The History of Christmas Trees

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See T-Mobile dot com. This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories and all show long a celebration of Christmas. Up next, our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as the history guy.

His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages over on YouTube. The history guy is also heard here on our American stories. Let's take a listen to the history guy as he recalls the forgotten history of Christmas trees. Traditions involving evergreen plants in midwinter is ancient as civilization. The winter solstice, the point where one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the sun, occurs in December in the northern hemisphere, very close to Christmas, usually December 20th or 21st.

The solstice represents the longest night in the shortest day of the year, and days thereafter will grow longer until the summer solstice. Many ancient religions saw the significance. To them, winter came because the sun god had grown ill or weak, and the solstice was a cause for celebration as it represented the day when the sun god began to recover. Evergreen plants were used because they represented the triumph of life over death. In ancient Egypt, on the solstice, people decorated their homes with green palm fronds in a celebration of Ra, the god of the sun.

Ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a raucous festival in honor of Saturn, the god of wealth and agriculture, in mid-December. And the festival of gift-giving and libation included decorating the home with evergreen boughs. Celtic druids in ancient Britain decorated evergreen trees at the onset of winter to ensure a fruitful coming year. Germanic peoples venerated sacred trees and oaks and associated the evergreen tree with the god Balder, who was associated with the sun. In ancient Germanic and Scandinavian traditions, trees were seen as a protection from the Wild Hunt, a chaotic time when a mythical figure led a hunt of souls that could spell doom.

In Scandinavian folklore, the hunt was led by the god Woden and occurred during the midwinter festival called Yule, whose traditions affected many later Christmas traditions. But it's not clear how, if at all, these pre-Christian traditions affected the modern tradition of Christmas trees. A more likely predecessor is mystery plays, plays that depicted biblical stories that were the origin of passion plays.

Mystery plays started to be introduced into sacred services in Europe around the 5th century. The plays would be associated with dates and, in many countries, the liturgical calendar celebrated saints Adam and Eve on December 24th. The mystery plays on Christmas Eve, therefore, often featured the so-called tree of knowledge of good and evil, also called the tree of life, from which Eve took the apple given to Adam.

The tree was decorated with red apples and white wafers. The decoration of a Christmas bough by the Catholic religious order of Cistercians, noted in a 15th century reference to an evergreen bough decorated with red oranges and candles, is seen by some as the earliest reference to a Christmas tree. But the tradition of Christmas trees might actually not be related to pre-Christian pagan traditions or even to Christian mystery plays.

According to a December 18th, 2020 edition of National Geographic, the cities of Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia have an ongoing argument over which city was the first to host a real Christmas tree. And that debate has to do with a mysterious medieval order called the Brotherhood of the Blackheads. Established in what was then called Livonia in the mid 13th century, the Brotherhood was an association of local unmarried merchants, ship owners and foreigners. Originally created helped fight an indigenous uprising against Christianity called the St. George's Night Uprising in 1543.

While the order had a military history and chivalric tradition, it was largely an association of merchants and tradespeople. In the middle 15th century, they apparently took up the practice of raising and decorating a real or ersatz tree with fruits and nuts in their guild hall. They would then haul the tree to the middle of town, dance around it and set fire to it. Latvia claims the first such event occurred in Riga in 1510 and Estonia claims the first was in Tallinn in 1444.

But the evidence is sketchy to support either claim. While the debate is seen to affect tourism travel for Christmas celebration, the odd thing is that these supposed first Christmas trees might not have had anything to do with Christmas. As a historian for the National Library of Latvia, quoted in the New York Times in 2016, notes that these events were likely rooted in rituals and traditions unique to the blackheads, when bi-annual celebrations served as a means of inducting new members. Thus the Christmas tree tradition might actually have been secular. The first firmly dated representation of a Christmas tree is in 1576 in Alsace, which is today part of France but is on the border with Germany and holds many German traditions.

The Christmas market in the Alsatian city of Strasbourg is among the oldest in Europe, dating as far back as 1570 and at least in modern times is famous for its Christmas tree. The practice of decorating a tree in the home as we know it today is generally seen as having evolved in Germany in the 16th century. The tradition may have been associated with Protestantism, as the trees in the homes might have been a Protestant response to the Catholic tradition of Christmas cribs or nativity scenes. Most directly, the story of decorating a Christmas tree has been associated with the 16th century religious reformer, Martin Luther. According to the story, Luther was walking home one winter evening and was struck by the beauty of brilliant stars against the evergreen trees of the German forest. He brought a tree to his home and decorated it with candles as a way to represent the scene. Writer Dorothy Haskins explained, he wanted to stand there evergreen as a reminder to his children that when the world was at its bleakest moment, sad and helpless and covered with a wave of sin, God sent his son everlasting life itself to bring hope in the midst of the dark and chill. Although it isn't clear if the story of Luther is real or apocryphal, the tradition quickly became associated with Protestant reformers and a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg at the direction of reformer Martin Bucer in 1539.

The tradition became common in the Upper Rhineland by the 18th century, but less so along the Lower Rhine where there was a Roman Catholic majority. However, trees also have a particular meaning in Catholic doctrine and the Catholic Church often cites an 8th century AD story where Saint Boniface cut down an oak tree called Donor's Oak in central Germany that was being used as a pagan symbol and instead offered a fir tree as a holy tree. That being an evergreen represented endless life as the origin of the Christmas tree.

If so, the Vatican was somewhat slow in coming to the party, only starting a Christmas tree tradition in St. Peter's Square in 1982. And you've been listening to the History Guy tell the story of the origins of the Christmas tree and we love hearing from him regularly and you can go to our website and put in History Guy and catch all of the work he's done and it's so good. Or better still, go to his YouTube channel and look up the History Guy and you'll find it.

And just enjoy yourself. It's a really unique voice he has and a great grasp of detail as it relates to almost every subject imaginable. When we come back, more with the History Guy and more on the history of the Christmas tree here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories from our big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot.

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View PVI's disclosures at kraken.com slash legal slash disclosures. And we continue with our American stories and with the history guy and the history of the Christmas tree. By the 19th century, the tradition had taken hold all across Germany and was seen to be an expression of German culture. In fact, that is how the tradition of Christmas trees luckily first came to the United States, with Hessian troops fighting in the American Revolution, as well as with German immigrants as early as 1777. Still, the tradition was not widely accepted in the U.S., or it was largely perceived as a quaint foreign or even pagan tradition. If Protestants created the Christmas tree tradition in Germany, they vehemently opposed it in England. The Puritans saw Christmas as a frivolous addition to the religious calendar and were particularly offended by wasteful excess, like seeing carols and decorating trees. A 1643 ordinance during the Protectorate, encouraging subjects to treat the midwinter period with more solemn humiliation, because it may call to remembrance our sins and the sins of our forefathers, who have turned this feast, pretending the memory of Christ into an extreme forgetfulness van, by giving liberty to carnal and sensual delights. As Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell had troops patrol the streets to arrest anyone who looked like they were headed to a special Christmas Eve service and confiscate any food discovered being prepared for Christmas celebrations.

The same attitude prevailed among Puritans and the Americans. According to History.com, in 1659 the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law banning any celebration of December 25th and fining people for hanging decorations. The change in both Great Britain and the United States was imported from Germany via the royal family. The tradition of decorating a whole tree was brought to the British royal family by Queen Charlotte, wife of George III in 1800. While the tradition did not buy and large at the time spread beyond the royal family, it was well recognized by a young Victoria Alexandrina, who would later be crowned Queen Victoria. When she married her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1841, the Queen and her consort made a point of advertising their Christmas traditions, reinforced by Albert's German heritage, with their eventual nine children. The traditions slowly became more popular, boosted significantly when the Illustrated London News portrayed the royal family with their tree in 1848.

Status-conscious Britons quickly began emulating the royal couple. The tradition briefly fell out of favor due to the anti-German sentiment during the Great War, but by the 1920s was common among all classes. A special tradition was started following the Second World War, where the government of Norway, since 1947, donates a Norway spruce tree each year to the people of Britain as a token of gratitude for British support during the Second World War, when the British government hosted the Norwegian government in exile. The tree is the focus of a traditional carol singing program, and according to the web page of the City of London, for many Londoners the Christmas tree in the carol singing in Trafalgar Square signals the countdown to Christmas.

The city builds the tree as the world's most famous Christmas tree. As with the United Kingdom, the Christmas tree tradition was spread throughout Europe by the largely intermarried European nobility. Nobility was not quite as popular in the United States, but upper-class, desk-conscious Americans tended to emulate their European peers. In an odd twist, the 1848 illustration of the queen and her consort was also popular in the United States, printed in the women's magazine Godey's Lady Book in 1850, but was modified to remove the queen's crown and the prince consort's sash, resembling a more typical family. The well-known illustration is credited with popularizing Christmas trees in the United States, where there were more than three million Germans who had immigrated between 1840 and 1880, and the Puritan fervor of the 17th century had faded.

Still, various complaints about the German tradition being un-American persisted through the Great War period. There is some anecdotal evidence that a tree was placed in the White House in the 1840s under the Tyler administration, and others that a tree was placed during the Pierce administration in the 1850s. But the most credible reports do not place a Christmas tree in the White House until 1889 during the Benjamin Harrison administration, when it was placed on the second floor and decorated with candles for the Harrison grandchildren. But a White House Christmas tree did not become an immediate tradition and was left to the whims of the occupant, and often depended upon whether there were children in the White House. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover started the tradition of an official White House tree, with decorations decided by the First Lady in 1929.

With only two exceptions, the White House Christmas tree has been placed on the first floor Blue Room since 1961, and is commonly called the Blue Room Christmas tree. The tradition of placing a tree in Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan between West 48th and 51st Streets in 5th and 6th Avenues didn't begin until 1931. The first tree was placed by construction workers building Rockefeller Center. Workers pooled their money for the tree, which was decorated with homemade decorations made by their families. In 1933, Rockefeller Center decided to make an annual tree a tradition, and the now iconic ice rink was opened in 1936. The lighting of the tree was first televised in 1950, and today the ceremony is broadcast to hundreds of millions, and as many as 125 million people visit the tree in a normal year. While early traditions included ersatz trees, often wooden platforms covered with evergreen boughs, something approximating a modern artificial tree was developed earlier than you might think. By the 1880s, Germans became concerned about the use of Christmas trees because of deforestation. As a solution, a type of artificial tree made of green dyed goose feathers wrapped around a wire frame was developed. Feather trees were popular throughout the 19th century and had a brief surge of popularity in the United States in the early 20th century, when they were sold at department stores and touted for not dropping needles. In 1930, a maker of housewares, the Addis Brush Company, produced an artificial tree made from brush bristles. They used the same process and equipment used for making toilet brushes, but used green bristles and were sold into the 1950s. Aluminum trees manufactured from about 1955 into the 1970s were briefly popular in the United States.

More than a million were produced by the Aluminum Specialty Company of Mentawak, Wisconsin between 1959 and 1969. But in 1965, a Charlie Brown children's cartoon portrayed aluminum trees as symbols of the commercialization of Christmas, and the market faded. I don't know, Linus.

I just don't know. Well, I guess we'd better concentrate on finding a nice Christmas tree. I suggest we try those searchlights, Charlie Brown. This really brings Christmas clothes to a person. Fantastic.

Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees? This little green one here seems to need a home. I don't know, Charlie Brown. Remember what Lucy said? This doesn't seem to fit the modern spirit. I don't care. We'll decorate it and it'll be just right for our play.

Besides, I think it needs me. Today, there's a market for vintage and antique trees, such as feather trees, Addis brush trees and aluminum trees. But most modern artificial trees are made of PVC and most commonly manufactured in China. There are ongoing debates about the economic and environmental impacts of real versus artificial Christmas trees. A 2017 survey by the American Christmas Tree Association found that around 81% of America's approximately 95 million Christmas trees were artificial, although other surveys suggest that the number may be closer to around two-thirds. Still, as many as 30 million natural Christmas trees are produced in the United States every year, and as many as 60 million in Europe. While the tradition seems harmless, a 2020 survey by the website Value Penguin found that nearly one in 20 Americans having been injured while putting up a Christmas tree, and three-quarters had meant to have forgotten to turn the lights out at night, which can be a fire hazard. According to the National Fire Protection Association, there's an average of about 160 home fires in the United States attributed to Christmas trees each year, causing around $10 million in property loss and an average of two deaths per fire.

To limit the risk of fire, the website AccuWeather suggests buying fresher looking trees, keeping them well watered, shaking the tree to see if the needles are detaching, checking the lights and turning them off at night, and keeping the tree away from heat sources such as radiators, fireplaces and candles. And even with their long history, the future of Christmas trees still looks very bright. A 2019 report on CNN noted that in the previous year, 2018, more Christmas trees were sold in America than ever before in history.

The reason is that the generation called the Millennials are now settling down and having children. Jessica Lutz of the American Realtors Association asserts that Millennials might actually be more attracted to Christmas trees than previous generations because of their obsession with posting photographs on social media, where a picture of the family in front of the Christmas tree is quickly becoming an Instagram staple. And you've been listening to the history of the Christmas tree. A special thanks on the production to Greg Hengler and a special thanks, as always, to the history guy. And you can find him on YouTube.

And the range, breadth and depth of his storytelling is remarkable. And by the way, who knew that it was President Hoover's wife who institutionalized the Christmas tree as we know it outside the White House. And my goodness, as a kid growing up in northern New Jersey, it was unimaginable to skip a Christmas, not going to Rock Center and seeing the Christmas tree and its lighting. A hundred and twenty five million people a year visit that tree. And it was started because a bunch of construction workers building Rockefeller Center had decided to put up their own makeshift tree. The story of the Christmas tree. Thirty million more or less natural Christmas trees a year are used by Americans. The story of the Christmas tree, a staple of American life here on our American stories. You feel taken to new holiday highs.

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