Few things symbolize the Christmas season more than a Christmas tree. Beautifully decorated and brightly lit, Christmas trees are a focal point for our celebrations. We place them in living rooms and throughout the house. You’ll find trees in corporate lobbies, shopping centers and town squares.
We sing songs and write stories about Christmas trees. Make Christmas tree-shaped cookies and ornaments. Hundreds of magazine articles and blogs are written each year focusing on the latest Christmas tree decorations and styles.
Origin of the Christmas Tree
Many ancient cultures marked the seasons by the movements of the sun. The times of the year when the sun was highest or lowest in the sky (solstice) were periods of celebration and feasting.
People decorated their homes with evergreen boughs to mark the winter solstice. Plants that stayed green all year reminded them that spring would arrive and the earth would come to life again. For some cultures, like the ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Hebrews, evergreens symbolized their belief in eternal life.
When the Catholic church began celebrating the birth of Christ on a date near the winter solstice, many pagan solstice celebrations were absorbed into Christian observances and evergreens continued to be part of Christmas.
The Paradise Tree
One of the ways the Catholic church spread its gospel throughout Europe in the Middle Ages was through dramatic performances.
The Paradise Play was one popular production. It told the biblical story of creation as part of the ceremony surrounding the religious feast day of Adam and Eve on December 24. A Paradise Tree, representing the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden, was integral to the production. Sometimes these trees were decorated with apples, straw, nuts, wool thread and even pretzels.
As Christmas was observed the following day, it isn’t hard to imagine how decorated trees became associated with the holiday.
History of Christmas Trees
Martin Luther often gets credit for being the first to bring a pine Christmas tree indoors, but the custom began at least a generation or two earlier.
Written records of a decorated Christmas tree exist from as far back as 1510. In Alsace, France, in 1530, marketplaces sold trees to place in homes. By the 1600s, decorating the Christmas tree was a common custom in Germany.
The custom spread to England when Queen Victoria wed German-born Prince Albert. Their 1846 Christmas celebration, captured in a magazine illustration, showed the royal couple gathered with their family around a Christmas tree. The actions of the popular young queen influenced the acceptance of the Christmas tree tradition in England.
Christmas Ornaments
The first Christmas tree ornaments were botanical, like fruits and nuts, or hand-made from paper and wood. Today, however, glass and plastic Christmas ornaments are common.
In the 16th century, the Greiner family, glassmakers in Lauscha, Germany, created garlands of glass beads for the trees of the wealthy. About 250 years later, the popularity of Christmas trees had surged, but Hans Greiner couldn’t spare the funds to buy fruits and nuts to adorn his tree. Instead, it’s said that the glassmaker created blown glass Christmas ornaments that mimicked the look of edible decorations.
Within a few decades, Lauscha was exporting glass ornaments to England and beyond. Woolworth’s department store was one of the first to offer German blown-glass ornaments in the United States.
Christmas Tree Lights
There are few sights prettier than lights twinkling in the boughs of a Christmas tree. However, for many years, people lit their trees by clipping candles onto the branches. This practice was such a fire hazard that many families placed a bucket of sand next to the tree so they would be able to douse a blaze quickly if it occurred.
In 1882, Edward H. Johnson, a business partner of Thomas Edison, strung together 80 red, white and blue light bulbs for his Christmas tree. He placed the tree in the front window of his New York City home on a revolving platform for everyone who passed to see and enjoy.
The White House Christmas Trees
The growing popularity of Christmas trees was even evident at the White House. By 1853, President Franklin Pierce had installed the first Christmas tree in his Pennsylvania Avenue residence.
President Taft’s children placed a Christmas tree in the White House’s Blue Room in 1912. The tradition of the Blue Room Christmas Tree became more consistent after First Lady Mamie Eisenhower featured a tree in the Blue Room every holiday season during President Eisenhower’s administration.
The first National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony was held outdoors on the White House grounds in 1923. A Christmas tree dedication has been held on the south lawn of the White House every year since, although for several years during WWII the tree was kept dark.
Christmas Decorations
People who celebrate Christmas love to prepare for the holiday by decorating their homes inside and out. In fact, Statista notes that “the global market for Christmas decorations…was estimated to be worth over seven billion U.S. dollars in 2023.”
However, even after hanging wreaths, garland and lights and setting up outdoor decorations, nothing can match a Christmas tree for pure nostalgia and Christmas spirit.
Whether your tree is tiny or tall, undecorated or elaborately adorned, it stands as a personal expression of seasonal joy.