HOW CHRISTMAS TREES BECAME A

PART OF THE HOLIDAY TRADITION

        One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Christmas season is going out and selecting the perfect Christmas tree, bringing it home and decorating it.  This year, as has been a long standing tradition, I went to the state farmer’s market to select my tree and then, back at home, begin the process of decorating it while listening to Christmas music.

        One of my favorite Christmas albums is by Manheim Steamroller and is entitled “Christmas Celebration.”  One of the tracks is “O Tannenbaum,” and features the “King” of Christmas music, Johnny Mathis, accompanied by the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club.  For me there is no better song to hear while decorating your Christmas tree!

        While selecting the ornaments and other items to place on my tree I began thinking of Monroe and how we got our trees back in the day.  Many came from local farms where they were hand-cut and some were delivered to the various grocery stores and markets. At once I was reminded of downtown Monroe and the various churches which displayed their trees decorated for the season with symbols pertaining to the birth of Jesus. How well I remembered the trees on the court house lawn and how, today, the historic courthouse is a picture of joy and beauty with trees and garlands bringing the old courthouse and grounds to life with the white lights illuminating the entire front and lawn. 

        As I decorated my tree and listening to the words to “O Tannenbaum,” I became curious as to just when and how the Christmas tree made its entry into the theme of the season. After the tree was decorated and the den was bathed in the light of multi-colored lights I perused two books on Christmas history and compiled the following history.

        Reading below you will find out how an evergreen tree became one of the most beloved and iconic symbols of the Christmas season.

        In ancient times, evergreens were thought to possess mystical powers.  This was because they continued to flourish when other trees stood bare and gray in December.  The evergreen’s winter fruits of cones and colorful berries were a sign of life, fertility, and the promise of spring.  In some cultures, the thick protective boughs were thought to harbor friendly spirits hiding from winter storms.

        The custom of decorating the tree, or using it in decorative ways, is a very old one.  The Roman poet Virgil wrote of decorating pine trees to please the fertility god Bacchus.  Another practice was to bring small trees or cut boughs indoors to act as lucky charms for the coming spring and to give shelter to the spirits.  People held some of the same superstitions about evergreens as about fire—both were seen as symbols of renewed life

        During the Middle-Ages, the evergreen took on a whole new role.  The early Christian church held miracle and mystery plays at the Christmas season to teach the congregation about the Bible.  In these plays a fir tree hung with apples reminded people of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden. It became a custom in Germany, England and Scandinavia to build a wooden pyramid shaped like a fir. Some families kept the form simple, placing candles on the branchlike tiers and an apple at the top.  Others stuffed real boughs into the triangular frame and piled them with fruits, candles and trinkets. Germans often place this decorated wooden pyramid and an unadorned fir tree side by side. Over time the two trees became one, the fresh and fragrant evergreen inheriting all the trimmings of the wooden candlestick and more.

        The custom of displaying a fully decorated tree in the house at Christmas began in the sixteenth century in Alsace, a region of western Germany.  Trees were trimmed as creatively as materials would allow.  Bright flowers of paper and cloth, wafer-thin cookies shaped as angels and stars, sugared fruits and nuts.  The custom moved north to Scandinavia and west to France and the British Isles.

        One of the first American Christmas trees appeared in 1747, in the German Moravian settlement of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  A  Revolutionary War story tells of George Washington and his troops surprising British-sent mercenary soldiers from Hesse, Germany, as they gathered around a candle-lit tree singing carols.  That was in New Jersey. 

        By 1850, even frontier towns knew about the Christmas tree.  There, it was easy to find a suitable evergreen. The challenge and fun came in decorating.  Children and adults fashioned scraps of cloth, ribbon, paper and wood, even bits of discarded yellow soap, into ornaments.  They used nature’s gifts as well—straw, seed pods and acorns.

        The decorated Christmas tree reached a splendid new high in America’s Victorian households, in the cities of the Atlantic seaboard and in San Francisco.  Families selected tall firs and placed them on the floor instead of tables as parents decorated the tree after the children went to bed, for many of the young believed Santa Claus brought the tree and its trimmings along with his gifts. Those trees  glowed with countless candles and shimmering glass ornaments imported from Germany.  Small gifts were tied to the branches and bright ribbons.  Sweets of many colors and shapes weighted down the thickly covered branches and set the children’s mouths to watering in anticipation of the post-Christmas ritual we no longer have today. The best part of the holiday back then was dismantling the tree and sampling the goodies which adorned the tree as decorations.

        The threat of fire loomed greatly in the homes from the many candles which lit the trees and buckets of water were hidden in rooms where the trees stood along with a wet sponge on a stick to put out minor blazes. With the advent of the electric lights, the tree changed its look, adding a variety of colors and shapes.  By the 1920’s, candle-lit trees had all but disappeared.

        As Christmas trees were becoming more popular the American population was growing and moving to the cities.  People began ordering trees from farmers.  The more enterprising farmers saw a good business opportunity. They began bundling up trees to peddle at city produce markets a week or two before Christmas. New York’s Washington Market saw its first corner lot in 1851, when a fellow from the Catskills brought spruces and firs down the Hudson on a steamboat.  By the 1880’s the market was buried in evergreens from all over the Northeast.  On the Chicago lakefront, from 1884 until 1933, a family of German heritage brought trees from Minnesota by schooner to sell. When the Christmas Tree Ship arrived, Chicagoans knew the Christmas season had begun.

        By the end of the nineteenth century the once abundant fir was dwindling in numbers.  Few tree farmers replanted where they had cut.  The pleas of conservationists were largely ignored until President Theodore Roosevelt added his voice to theirs.  By the 1920’s, efforts to reseed forests were under way and soon after that Christmas tree farms became profitable ventures. New types of evergreens came on the market – the long-needled, long lasting Scotch pine and the more traditionally shaped Douglas fir. These are two of today’s most popular evergreens.

        In more recent years, other changes have been wrought.  Some families prefer artificial trees for their fire safety, longevity, and convenience.  Some brands of these are convincingly real-looking.  Other customers have gardens buy live Christmas trees and decorate them year after year with outdoor lights while in the off season admiring their wild sturdiness.  Many of these have become like family friends.

        Thinking about it, few things are as friendly and inviting as the Christmas tree.  It adds both warmth and beauty to homes as well as the season like no other. Like so much else of the American Christmas, the tree is both old and new, linking Christmases past and present.  It is universal, yet for each family it holds a personal meaning and knowing its folklore and long history only adds to its magic.

        May the beauty of each decorated tree this year bring its families and friends an appreciation and joy of the season as I wish each and every one a Very Merry Christmas!