“A Brief Story of the National Christmas Tree”
“The first National Christmas Tree,” lit on December 24, 1923, in the middle of the Ellipse. The Washington Monument is seen in the background. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
From 1924 to 1953 live trees, in various locations around and on the White House grounds, were lit on Christmas Eve. In 1954 the ceremony returned to the Ellipse and expanded its focus. Local civic and business groups created the “Christmas Pageant of Peace.” Smaller live trees representing the 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia, formed a “Pathway of Peace.”
On December 17, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower lit the cut tree donated by the people of Michigan. Cut trees continued to be used until 1973.
Center to the season’s celebration is the living National Christmas Tree, a Colorado blue spruce from York, Pennsylvania, planted on the Ellipse October 20, 1978. The tree stands as a daily reminder of the holiday spirit and of the tradition each succeeding President has participated in since 1923.
That Christmas Eve, at 5 p.m., President Calvin Coolidge walked from the White House to the Ellipse and “pushed the button” to light the cut 48-foot Balsam fir, as 3,000 enthusiastic spectators looked on. The tree, donated by Middlebury College, was from the President’s native state of Vermont.
Why Do We Have Christmas Trees?
The evergreen tree was an ancient symbol of life in the midst of winter. Romans decorated their houses with evergreen branches during the New Year, and ancient inhabitants of northern Europe cut evergreen trees and planted them in boxes inside their houses in wintertime. Many early Christians were hostile to such practices. The second-century theologian Tertullian condemned those Christians who celebrated the winter festivals, or decorated their houses with laurel boughs in honor of the emperor:
But by the early Middle Ages, the legend had grown that when Christ was born in the dead of winter, every tree throughout the world miraculously shook off its ice and snow and produced new shoots of green. At the same time, Christian missionaries preaching to Germanic and Slavic peoples were taking a more lenient approach to cultural practices—such as evergreen trees. These missionaries believed that the Incarnation proclaimed Christ’s lordship over those natural symbols that had previously been used for the worship of pagan gods. Not only individual human beings, but cultures, symbols, and traditions could be converted.
Of course, this did not mean that the worship of pagan gods themselves was tolerated. According to one legend, the eighth-century missionary Boniface, after cutting down an oak tree sacred to the pagan god Thor (and used for human sacrifice), pointed to a nearby fir tree instead as a symbol of the love and mercy of God.
Paradise trees
The most likely theory is that Christmas trees started with medieval plays. Dramas depicting biblical themes began as part of the church’s worship, but by the late Middle Ages, they had become rowdy, imaginative performances dominated by laypeople and taking place in the open air. The plays celebrating the Nativity were linked to the story of creation—in part because Christmas Eve was also considered the feast day of Adam and Eve. Thus, as part of the play for that day, the Garden of Eden was symbolized by a “paradise tree” hung with fruit.
The custom gained popularity throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, against the protests of some clergy. Lutheran minister Johann von Dannhauer, for instance, complained (like Tertullian) that the symbol distracted people from the true evergreen tree, Jesus Christ. But this did not stop many churches from setting up Christmas trees inside the sanctuary. Alongside the tree often stood wooden “pyramids”—stacks of shelves bearing candles, sometimes one for each family member. Eventually these pyramids of candles were placed on the tree, the ancestors of our modern Christmas tree lights and ornaments.
Not until the Renaissance are there clear records of trees being used as a symbol of Christmas—beginning in Latvia in 1510 and Strasbourg in 1521. Legend credits the Protestant reformer Martin Luther with inventing the Christmas tree, but the story has little historical basis.
Coolidge lights first national Christmas tree
Coolidge’s “inauguration” of the first outdoor national Christmas tree initiated a tradition that has been repeated with every administration. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan began another custom by authorizing the first official White House ornament, copies of which were made available for purchase.
On this day in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge touches a button and lights up the first national Christmas tree to grace the White House grounds.
According to the White House Historical Association, President Benjamin Harrison was the first president to set up an indoor Christmas tree for his family and visitors to enjoy in 1889. It was decorated with ornaments and candles. In 1929, first lady Lou Henry Hoover oversaw what would become an annual tradition of decorating the indoor White House tree. Since then, each first lady’s duties have included the trimming of the official White House tree.
Not only was this the first White House “community” Christmas tree, but it was the first to be decorated with electric lights–a strand of 2,500 red, white and green bulbs. The balsam fir came from Coolidge’s home state of Vermont and stood 48 feet tall. Several musical groups performed at the tree-lighting ceremony, including the Epiphany Church choir and the U.S. Marine Band. Later that evening, President Coolidge and first lady Grace were treated to carols sung by members of Washington D.C.’s First Congregational Church.
History of the Christmas Tree – What is the early symbolism of the tree?
In those early years, many Americans considered the tree an oddity that should not be displayed at Christmas because it had been pronounced as a pagan symbol. The New England “Puritans” acknowledged Christmas to be sacred, so their governor William Bradford worked to put an end to the “heathen tradition” of decorated trees. He tried to penalize any such display.
By the early 20th century Americans proudly displaying their Christmas trees! They decorated with homemade ornaments and brightly-colored popcorn which added beauty and color to the branches. The tree has now become a popular American tradition.
The History of the Artificial Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree is one of the prominent symbols throughout history that marks the time that Christmas season has arrived. Families for centuries have wandered out into the woods in the dead cold of winter to find that perfect Fir or Spruce to brighten up their living room for the holiday season. In modern times Christmas Tree lots pop up in cities and towns across America and Europe signaling the start of the season. Families have also adopted buying Artificial Christmas Trees that can last them years and years instead of cutting down a live tree.
America dates the arrival of the Christmas Tree to German settlements in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. In America settlers used Douglas Firs and Virginia Pines to decorate their living rooms. In 1847 August Imgard in Wooster Ohio decorated a blue spruce with candy canes and every year a tree is erected above his grave honoring his vision for using candy canes as tree decorations.
In the 1960’s silver aluminum pine trees were vogue and brought the Artificial Christmas tree into prominence in America. The manufactures installed a revolving light under the tree that was able to change colors and create different reflections off of the tree. These trees led to the mass production of all types of artificial pine and spruce trees in the late 1900’s and 2000’s. These artificial trees have gained in popularity as families can erect a 10 foot fake tree in their living room without a single dropped needle on the floor. And if they miss the real smell of the tree, manufacturers sell pine scented sprays to add to the ambiance.
Today families enjoy the choice of buying Artificial Christmas Trees in all shapes, colors and sizes. You can buy white, pink, green, flocked or iced Christmas trees ranging in size from 12 inches up to 40 feet. and they come pre-wired with an assortment of different types of lights to brighten your holidays.
The Chrismon Christmas Tree: History, Definition, Purpose
It began as an offering to God. God blessed the offering, and it became
a song of praise and thanksgiving to Him. It continues as a witness to His
love and His glory, as a proclamation of His holy Name through His Son,
Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.
When we look back, we see one beginning of the tree during the
Christmas season of 1940. An elderly minister, the Reverend George Pass,
came by our home to wish us a Merry Christmas. He saw the discarded
Christmas gift wrappings and asked for them. He wanted to use the pretty
papers and ribbons to make Christmas ornaments for a tree in his little
church. There was no money to buy decorations; but there was a willingness
to glorify God with the talents which he had and the materials that he could
get.
The earliest beginning was, of course, in my home as a child. The tree
in the house always seemed more beautiful than anyone else’s. My parents, I
knew, worked hard to make it so. As far back as I can remember, there was
also the Christmas at church. I recall no trees in the church during my early
childhood. The tree stood for a different kind of celebration than the one in
which people participated at church. Later when I saw Christmas trees in
churches, I ignored them as being out of place.
CHRISTMAS TREE HISTORY AND TRADITION
The tree, used as a symbol of life,is a tradition older than Christianity and not exclusive to any one Tradition has it that a young priest, who later became Saint Boniface, went to Northern Germany in the eighth century to convert the people there.. When he arrived he found them worshipping a huge oak tree because they believed there was a god within it, and they were preparing to sacrifice their young prince Olaf to the god. He stopped the sacrifice, chopped down the tree, and while living with them for a number of years, converted them to Christianity. One day as he was riding through the forest, there in the place where he had chopped down the big oak tree, was a beautiful evergreen tree. Because it stayed green all year round (it was ”ever-living”) and its top pointed toward Heaven, he called it the Christ-tree. Many years later, in the 16th century, Martin Luther brought an evergreen tree into the church to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Because the service was called the Christ Mass, the tree became known as the Christmas tree. He was the first to put decorations on the tree-candles, and he told the people that the candle light should remind them of the star of Bethlehem that led the three wise men to the stable where Jesus was born.
CHRISTMAS TREE FACTS!!!
* Approximately 150 Christmas tree farms in Texas produce 200,000 trees annually on 2500 acres.
* Texas Christmas tree growers contribute $12,000,000 each year to the Texas economy.
* Christmas trees have been grown commercially in Texas since 1977.
* Real Christmas trees provide a natural habitat for birds, rabbits and other wildlife.
* The Christmas tree “choose and cut” experience is a great way to begin the Christmas season. Start or renew your family traditions today.
* Locally grown Christmas trees are fresh because they are harvested when needed.
* Fresh-cut Christmas trees hold their needles.
* The best way to insure a fresh Christmas tree is to cut it yourself.
* Real Christmas trees are biodegradable.
* Real Christmas trees can be recycled. They can be shredded into mulch, used for refuges and feeding areas for fish ponds, used as bird feeders and installed as erosion barriers along beaches and shorelines.
* Christmas trees can be grown on land where other crops cannot be successfully grown.
* Virginia and Afghan pines are the most common Christmas trees grown in Texas.
* For every Christmas tree cut, there will be 2-3 seedlings planted.
* Thirty-six (36) million U.S. families will cut a Christmas tree this year.
* Prior to the 1950′s, most family Christmas trees came from the forest. Today over 90% of Christmas trees are plantation grown.
*Christmas trees begin life in a nursery where superior seeds or cuttings are planted and grown to a seedling status.
The First English Trees
The Christmas Tree first came to England with the Georgian Kings who came from Germany. At this time also, German Merchants living in England decorated their homes with a Christmas Tree. The British public were not fond of the German Monarchy, so did not copy the fashions at Court, which is why the Christmas Tree did not establish in Britain at that time. A few families did have Christmas trees however, probably more from the influence of their German neighbours than from the Royal Court.
The decorations were Tinsels, silver wire ornaments, candles and small beads. All these had been manufactured in Germany and East Europe since the 17th century. The custom was to have several small trees on tables, one for each member of the family, with that persons gifts stacked on the table under the tree.
The Victorian and Albert Tree
In 1846, the popular Royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were illustrated in the Illustrated London News. They were standing with their children around a Christmas Tree. Unlike the previous Royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at Court immediately became fashionable – not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The English Christmas Tree had arrived!
Decorations were still of a ‘home-made’ variety. Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were often placed into wooden hoops for safety.
Mid-Victorian Tree
The 1860′s English Tree had become more innovative than the delicate trees of earlier decades. Small toys were popularly hung on the branches, but still most gifts were placed on the table under the tree.
The German tree was beginning to suffer from mass destruction! It had become the fashion to lop off the tip off a large tree to use as a Christmas Tree, which prevented the tree from growing further. Statutes were made to prevent people having more than one tree.
Just as the first trees introduced into Britain did not immediately take off, the early trees introduced into America by the Hessian soldiers were not recorded in any particular quantity. The Pennsylvanian German settlements had community trees as early as 1747.
By the 1870′s, Glass ornaments were being imported into Britain from Lauscha, in Thuringia. It became a status symbol to have glass ornaments on the tree, the more one had, the better ones status! Still many home-made things were seen. The Empire was growing, and the popular tree topper was the Nation’s Flag, sometimes there were flags of the Empire and flags of the allied countries. Trees got very patriotic.
High Victorian Trees
The High Victorian of the 1890′s was a child’s joy to behold! As tall as the room, and crammed with glitter and tinsel and toys galore. Even the ‘middleclasses’ managed to over-decorate their trees. It was a case of ‘anything goes’. Everything that could possibly go on a tree went onto it.
By 1900 themed trees were popular. A colour theme set in ribbons or balls, a topical idea such as an Oriental Tree, or an Egyptian Tree. They were to be the last of the great Christmas Trees for some time. With the death of Victoria in 1903, the Nation went into mourning and fine trees were not really in evidence until the nostalgia of the Dickensian fashion of the 1930′s.
The American Tree
In America, Christmas Trees were introduced into several pockets – the German Hessian Soldiers took their tree customs in the 18th century. In Texas, Cattle Barons from Britain took their customs in the 19th century, and the East Coast Society copied the English Court tree customs.
Settlers from all over Europe took their customs also in the 19th century. Decorations were not easy to find in the shanty towns of the West, and people began to make their own decorations. Tin was pierced to create lights and lanterns to hold candles which could shine through the holes. Decorations of all kinds were cutout, stitched and glued. The General Stores were hunting grounds for old magazines with pictures, rolls of Cotton Batting (Cotton Wool), and tinsel, which was occasionally sent from Germany or brought in from the Eastern States. The Paper ‘Putz’ or Christmas Crib was a popular feature under the tree, especially in the Moravian Dutch communities which settled in Pennsylvania.
The British tree in the 20th century
In America, the Addis Brush Company created the first brush trees, using the same machinery which made their toilet brushes! These had an advantage over the feather tree in that they would take heavier decorations.
After 1918, because of licensing and export problems, Germany was not able to export its decorations easily. The market was quickly taken up by Japan and America, especially in Christmas Tree lights.
Real Christmas Trees were popular, but many housewives preferred the convenience of the authentic looking artificial trees which were being manufactured. If your room was big enough, you could have a 14 foot artificial Spruce right there in your living room, without a single dropped needle – and so good that it fooled everyone at first glance. There are even pine scented sprays to put on the tree for that ‘real tree smell’!
America made a return to Victorian nostalgia in the 1970′s, and it was a good decade later that Britain followed the fashion. By the at first this was a refreshing look, and manufacturers realising the potential created more and more fantastic decorations. Some American companies specialised in antique replicas, actually finding the original makers in Europe to recreate wonderful glass ornaments, real silver tinsels and pressed foil ‘Dresdens’.
The Christmas Story: The History of Christmas
How it All Got Started
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.
The Yule Log
When families bring home their Christmas tree from a sales lot or a choose-and-cut tree farm, they are following a tradition that is more than a thousand years old. “Bringing in the Yule log” was a ritual that began in Great Britain and that spread throughout Europe, eventually reaching North America. On Christmas Eve, the large central trunk of a great tree was dragged from the forest. Everyone in the family, both adults and children, helped with the job by pulling on the ropes. When the log was finally brought into the house, it was thrown on the family fireplace where it burned for the 12 days of Christmas. Many superstitions surrounded the log: it had to be ignited the first time a flame was put to it or bad luck would surely follow; it had to be lit with a stick saved from the fire from the year before or the house would burn down; and unless charcoal from the great fire was kept under the family beds for the following year, the house might be struck by lightning. As the Yule log spread through Europe it acquired many customs and many names. In Ireland, it was called “bloc na Nodleg”, or Christmas block. In Spain, children followed the log as it was dragged through the village, beating it with sticks to drive out the evil spirits; they were rewarded with gifts of nuts and chocolates by people who lived along the way. In the Balkan areas of Europe, women decorated the log with red silk, gold wire, needles and flowers before it was thrown into the fire. Hardly anyone burns a Yule log anymore, but some memories of it remain. In French homes, instead of Christmas cake, children enjoy a rich chocolate roll covered with a dark brown frosting that looks just like bark. Sometimes the “buche de Noel”, or Christmas log, is decorated with frosted berries and holly needles, or with marzipan mushrooms, as a reminder of the great logs that were once dragged from the forest.
The Story of Christmas Cards
The first Christmas card was made by Sir Henry Cole who worked for the British Postal Service. He hired an artist to create three scenes – in the middle a family sat around the dinner table, on the left, the hungry were being fed and on the right, the needy were being clothed. The familiar greeting “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You” was written on it. English schoolboys also wrote greeting cards to their parents as proof of how well they could write.
The History of Electric Christmas Tree Lights
A pretty as well as novel Christmas tree was shown to a few friends by Mr. E. H. Johnson, President of the Edison Company for Electric Lighting, last evening in his residence, No. 139 East Thirty-sixth-street. The tree was lighted by electricity, and children never beheld a brighter tree or one more highly colored than the children of Mr. Johnson when the current was turned (sic) and the tree began to revolve. Mr. Johnson has been experimenting with house lighting by electricity for some time past, and he determined that his children should have a novel Christmas tree.
It stood about six feet high, in an upper room, last evening, and dazzled persons entering the room. There were 120 lights on the tree, with globes of different colors, while the light tinsel work and usual adornment of Christmas trees appeared to their best advantage in illuminating the tree. Mr. Johnson had placed a little Edison dynamo at the foot of the tree, which, by passing a current through from the large dynamo in the cellar of the house, converted it into a motor. By means of this motor the tree was made to revolve with a steady, regular motion. The lights were divided into six sets, one set of which was lighted at a time in front as the tree went round. By a simple devise (sic) of breaking and making connection through copper bands around the tree with corresponding buttons, the sets of lights were turned out and on at regular intervals as the tree turned around. The first combination was of pure white light, then, as the revolving tree severed the connection of the current that supplied it and made connection with a second set, red and white lights appeared. Then came yellow and white and other colors. Even combinations of the colors were made. By dividing the current from the large dynamo, Mr. Johnson could stop the motion of the tree without putting out the lights …
The Paradise Tree
In the middle ages, many people were illiterate and books were scarce, so educational plays were made to teach early Christian the stories in the bible. According to Teacher Link, one of these, the Paradise Play, tells the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was presented around Christmas every year and featured an evergreen tree decorated with apples as the only stage prop. Eventually families began to bring trees into their own homes, with the tree and its decorations being symbolic for eternal life (the tree), the first sin (apples), and small fruits and toys symbolizing redemption.
History of the Christmas Tree for Children
While it may be called the “Christmas tree” now, the concept of a winter celebration involving trees predates Christianity by almost 1000 years. The history of the modern Christmas tree starts in ancient Rome and journeys through Germany and Elizabethan England to become the celebration it is today.
Saturnalia and the Health of the Gods
*Many ancient cultures believed that winter was caused by an illness in the sun god (such as the Egyptian Ra and the Scandinavian Viking’s Balder). Although the sun god’s name varied by culture, most had one or a god of agriculture, such as Saturn. Winter solstice (December 21st or 22nd) was considered the point at which the sun god began to grow stronger. Evergreen plants were symbolic reminders of the coming spring.
Saturnalia was a feast celebrating the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn. Romans decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs and small trees decorated with metal, exchanging gifts as symbols of brotherhood and affection. It was a celebration of peace and equality, and wars could not be declared during this period. Slaves were allowed to participate, even eating at the same table as their masters. Although most historians believe that Christ was born in spring, it is believed that Emperor Constantine chose December 25 as the day of celebrating Christ’s birth in an attempt to take over the pagan celebrations.