subject: A Tree with Gifts [print this page] A Tree with Gifts A Tree with Gifts
A Tree with Gifts
Christmas trees, decorated or "trimmed" apparently were first used inthis country during the Revolutionary War by Hessian soldiers who,hired to fight for England, were thinking of the customs in theirGerman homeland. An account of the festivities here at Fort Dearborn,in 1804, mentions a spruce Christmas tree. Some say that a HarvardProfessor from Germany had one in 1824. There is reliable evidencethat there was such a tree in Cambridge, Mass., in 1832; and inPhiladelphia two years later. The idea and the tradition spread rapidlythrough this country.
There are many legends about the origin of the Christmas tree,including the story that Martin Luther, strolling through the moonlitcountryside one Christmas Eve, about 1535 AD, was so enchantedwith the sparkle of the stars and the moonshine reflected by theglistening snowflakes on the evergreens that he cut a small tree, took ithome to his family, and put small lighted candles on it to simulatethose reflections. There are also legends in the Norse, French, Englishand other folklore. We do know that in Strasbourg, on the Rhine, therewere Christmas trees in 1604, although there is no mention of lights ordecorations. The custom gradually spread over all of Germany, toFinland in about 1800, thence to the other Scandinavian countries, andto England and France. Now, the Christmas tree is common in all Christian countries exceptSpain, Italy, and some of Latin America -- where the custom is to erecta miniature reproduction of the stable and the manger where Christwas born. Even the Japanese have adopted the Christmas tree,decorating it with tangerines and delicate rice wafers which enclosefortune-telling slips. In the United States the decorations at first, if any, consisted mostly ofstrings of popcorn or tufts of cotton as symbols of snow on thebranches. Chains of white or colored paper, and strings of cranberriesor of red haws, were also used. Candies, cookies, nuts, and fruit suchas apples and oranges, were hung on the branches; sometimes picturesor models of hams, bacons, pumpkins and other food-stuffs. Manufactured strings of tinsel or glass balls, and baubles of glass ortin, gradually came into use; also striped candy canes and "icicles" oftinfoil; and, finally, colored electric lights of various shapes and sizes,to replace the candles responsible for so many fires and deaths. Manytrees are now sprayed with a mist of metallic or plastic paint, or micaflakes, simulating frost and snow. In Sweden and Norway, the Christmas tree is decorated with gold andsilver stars, strips of colored paper, and miniature flags, of manynations, strung in garlands. In Sicily, olive trees decorated withoranges are sometimes used. Swiss trees, on which are hung gailydecorated pine cones and gilded nuts, have the snow of the Alpsreproduced in cotton. A French tree may have sugar bon-boons andexquisite paper ornaments. In Poland, the tree is decorated withbrightly-colored-paper peasants, paper clowns and miniature toys. TheUkrainian tree, hung with long garlands of bright red cranberries, istopped by the six-pointed star of the Orthodox Green Church and,symbolic of the manger in Bethlehem, has a heap of straw at the base.In Lithuania, straw from the fields is laboriously fashioned intowindmills, bird cages, bells and geometric designs, to be hung uponthe Christmas tree. In Holland, beneath the tree, the children leavetheir wooden shoes, filled with hay for St. Nicholas' white horse onwhich he jumps from roof to roof. May all of you have a happy merry Christmas all can have a nice Christmas tree.
