The Christmas Eve Tree

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Candlemas". British Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 6 January 2017 . Retrieved 26 December 2016. Any Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night (January 5th) should be left up until Candlemas Day and then taken down. When Christmas was cancelled: From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings.

The custom was developed in Central Europe, particularly Estonia, Germany and Livonia (now Latvia), where Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. [2] [3] [4] The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, [and] sweetmeats". [2] Moravian Christians began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles, [5] which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. [6] Today, there is a wide variety of traditional and modern ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, respectively, from the Nativity. [7] [8] Edible items such as gingerbread, chocolate, and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons. The Christmas tree has been historically regarded as a custom of the Lutheran Churches and only in 1982 did the Catholic Church erect the Vatican Christmas Tree. [9] The Peanuts TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) was influential on the pop culture surrounding the Christmas tree. Aluminum Christmas trees were popular during the early 1960s in the US. They were satirized in the TV special and came to be seen as symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree, describing any poor-looking or malformed little tree, also derives from the 1965 TV special, based on the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. [92] Silverthorne, Elizabeth (1994). Christmas in Texas. Texas A&M University Press. p.62. ISBN 978-0-8909-6578-8. Karal Ann Marling (2000). Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday. Harvard University Press. pp.58–62. ISBN 978-0-674-00318-7. Crump, William D. (2006). The Christmas Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. p.67. ISBN 978-0-7864-2293-7. the evergreen tree (itself symbolic of eternal life through Christ)

The Origins of Christmas Trees

Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood, or ceramics) that are used to decorate a Christmas tree. The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, and also garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations fueled the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds. Town twinning: Bergen, Norway". Newcastle City Council. Archived from the original on 25 April 2007. The Poor Children's Yuletide Association. The Times (London, England), 20 December 1906, p.2. "The association sent 71 trees 'bearing thousands of toys' to the poorest districts of London." a b Lamb, Martha Joanna (1883). The Magazine of American History, Volume X. Historical Publication Co. p.473. The Christmas Tree originated in the Protestant districts of Germany.

In Germany in the early/mid 1800s it was also 'fashionable' to have a forest scene and/or a nativity scene under trees (especially if the trees were placed on tables) and so these scenes also stood on the Tree carpets.Zgodovina okraševanja: Božično drevesce ali novoletna jelka" (in Slovenian). dormeo.net. 15 December 2021.

Lighting with electric lights (Christmas lights or, in the United Kingdom, fairy lights) is commonly done. A tree-topper, sometimes an angel but more frequently a star, completes the decoration. During most of the 1970s and 1980s, the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world was put up every year on the property of the National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. This tradition grew into one of the most spectacular and celebrated events in the history of southern Florida, but was discontinued on the death of the paper's founder in the late 1980s. [94] Bear in mind whether you are opting for a real or artificial tree, though. The warm atmosphere of a home isn’t ideal for a real tree, so ask yourself how long you want to keep up with the watering it needs to stay looking full. You may want to hold off on putting up the Christmas tree for a little while as this will be regular chore. Does putting up your Christmas tree make you happier? The lyrics sung in the United States to the German tune O Tannenbaum begin "O Christmas tree...", giving rise to the mistaken idea that the German word Tannenbaum (fir tree) means "Christmas tree", the German word for which is instead Weihnachtsbaum. Initially, Christmas presents were given anonymously, and playfully, often in the form of a log of wood or the like wrapped up and tossed through a front door. In the 1900s, people began giving one another real presents, handed out by Santa Claus, who was modelled on Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of schoolchildren.

Public Christmas trees [ edit ] An early example of public Christmas tree for the children of unemployed parents in Prague ( Czech Republic), 1931 a b Sharon Caskey Hayes (26 November 2008). "Grower says real Christmas trees are better for environment than artificial ones". Kingsport Times-News. Kingsport, Tennessee. Archived from the original on 27 June 2010 . Retrieved 21 December 2008. The custom of having Christmas trees could well have travelled along the Baltic sea, from Latvia to Germany. In the 1400s and 1500s, the countries which are now Germany and Latvia were them part of two larger empires which were neighbors. Fir, or other evergreen trees like conifers, were common throughout northern Europe at this time, so that's why firs and conifers became the 'standard' Christmas Tree. In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees.

Candles were the main way of having lights on Christmas Trees for hundreds of years. However, they could easily cause a fire. The first electric Christmas Lights were invented in the late 1800s and changed how Christmas Trees (and many other things) were lighted forever. In some cities, a charity event called the Festival of Trees is organized, in which multiple trees are decorated and displayed. Danmarks første juletræ blev tændt i 1808". Kristelig Dagblad. 17 December 2008. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013.

How Christmas trees got popular in U.S.

Maas, R. P.; Patch, S. C.; Pandolfo, T. J. (2004). Dixon, Sandy (30 October 2013). Everlasting Light: A Resource for Advent Worship. Chalice Press. p.5. ISBN 9780827208377. Many congregations decorate the sanctuary for the Advent season in a service called Hanging of the Greens. Some trees (or at least small tops of them or branches of fir trees) were hung from the ceiling, mainly in some parts of Germany, some Slavic countries and parts of Poland. This might have been to save space or they just looked nice hanging from the rafters! (If you have lighting hooks on the ceiling, they would also be an obvious place to hang things from.) The First Recorded Christmas Trees The Christmas Tree: published by Darton and Clark, London. "The ceremony of the Christmas tree, so well known throughout Germany, bids fair to be welcomed among us, with the other festivities of the season, especially now the Queen, within her own little circle, has set the fashion, by introducing it on the Christmas Eve in her own regal palace." Book review of The Christmas Tree from the Weekly Chronicle, 14 December 1844, quoted in an advert headlined "A new pleasure for Christmas" in The Times, 23 December 1844, p.8. Blainey, Geoffrey (24 October 2013). A Short History of Christianity. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p.418. ISBN 9781442225909. Many Lutherans continued to set up a small fir tree as their Christmas tree, and it must have been a seasonal sight in Bach's Leipzig at a time when it was virtually unknown in England, and little known in those farmlands of North America where Lutheran immigrants congregated.