Montshire Minute: Christmas Trees

Originally aired during the week of December 21, 1998

Monday

If you were an alien visiting earth from another planet, you might think cutting down a living tree, dragging it into the living room, and throwing tinsel on it is a pretty bizarre practice. How did this idea become such an important Christmas tradition? Decorating trees goes back a long way, before Christianity itself. Prehistoric humans are believed to have used green boughs or entire trees for special ceremonies they believed provided protection and the timely return of spring. The ancient Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the winter solstice as a symbol of life's triumph over death. The Romans also decorated with evergreens during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of their god of agriculture. During December in the Middle Ages, trees were hung with red apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve - it was called the Paradise Tree.

Tuesday

One story has it that Martin Luther himself came up with the idea of decorating the boughs of a fir tree with lighted candles to celebrate Christ's birth. It is said that Luther was struck by the beauty of the starlit night as he walked through an evergreen forest, and he tried to recreate the experience in his own home by bringing a tree inside and wiring candles on its limbs. While there is a reference to a fir tree being decorated in Latvia in the early 1500s, historians have found little evidence of this practice until a century after Luther's death. According to Phillip Snyder's Christmas Tree Book, a visitor to Strasbourg, Germany, around 1600 wrote about the practice of setting up Christmas trees in parlors and hanging them with colored paper roses. Fruits, nuts, candy, lighted candles, and later ornaments, made from all types of materials, were used as decorations.

Wednesday

Historians point out that the Paradise tree, an evergreen tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24th during the Middle Ages. The tradition of decorating trees became so ingrained that it eventually evolved into a part of the Christmas celebration. One of the first recorded instances of Christmas trees being used comes from the Alsace region of Germany in 1561. An edict issued in that year declares that "no burgher shall have for Christmas more than one bush of more than eight shoes' length." It is thought that the custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in this country during the Revolutionary War by Hessian troops, fighting for the British. Most other accounts of Christmas trees date back to the time when German immigrants settled in eastern Pennsylvania.

Thursday

Conifers with four-sided needles, like spruce trees, are often used as Christmas trees, although their needles tend to fall quickly when dry. Black spruce usually grow in moist, boggy soil, while the red and white varieties, quite common in our area, are found in high, dry locations. The balsam fir is also a popular choice at Christmas - this tree is favored by some because it holds its needles for a long time after cutting. Like the balsam fir, the eastern hemlock is a flat-needled evergreen; that is, its long needles have two sides. With bark rich in tannin, the hemlock's leaves and twigs can be used to brew tea. During the depression, an enterprising farmer introduced the scotch pine to the Christmas tree market - by the 1970's, the scotch pine surpassed the Douglas Fir as the nations most popular Christmas tree.

Friday

To the New England Puritans, Christmas was a sacred holiday and they took a dim view of customs like decorating Christmas trees. Governor William Bradford wrote that he tried hard to stamp out this silliness, calling it a "pagan mockery." Nonetheless, German settlers brought the practice of decorating trees took with them when they settles in the New World in the years to follow. The first president to set up a tree in the White House was a New Hampshirite, Franklin Pierce. And the first national Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by Vermont president Calvin Coolidge. Today, it is estimated that over one million acres of land have been devoted to growing Christmas trees, and the industry employs over 100,000 people. Americans will go set up about 35 million trees in one year.