straw figurines of animals and people. A Ukrainian Christmas tree will have spider webs for good luck, a forerunner of our modern-day glittery tinsel.
Most modern 21st century Christmas trees are decorated with a very personal combination of store-bought ornaments and treasured family heirlooms that range from the simple decorations made by kindergarten children to rather elaborate handcrafted works-of-art. We use strings of lights instead of candles to illuminate our carefully-chosen tree, whether we buy it from a tree lot down the street or travel miles into the country to find it at a Choose-and-Cut farm. No matter where we find our tree and no matter how we decorate it, every year our tree is more beautiful than last year's, and it continues to symbolize the timeless joy and wonder of another holiday season spent in the good company of family and friends. |
