Guest Author - Linda J. Paul

O Christmas Tree! A big part of Christmas is the Christmas tree. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent each year on trees and decorations. They come in every shape and size. For the naturalists there are live trees, which can be replanted after the holidays. For the people who don’t mind a dying tree in their homes, you can get one that is already pre chopped and even mounted in it’s own stand.

For those who don’t want to clean up the needles, there are artificial trees that look and sometimes even smell like the real thing. And, of course for those who are Christmas rebels, there are the silver, blue, or fiber optic models. They sing, they talk, they twirl, they twinkle, and they glow.

We bring them in anytime between Halloween and Christmas Eve, and we decorate them with everything under the sun. We string lights, popcorn, cranberries, beads, baubles, tinsel, and glass ornaments around them. And, in a whole lot of cases, we wind up with a bandaged thumb from trying to pound a nail into the wall, while holding up the tree with a piece of rope to keep it from toppling over.

Some of us spend days setting up the tree, with elaborate rituals, in which every member of the family decorates the tree one ornament at a time, while others just kind of haphazardly throw the ornaments wherever they may land. Some people even have an artificial tree that stays decorated in the attic and comes down to visit once a year without any fuss or hassle.

There are those among us who have nurseries for tiny evergreen saplings that grow into sturdy adult trees, who become sacrifices to the Christmas tree mania. And, after Christmas, there are the friendly garbage trucks that haul the discarded bodies away to the town dumping grounds, where with a little luck and a whole lot of fertilizer they are once again reincarnated. And, so the Christmas cycle continues.

But, where did it all start? Who was the one responsible for the tradition of the tree at Christmastide? To answer that we have to take a stroll back into history.

For centuries, evergreens have played a major role in midwinter celebrations. Many ancient Pagan festivals used trees to honor their Gods and Spirits. The Vikings considered the evergreen to be a symbol and reminder that the darkness and cold of the winter would end and that the green of Spring would once again return. The Druids of ancient England and France, actually decorated oak trees with fruit and candles to honor their Gods at harvest time. And, the Romans would decorate trees with trinkets, candles and small pieces of metal as Saturnalia.

The first actual written record which describes a Christmas tree was that of an anonymous French traveler. While visiting Strasbourg, Germany in 1601, he writes of seeing a Fir tree in a home which had been hung with “wafers and golden sugar-twists, roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, gold foil and sweets.”

The modern custom of bringing a tree indoors on Christmas is, in fact, thought to have originated in Germany. This may have started out from the tradition of building a Christmas pyramid, which was adorned with branches and candles. The early German Christmas trees were decorated with fancy baked ornaments, which could be eaten afterwards.

The Germans would bake fancy ornaments for their trees and then consume the decorations when the trees were taken down. After Christmas, these frugal people wouls strip the needles and then wrap the branches in cotton to extend the life of the tree for several Christmases to come.

There are a few different stories about how the Christmas tree arrived in America. One is that the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania were the first to decorate a Christmas tree in the early 1800’s. Another theory is that the first American Christmas tree was set up by Hessian soldiers in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1776.

Either way, by the early to mid 1800’s the craze had taken off. But the term “Christmas tree” was not commonly used until around 1830. Fruits, nuts, flowers and lighted candles also adorned the first American Christmas trees, but only the strongest could support such a weight without drooping.

Thus, German glassblowers began producing lightweight glass balls to replace heavier, natural decorations. As time went by, the candles were replaced with electric lights and the decorations became more complex. Modern day Christmas trees are an all but unrecognizable version of the original models.

The Christmas tree took off in England after royalty decorated their first tree at Windsor Castle in 1841. Prince Albert who was the husband and Consort of Queen Victoria, decorated the tree with candles, fruits, candy and gingerbread. The idea was actually Albert’s. He was born in Germany, and decorating the tree was a tribute to his homeland. Even though, England was not exactly friendly with Germany at the time, the English loved their Queen, and soon began to warm up to the custom.