Christmas
Trees
Christmas
Trees
The Christmas
tree is one of the most popular and cherished Christmas customs.
Each year, 35-40 million live trees are purchased and decorated
in the United States alone. But when, where, and how did this
custom begin? What is the origin of the Christmas tree? What
does it mean?
Many answers to these questions
have been offered on the Internet. Some are completely
erroneous. Some make no distinction between history and legend.
Unfortunately, none of them give sources for their assertions
about the Christmas tree (a problem with most web articles!).
Given that dependable scholarly sources about the history of the
Christmas tree are hard to come by, citation-less Christmas tree
web pages are understandable.
In doing the research for this article, I found three works
especially helpful. The first is Christmas in Ritual and
Tradition, Christian and Pagan by Clement A. Miles. Though now a
bit dated, Mile's work made use of the best scholarship of the
time, much of which has not been improved upon, and therefore is
still a valuable resource. Of equal value is Francis X. Weiser's
Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. Weiser's work only
devotes several chapters to the customs of Christmas, but these
are well researched and articulated. I also found The Solstice
Evergreen by Sheryl Ann Karas to be helpful. Karas has done an
admirable job researching the various ways that the evergreen
has been used in various cultures over the centuries and this is
the book's strength.
What was the origin of the
Christmas tree? As much as I would like to embrace as fact the
oft- quoted story that Martin Luther was the first to set up a
Christmas tree (or at least a lighted one), I cannot -- for the
story is pure legend. Many years of intensive Luther scholarship
has turned up nothing to support it. There is scholarly
consensus, however, that the Christmas tree originated in
Germany. Indeed, the earliest record of an evergreen tree being
used and decorated (but without lights) for Christmas is 1521 in
the German region of Alsace.7 Another
useful description has been found among the notes of an unknown
resident of Strasbourg in 1605, who writes that "At Christmas
they set up fir trees in the parlors at Strasburg and hang
thereon roses cut of many- colored paper, apples, wafers,
gold-foil, sweets . . ." Some fifty years later (about 1650) the
great Lutheran theologian Johann Dannhauer wrote in his The Milk
of the Catechism that "the Christmas or fir tree, which people
set up in their houses, hang with dolls and sweets, and
afterwards shake and deflower. . . Whence comes this custom I
know not; it is child's play . . . Far better were it to point
the children to the spiritual cedar-tree, Jesus Christ."
Several conclusions can be gleaned from these quotations. First,
we are told some of the items with which the first Christmas
trees were decorated: paper roses, apples, Communion wafers,
gold, foil, sweets, and dolls. Second, even in 1650 a noted
scholar like Dannhauer did not know the origin of Christmas
trees. Third, not all Christians approved of these trees, even
in the beginning. Fourth, the first Christmas trees, as far as
we know, did not have lights. According to Weiser, the first
mention of lights (candles) on a Christmas tree is in the
seventeenth century.
From the mid-seventeenth century on the Christmas tree slowly
grew in popularity and use. However, it was not until the
beginning of the 19th century that the use of the Christmas tree
grew into the general German custom that it is today. Also at
this time it spread to the Slavic people of eastern Europe. The
Christmas tree was probably first used in America about 1700
when the first wave of German immigration settled in western
Pennsylvania. During the War of Independence, Hessian soldiers
supposedly set up Christmas trees. It is widely held that the
Christmas tree was first introduced into France in 1837 when
Princess Helen of Mecklenburg brought it to Paris after her
marriage to the Duke of Orléans. The Christmas tree made its
royal debut in England when Prince Albert of Saxony, the husband
of Queen Victoria, set up a tree in Windsor Castle in 1841.
After this it grew in popularity, though in 1850 Charles Dickens
was still referring to it as a "new German toy."
But from where did Christians get the idea of the Christmas
tree? Was it a new idea or was there a historical custom upon
which they were building?
Karas has amply demonstrated that evergreens have been a symbol
of rebirth from ancient times. Bringing greenery into one's
home, often at the time of the winter solstice, symbolized life
in the midst of death in many cultures. The Romans decked their
homes with evergreens and other greenery during the Kalends of
January. Living trees were also brought into homes during the
old German feast of Yule, which originally was a two-month feast
beginning in November. The Yule tree was planted in a tub and
brought into the home. However, the evidence just does not exist
which shows that Christians first used trees at Christmas as a
symbol of rebirth, nor that the Christmas tree was a direct
descendent of the Yule tree. On the contrary, the evidence that
we have points in another direction. The Christmas tree appears
to be a descendent of the Paradise tree and the Christmas light
of the late Middle Ages.
From the eleventh century, religious plays called "mystery
plays" became quite popular throughout Europe. These plays were
performed outdoors and in churches. One of the most prevalent of
these plays was the "Paradise play." The play depicted the story
of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin, and their banishment
from Paradise. The play would end with the promise of the coming
Savior and His Incarnation (cf. Gen. 3:15). The Paradise play
was simple by today's standards. The only prop on stage was the
"Paradise tree," a fir tree adorned with apples. From this tree,
at the appropriate time in the play, Eve would take the fruit,
eat it, and give it to Adam.
Because of abuses that crept into the mystery plays (i.e.,
immoral behavior), the Church forbade these plays during the
fifteenth century. The people had grown so accustomed to the
Paradise tree, however, that they began putting their own
Paradise tree up in their homes on Dec. 24. They did so on Dec.
24 because this was the feast day of Adam and Eve (at least in
the Eastern Church). The Paradise tree, as it had in the
Paradise plays, symbolized both a tree of sin and a tree of
life. For this reason, the people would decorate these trees
with apples (representing the fruit of sin) and homemade wafers
(like communion wafers which represented the fruit of life).
Later, candy and sweets were added.
Another custom was to be found in the homes of Christians on
Dec. 24 since the late Middle Ages. A large candle called the
"Christmas light," symbolizing Christ who is the light of the
world, was lit on Christmas Eve. In western Germany, many
smaller candles were set upon a wooden pyramid and lit. Besides
the candles, other objects such as glass balls, tinsel, and the
"star of Bethlehem" were placed on its top.
Though we cannot be certain, it seems highly likely that the
first Christmas trees that appeared in Germany in the early
sixteenth century were descendants of both of these customs: the
Paradise tree and the Christmas pyramids and lights. The
Paradise tree became our Christmas tree. Decorations that had
been placed on the pyramids were transferred to the Christmas
tree.
For many Christians the Christmas tree still retains the
symbolism of the Paradise tree. The tree reminds us of the tree
in Eden by which Adam and Eve were overcome and which thrust
them into sin. But more importantly, the tree reminds us of the
tree by which our sin was overcome, namely the tree upon which
Christ Jesus was crucified. Is it a stretch to refer to the
cross as a tree? Hardly, for this is the language of the New
Testament itself! For example, Paul writes in Galatians 3:13,
"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung
on a tree" (quoting Deut. 21:23). And Peter writes, "He himself
bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to
sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been
healed." Therefore, the Christmas tree is a wonderful symbol and
reminder of our salvation and forgiveness through Jesus Christ!
Some other interesting facts about the Christmas tree, some of
which I haven't yet substantiated from the sources (so use at
your own risk!) are:
- The first retail Christmas
stand was set up by Mark Carr in New York City in 1851.
- Franklin Pierce was the first
president to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House
in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School children.
- The first lighted Christmas
tree in public was in Boston in 1912.
- The first national Christmas
Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by
President Calvin Coolidge.
