#1177 Where did Christmas trees come from?

Where did Christmas trees come from? The idea for Christmas trees came from Germany in the 16^th century. They were introduced into North America in the early 18^th century, but they didn’t spread to England until the 19^th century.

The origins of having an evergreen tree, or part of one, in the house, go back thousands of years. The Egyptians worshipped the sun god Ra, and they believed that winter came when he got sick. As he started to get better, the winter turned to spring, and the Egyptians celebrated this by having green evergreen tree branches and papyrus in their houses. Surprisingly, (at least to me) evergreens grow in Egypt. I imagined that they would only grow in cold climates. The tradition of celebrating the end of the winter with something green and living continued and the Romans did the same thing. They had a festival called Saturnalia, to honor Saturn, the god of agriculture. Saturnalia was in mid-December, and the Romans decorated their homes with evergreen boughs and wreaths. Saturnalia is one of the origins of our modern Christmas. The tradition of using trees at this time of year continued and in northern Europe, they used trees called yule trees and they placed them at the entrance to the house to scare away the devil. All of the festivals at that time of year were there to celebrate the winter solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. From there on, it got brighter and warmer and crops would soon grow. The evergreen branch was a symbol of that life and it was a pagan tradition that was adopted by Christianity when they celebrated Christmas.

The Christmas tree was first used in Germany in the 16^th century, but at that time there wasn’t actually a country called “Germany”. The area was divided up into four kingdoms called Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony, and Württemberg. Every year, on the 24^th of December, many places put on a play about the story of Adam and Eve. In that play, a fir tree was decorated with apples and round white wafers that represented the body of Christ. The idea was that the apples represented temptation and the wafers represented redemption. It was called the “paradise” tree. After the Protestant Reformation in 1517, a lot of German people became Lutherans and the way they celebrated events like Christmas changed. Over time, the plays stopped and the “paradise tree” was taken inside and displayed in the house. It would be decorated with red baubles instead of apples and cookies instead of wafers. Sometimes candles would be placed on the tree as well, something that caused quite a few fires. Many Lutheran families also displayed a wooden pyramid that had Christmas figures and a star on top. Again, over time, the pyramid disappeared and everything was displayed on the tree.

The Lutherans carried on decorating their houses with Christmas trees, but nobody else knew about it. Then, in the early 18^th century, some German Lutherans emigrated to America and they took the tradition with them. It didn’t really spread beyond the Lutheran community until the middle of the 19^th century. From 1817, there was a strong attempt to reunite the Lutheran church with the regular church in Prussia, which led to a lot of persecution of the Lutherans. The number of Lutherans emigrating to America skyrocketed, and the number of people using Christmas trees in America took off. It wasn’t long before the tradition started to spread to other, non-Lutheran homes. There was a little pushback because some Americans saw Christmas trees as a pagan symbol, but that that didn’t last long. The Christmas tree reached Great Britain in the 1840s because Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was German and he had grown up with Christmas trees. He had one put up in Buckingham Palace and pictures of them and the tree were published in the newspapers. Anything the royals did became a trend and people wanted to get Christmas trees.

These days a lot of people use artificial trees, which were invented in America in the 1960s. The first artificial trees also came out of Germany and they were made by sticking dyed goose feathers to wire branches. However, the first plastic Christmas trees came out of America. These days, Christmas is celebrated by billions of people around the world, and Christmas trees, as lovely as they are, have quite an environmental impact. Plastic trees have an obvious impact, but real trees are also a problem. They are usually burned when they are finished with, and that releases a lot of carbon dioxide. A lot of land is given over to farm these trees and, although they provide habitats for wildlife, they are obviously cut down for the Christmas season. Which is better, real or plastic? That’s a tough question. And this is what I learned today.

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Sources

https://www.britannica.com/plant/Christmas-tree

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree