A Christmas tree is an evergreen tree, usually a pine, spruce, or fir, that is decorated with lights and decorations as part of the Christmas season. Fresh-cut, potted, or artificial Christmas trees are utilized as both inside and outdoor decorations. While the trees have historically been connected with Christian iconography, their current applications are mostly secular. Many families would wrap gifts around an indoor Christmas tree and unwrap them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews had a custom of using evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to signify perpetual life. Tree worship was common among pagan Europeans, and it survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian rituals of adorning the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to ward off the Devil, as well as placing up a tree for the birds during the Christmas season. It survived further in the custom of putting a Yule tree at an entryway or inside the house during the midwinter holidays, which is also celebrated in Germany christmas tree shops.
However, the contemporary Christmas tree originates in western Germany. A “paradise tree,” a fir tree laden with apples, symbolizes the Garden of Eden in a classic medieval drama about Adam and Eve. On December 24, the Catholic feast day of Adam and Eve, Germans decorate their homes with a paradise tree. They hung wafers on it (to represent the eucharistic host, the Christian emblem of salvation); subsequent traditions substituted the wafers with cookies of different forms. Candles, symbolic of Christ as the light of the world, were often included christmas tree clipart. The “Christmas pyramid,” a triangular wood building with shelves to house Christmas figures and decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star, was also in the same room. The Christmas pyramid and the paradise tree had combined by the 16th century, giving rise to the Christmas tree.
By the 18th century, the custom was prevalent among German Lutherans, but it was not until the next century that the became a deeply ingrained German institution. The Christmas tree was introduced into England in the early nineteenth century and was popularized in the mid-19th century by German-born Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. The Victorian tree was decorated with toys and small presents, candles, candies, popcorn strings, and elegant cakes hanging from the branches with ribbons and paper chains. Christmas trees, which were brought to North America by German immigrants as early as the 17th century, were at the height of popularity by the 19th century. Austria, Switzerland, Poland, and the Netherlands were also big fans black christmas tree. Christmas trees were introduced by Western missionaries in China and Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries and decorated with beautiful paper decorations white christmas tree.
Blown-glass ornaments were available for purchase in the United Kingdom and the United States as early as the 1870s, with many manufactured in tiny businesses in Germany and Bohemia that also made decorations out of tinsel, cast lead, beads, pressed paper, and cotton batting. By 1890, F.W. Woolworth was selling $25 million in ornaments each year in the United States, and electric tree lights were now available. The United States created artificial trees constructed of brush bristles in the 1930s, and aluminum and PVC plastic trees were mass produced in the 1950s and 1960s. Artificial trees grew in popularity, especially in countries where fresh trees were scarce.
Norway spruce (Picea abies) is a European native that is planted in North America for decorative and commercial Christmas trees decorations.
In the United States and Europe, common species of fresh trees include pines, such as white pine (Pinus strobus), Scotch pine (P. sylvestris), and Virginia pine (P. virginiana); firs, notably balsam fir (Abies balsamea), Fraser fir (A. fraseri), grand fir (A. grandis), noble fir (A. procera), silver fir (A. alba), and white fir (A. concolor); and certain spruces, such as Norway spruce (Picea abies), blue spruce (P. pungens), and white spruce (P. glauca). Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), a non-true fir, is also common. Different cypresses and cedars are also utilized, however they are more usually seen in evergreen wreaths and other decorations christmas tree shop.
Top Questions
Where did the modern Christmas tree originate?
The contemporary Christmas tree began in Germany, when households decorated their homes with a paradise tree on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. Wafers were hung on it to represent the Eucharistic host, the Christian symbolic of salvation. Candles, symbolic of Jesus Christ as the light of the world, were often included.
When did the Christmas tree become popular in England?
In the early nineteenth century, the Christmas tree was introduced into England. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, popularized the tree in the mid-nineteenth century.
When did the artificial Christmas tree first appear?
In the 1880s, Germans started constructing artificial goose-feather trees for Christmas. Trees constructed from brush bristles were more popular in the United States throughout the 1930s. Aluminum and plastic tree manufacture reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. Artificial trees are now commonly used, especially in countries where it is difficult to get genuine trees.
