Gardening

A Christmas tree is part of many people's holiday season during this time of the year. One acre of farm-grown Christmas trees provides oxygen for 18 people through the photosynthesis process.

Photo by Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association.

The Tradition of the Christmas Tree

By Dr. William M. Johnson
Galveston County Extension Agent - Horticulture

December 21, 2006

A Christmas tree is part of many people's holiday season during this time of the year. There are a variety of area outlets offering freshly cut Christmas trees. About 150 Christmas tree farms in Texas produce 200,000 trees annually on 2,500 acres. One acre of farm-grown Christmas trees provides oxygen for 18 people through the photosynthesis process.

Either cutting your own Christmas tree or selecting one at the local lot and then bringing it inside the home are all part of modern family traditions. To many, the beginning of the holiday season is decorating a tree. The aroma, beauty, and special adventure of having a tree is sensed by all in the home.

Of the many traditions involving plants associated with Christmas, the Christmas tree is probably the most beloved. A wide-eyed child gazing at his or her first Christmas tree is far removed from ancient Romans shouting incantations to a decorated tree. Yet, it is from these cultures that the Christmas tree custom originated.

While most people probably believe that this Christmas tree tradition has always been with us in the United States , a historical overview of how Christmas trees rose to such prominence is quite interesting and not always precise. The following provide a synopsis of some Christmas tree traditions over the centuries:

The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal.

An evergreen, known as the Paradise tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24 during the middle ages.

Christmas trees were sold in Alsace in 1531. Alsace was at that time a part of Germany . Today it is part of France . The trees were sold at local markets and set up in homes undecorated.

In the Ammerschweier in Alsace , there was an ordinance that stated no person "shall have for Christmas more than one bush of more than eight shoe lengths."

Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Some historians state that the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Martin Luther's death in 1546.

The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg , France ( Germany in 1605). The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies.

In Austria and Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper.

The first record of Christmas trees in America was for children in the German Moravian Church 's settlement in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania , during Christmas in 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.

The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States by Hessian troops during the War of Independence. An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn , Illinois , the site of Chicago , in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania .

In 1834, Queen Victoria 's husband, Prince Albert , was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historians state that in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria's grandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in the Queen's lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800.

Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg , Virginia , in 1842.

By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.

Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States .

Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School children. The first national Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.

The first Christmas tree in a church seems to have been in 1851 by Pastor Henry Schwan in Cleveland , Ohio . At first, his parishioners objected to this practice. Some members of the congregation even threatened him with harm. But the minister convinced his flock that Christmas trees were a Christian rite, and opposition soon stopped.

New customs, even those as fine as the decorating of Christmas trees, often receive strong resistance when first introduced. The tradition of the Christmas tree is no exception— hot tempers cool, enthusiasm grows, and new practices become old traditions.

Take a moment to truly look at your tree this year and see the history. For most people, holiday trees represent psychological comfort across time, generations, and a changing world—perhaps in our fast-paced modern world, such comfort takes on a special significance.

Dr. Johnson is a horticulturist with the Galveston County
Extension Office of Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas A&M University. Visit his web site at http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/index.htm

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