It has been taken into belief of most that the Christmas tree tradition was started in Germany in the mid 700’s. The evergreen trees represented life and during the time of Christmas, in which the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated, these trees were decorated and taken into homes. These trees represented the life of Jesus Christ and how He still lives on today. The tradition of having the trees in the home became the “Christ Tree“ and this evolved into the celebration known as Christmas. Then it was the Christmas tree. Ancients would bring evergreen leaves on the night of December 21, the shortest day of the year. They did this because they wanted the sun god to get well and they thought the green leaves of the evergreens would please the god and extend daylight.
In many countries, a thousand years ago, people would decorate their houses with evergreen leaves and branches this led eventually to the creation of garland and wreaths. Originally these decorations were used to keep away witches, sickness, and evil spirits. In Germany, to teach the Christmas story of the Bible, they performed miracle plays. They were plays to teach about the Garden of Eden and Adam & Eve. This took place yearly on December 24th. Then they would decorate evergreens with apples to represent the forbidden fruit. This is how the night before Christmas got the name Christmas Eve and the colors of red and green became the traditional colors of Christmas.
The German cleric, Martin Luther is said to be the first to bring the tree indoors setup and decorated with candles to show his children what stars looked like at night in the forest. He had been walking at night in the forest and was amazed at the beauty of the stars and that gave him the inspiration. Thus the first prelit or lighted Christmas tree which is now the preferred way people display their tree during the holidays. Before the candles all the trees were unlit. Now people light their trees with much more than candles. Lights of all colors and sizes including the latest LED bulbs are now commonplace.
The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. A early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American solders at Fort Dearborn, Illinois in 1804 the current site of Chicago. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania.
In 1834, Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family. Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842 and this area remains today one of the most popular tourist locations for viewing Christmas displays. In 1850, the Christmas tree became fashionable in the Eastern States. Until this time it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.
Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to the white house in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday school children. The rest as they say is history.
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