The History of the Christmas Tree

Every Christmas millions of people go out to the tree lot, spend hours searching for that perfect tree, cut it down and bring it home to light the house during the dark season of winter (or in the case of the ever present artificial tree today: pull out the box, put the tree together, and plug in the lights.). It's a tradition that's long been associated with the Christmas holiday, but the origins of the Christmas tree actually go back even further than the holiday itself.

In ancient times, long before Christianity, people believed that trees which stayed green all year had special meaning, therefore evergreens held a particular place of honor (this belief was also associated with holly and mistletoe, hence their later association with the Christmas holiday as well.) Evergreen, mistletoe and holly were revered as symbols of eternal life, due to the fact that they did not go dormant in the winter like so many others. The people often brought boughs of evergreen into their homes for luck and to ensure that the sun would return after the winter to make everything green again. In particular, the evergreen boughs were used during the winter solstice celebrations (in a way, the forebearer of Christmas).

These traditions eventually evolved into full-size trees that became associated with the later Christmas holiday. The Germans are generally believed to have begun the tradition of the actual "Christmas tree." Bringing an evergreen tree into their homes, they often decorated it with fruit and nuts as part of their Christmas celebrations. As time progressed, they began to light their trees with candles as well.

The Germans brought the Christmas tree tradition with them to America, but it was slow to take hold. Many of the colonists felt that the tree was too pagan due to its origins in the pagan winter celebrations. At one point the Massachusetts Bay Colony actually declared Christmas trees and such decorations illegal for being too pagan. Eventually, however, people overlooked the ancient associations and grew to love the tree as a beautiful part of their Christmas celebrations, giving us the Christmas tree tradition we know today.