O Christmas Tree: Origins and Traditions of Christmas

How lovely are thy branches.."

But did you ever wonder about the history of the Christmas tree?

Like so many Christmas traditions, the Christmas tree begins in Pagan times.

Pagans did not cut down trees to decorate their homes, as they had too much respect for the living trees for that, but they did decorate live trees with bits of metal and candles at winter Solstice. Romans used the trees, decorated with images of Bacchus, for Saturnalia celebrations.

In Northern Europe, Germanic peoples decorated their trees with candles, apples and other fruit in honor of Woden.

For all these people, the tree represented eternal life.

Although Christian usage of the tree began in Germany in the 16th Century, and German immigrants brought the tradition with them to America in the 17th Century, it did not become popular outside Germanic culture until the 1800's.

In Britain, Queen Victoria had seen Christmas trees as a child, since King George III's German queen had brought the tradition with her. Later, after Queen Victoria married her German cousin, Prince Albert, they celebrated Christmas with trees, and their were many pictures in popular magazines of the royal Christmas trees. The custom spread from there, both in England and in America. By the 1850's, there was a Christmas tree in the White House, and the custom was established for good.

Today, in homes that celebrate Christmas, the tree may take many forms, from the huge live tree to the tiny artificial desktop tree, from realistic to fanciful trees of pink, silver, or white. They may be decorated in paper chains and homemade decorations or symphonies of spun glass and crystal. But for everyone, the trees represent the very spirit of the season and hope for returning and renewing life at the end of each year and beginning of the next.

So,as you load on the ornaments this year, give a toast to the tree and the traditions it stands for.