Christmas Trees

The illustration above, drawn from a photograph, shows an aspect of the Christmas-tree harvest.

THE TRADITION

ARTHUR M. SOWDER.

TRIMMED Christmas trees were first used in the United States apparently during the American Revolution, when Hessian soldiers softened their homesickness with them. In a description of Christmas festivities at Fort Dearborn, Ill., in 1804 mention is made of a Christmas tree.

The idea and the tradition spread widely through the young land: We read that people in Cambridge, Mass., put up Christmas trees in 1832; in Philadelphia, 2 years later; Cincinnati, in 1835; Rochester, N. Y., 1840; Richmond and Williamsburg, in Virginia, 1846; Wooster, Ohio, 1847; and Cleveland, 1851.

At first, the trimmings, if any, consisted mostly of small tufts of cotton and strings of popcorn and cranberries. Other decorations were flowers, replicas of foodstuffs, paper ornaments, and the like no factory-made ornaments, tinsel, electric lights, or baubles.

Some historians trace the custom of lighting the Christmas tree to Martin Luther (1483-1546). The story is told that he was strolling through the countryside alone one Christmas Eve under a brilliant starlit sky, and his thoughts turned to the nativity of the Christ Child. He was awed by the beauty of the heavens and the wintry landscape: The blue light on the low hills outside Weimar, and on the evergreens, the snow flakes sparkling in the moonlight. Returning home, he told his family about it and attempted to reproduce the glory of the outdoors. To a small evergreen tree he attached some lighted candles so as to portray the reflection of the starry heaven.

Apparently candles did not come into wide use at once. Mention of the Christmas-tree custom in Strasbourg a century later did not include lights. In fact, at first, the use of lights on a tree was considered ridiculous and referred to as "child's play." For two centuries following Luther, the Christmas-tree custom appears to have been confined to the Rhine River district. From 1700 on, when the lights were accepted as part of the decorations, the Christmas tree was well on its way to becoming an accepted custom in Germany, and during the Revolution the tradition of the Christmas tree bridged the Atlantic.

Finland is said to have accepted the custom in about 1800, Denmark 1810, Sweden 1820, and Norway about 1830. From the Scandinavian countries the custom spread to France and England about 1840. Records show that 35,000 Christmas trees were sold in Paris in 1890.

Some persons trace the origin of the Christmas tree to an earlier period. Even before the Christian era, trees and boughs were used for ceremonials. Egyptians, when they observed the winter solstice, brought green date palms into their homes as a symbol of "life triumphant over death." When the Romans observed the feast of Saturn, a part of the ceremony was to raise an evergreen bough. The early Scandinavians are said to have done homage to the fir tree. To the Druids, sprigs of evergreen in the house meant eternal life; to the Norsemen, they symbolized the revival of the sun god Balder. To the superstitious, the branches of evergreens placed over the door would keep out witches, ghosts, and the evil spirits.

This does not mean that our present Christmas-tree custom might perforce have evolved from paganism, any more than did some of the present-day use of greenery in rituals. Trees and branches can be made purposeful as well as symbolic. The decorated Christmas tree has become an accepted tradition during yuletide, and Christmas would be incomplete without it.

Through the years the tradition has become so well established that two-thirds of all American homes now follow the custom. The Christmas tree is a symbol of a living Christmas spirit and brings into our lives the fragrance and freshness of the forest.

Just how Christmas-tree decorations other than lights developed is vague. It may be that tufts of cotton and strings of popcorn were used on the branches as a substitute for snow in the manner Martin Luther used candles to represent lights on the snow-flecked evergreens. Fruit, such as apples, was easy to attach to the trees and provided color, as did strings of cranberries. Pictures or models of foodstuffs, such as hams and bacons, were once used as substitutes for the real items too heavy for slender branches.