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Christmas tree

For other uses, see Christmas tree (disambiguation).

Christmas tree decorated with lights, stars and glass balls. Wrapped presents are under tree
Christmas tree decorated with lights, stars, and glass balls
Glade jul by Viggo Johansen (1891)
Typical North American family decorating Christmas tree (c. 1970s)

A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas.[1]

The custom was developed in Central Europe, particularly Germany and Livonia (now Estonia and 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]

In the Western Christian tradition, Christmas trees are variously erected on days such as the first day of Advent, or even as late as Christmas Eve, depending on the country;[10] customs of the same faith hold that it is unlucky to remove Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, before Twelfth Night and, if they are not taken down on that day, it is appropriate to do so on Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations.[10][11][12]

The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "Yule-tree", especially in discussions of its folkloric origins.[13][14][15]

  1. ^ Travers, Penny (19 December 2016). "The history of the Christmas tree". Australia: ABC News. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
  2. ^ a b Perry, Joe (27 September 2010). Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History. University of North Carolina Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-8078-9941-0. A chronicle from Strasbourg, written in 1604 and widely seen as the first account of a Christmas tree in German-speaking lands, records that Protestant artisans brought fir trees into their homes in the holiday season and decorated them with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, sweetmeats, etc." [...] The Christmas tree spread out in German society from the top down, so to speak. It moved from elite households to broader social strata, from urban to rural areas, from the Protestant north to the Catholic south, and from Prussia to other German states.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Christmas trees were hung in St. George's Church, Sélestat since 1521:"Office de la Culture de Sélestat—The history of the Christmas tree since 1521" (PDF). 18 December 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 December 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kelly2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Becker, Udo (1 January 2000). The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols. A & C Black. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-8264-1221-8. In Christianity, the Christmas tree is a symbol of Christ as the true tree of life; the candles symbolize the "light of the world" that was born in Bethlehem; the apples often used as decorations set up a symbolic relation to the paradisal apple of knowledge and thus to the original sin that Christ took away so that the return to Eden-symbolized by the Christmas tree-is again possible for humanity.
  7. ^ Mandryk, DeeAnn (25 October 2005). Canadian Christmas Traditions. James Lorimer & Company. p. 67. ISBN 978-1-55439-098-4. The eight-pointed star became a popular manufactured Christmas ornament around the 1840s and many people place a star on the top of their Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem.
  8. ^ Jones, David Albert (27 October 2011). Angels. Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-19-161491-0. The same ambiguity is seen in that most familiar of angels, the angel on top of the Christmas tree. This decoration, popularized in the nineteenth century, recalls the place of the angels in the Christmas story (Luke 2:9–18).
  9. ^ Gillian Cooke, A Celebration of Christmas, 1980, page 62: "Martin Luther has been credited with the creation of the Christmas tree. [...] The Christmas tree did not spring fully fledged into [...] tree was slow to spread from its Alsatian home, partly because of resistance to its supposed Lutheran origins."
  10. ^ a b Crump, William D. (15 September 2001). The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 386. ISBN 978-0-7864-6827-0. Christmas trees in the countryside did not appear until World War I, although Slovenians of German ancestry were decorating trees before then. Traditionally, the family decorates their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with electric lights, tinsel, garlands, candy canes, other assorted ornaments, and topped with an angel figure or star. The tree and Nativity scene remain until Candlemas (February 2)
  11. ^ McGregor, Kate (30 November 2023). "It's Bad Luck To Take Your Tree Down Before January 6". AOL. According to the tradition of the 12 days of Christmas (explained above), January 6 is the earliest you should be taking down your Christmas tree. According to the legend, bad luck will befall those who stop the Christmas cheer any earlier.
  12. ^ "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.
  13. ^ Foley, Daniel J. (1999). The Christmas Tree. Omnigraphics. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-55888-286-7.
  14. ^ Dues, Greg (2008). Advent and Christmas. Bayard. pp. 13–15. ISBN 978-1-58595-722-4. Next to the Nativity scene, the most popular Christmas tradition is to have a Christmas tree in the home. This custom is not the same as bringing a Yule tree or evergreens into the home, originally popular during the month of the winter solstice in Germany.
  15. ^ Karas, Sheryl (1998). The Solstice Evergreen: history, folklore, and origins of the Christmas tree. Aslan. pp. 103–04. ISBN 978-0-944031-75-9.

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