Christmas Tree Traditions

We like to enjoy and admire our decorated Christmas tree as soon as possible after Thanksgiving until New Year. For this reason I have switched to my 6 foot artificial tree over 20 years ago. Sure, it will never have the charm of a real tree, but is beautiful when decorated with the oodles of treasured ornaments I have collected over the last 35 years, and it doesn’t drip sticky sap onto our carpet or dry out over the 4 week period it is on display.    

We love our Christmas tree in all its splendor! Generally we have always brought it up from the basement after all of the other Christmas decorations have been carefully placed, and I have lots of them, but this year I decided that we would put it up first and I’m surprised how much more we’ve enjoyed it. I think I may have started a new Christmas time tradition at our house.

  

Christmas trees have a long and varying history of tradition. The custom of decorating a Christmas tree actually started in Germany as early as the 15^th century. They have traditionally been evergreen trees such as spruce, pines, or fir but I was surprised to find out that artificial trees were already used in Germany during the 19^th century due to deforestation in that area. At that time they were often made out of wood and goose feathers versus our more familiar contemporary PVC trees.

 

When I was growing up in Germany in the 60’s and 70’s, there was no deforestation and I do not remember ever seeing any of those old fashioned artificial trees. I do however, remember numerous times, going out into an nearby forest with my dad and a couple of my  siblings, usually on Christmas Eve, where we picked out and chopped down the Christmas tree of our choice and hauled it home in the family car. I then stayed up, usually with my mom and my older sister, and we decorated the tree with mostly handmade ornaments, a few glass bulbs, and candles (this was before electric candles were available) after all the younger siblings went to bed. We would enjoy the tree for a brief couple of days before we took it down again. During that time we would occasionally gather around the tree and very carefully and only briefly light the candles under close supervision. It was always a magical moment when we lit the candles for the first time on Christmas morning . . . but to this day I am still extremely grateful that we never started a fire.

For me it is too much work and not long enough time to enjoy my tree for just a couple of days. However, I still have a lot of family and friend contacts in Germany, and it is still not uncommon that one or more of them will tell me that they are putting up their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve as part of their Christmas ritual . . . and although the real candles are still a traditional part of the Christmas tree decorations for most of us, they are no longer lit on their tree or on ours. Gratefully we now enjoy the twinkling of our safe and colorful electric lights on timers !

 

We love our Christmas tree traditions and I hope you are enjoying yours as much as we are ours.

 

 

Happy Holidays