The Christmas Tree

One of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas, the Christmas tree is normally an evergreen conifer tree that is brought in the house or used in the open, and is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful ornaments during the days around Christmas.

The modern custom surrounding Christmas trees cannot be shown to be descended from the pagan tradition directly. Its origins can be traced to 16th century Germany: Ingeborg Weber-Keller identified as the earliest reference a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small fir was decorated with apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers, and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas day. Another early reference is from Basel, where the taylor apprentices carried around town a tree decorated with apples and cheese in 1597. During the 17th century, the custom entered family homes. By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Princess Henrietta von Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years. In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchess of Orleans.

In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced by King George III's German Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, but did not spread much beyond the royal family until the royal family Christmas centered round Prince Albert at Osborne House was illustrated in English magazines, and copied in the United States at Christmas 1850. Such patriotic prints of the British royal family at Christmas celebrations helped popularise the Christmas tree in Britain and among the anglophile American upper class.

Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December), and then removed the day after twelfth night (i.e., 6 January); to have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck. Modern crass commercialisation of Christmas has however resulted in trees being put up much earlier; in shops often as early as late October. The most common tradition in U.S. homes is to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and to take it down right after the New Year. In more northern climates and into Canada, the tree (if not too dry) and other decorations are left up well into January. In Europe, private Christmas trees are not usually put up until at least the middle of December and are always taken down by the 6th of January.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Christmas Tree".

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