The Christmas tree is a decorated artificial or living tree, a popular tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. Normally an evergreen coniferous tree that is brought into a home or used in the open, a Christmas tree is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful ornaments during the days around Christmas. An angel or star is often placed at the top of the tree, representing the host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity story.
History
Pre-Christian roots
Historically, there has been opposition to the custom of the Christmas tree because of its pagan origins. In 1851, parishioners in Cleveland, Ohio, USA condemned as a pagan practice the actions of the pastor, Henry Schwan, for decorating one of the earliest Christmas trees in an American Christian church. Robert Chambers in his 1832 Book of Days asserts that the festivities of Christmas "originally derived from the Roman Saturnalia, had afterwards been intermingled with the ceremonies observed by the British Druids at the period of winter-solstice, and at a subsequent period became incorporated with the grim mythology of the ancient Saxons. Two popular observances belonging to Christmas are more especially derived from the worship of our pagan ancestors—the hanging up of the mistletoe and the burning of the Yule log." Regarding the Christmas tree itself, Chambers assumes that it "seems to be a very ancient custom in Germany, and is probably a remnant of the splendid and fanciful pageants of the Middle Ages."
Other traditions relating to Christmas that may derive from Germanic pagan practices include the Christmas ham, Yule Goat, stuffing stockings, elements of Santa Claus and his nocturnal ride through the sky, and elements of Alpine folklore.
There are also some accounts that place the earliest Christmas trees in Riga or in the Baltic (variously Estonia or Latvia), in both countries that the merchants of the Brotherhood of Black Heads guild have wrote papers about carrying trees to the city center, but with no mention what kind of tree did they talk about, in German bom doesn't necessarily mean a Christmas tree. In Tallinn the first document mentions such trees already in 1441.
While the Christmas tree's pagan roots are generally accepted, there still are various legends of Christian origins for the tradition. Such legends often relate to Saint Boniface. Such as: Boniface, in the process of converting local pagans, cuts down Thor's Oak, a hallowed tree for the locals, and claims a fir tree growing in the Oak's roots to be a new symbol Jesus Christ for the converted locals. Francis Weisler argued that Christmas trees are “completely Christian in origin" and that "the Yule tree had no direct pagan connotation..."
Origin
The custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be traced to 16th century Germany, though neither an inventor nor a single town can be identified as the sole origin for the tradition. The earliest that a pine tree was ever used and decorated for Christmas was in 1521 in Germany (in the region of Alsace). From this singular point in time, we see the rapid spread of this tradition throughout Germany and eventually the world. "It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, that it spread rapidly and grew into a general German custom, which was soon accepted also by the Slavic people of Eastern Europe…" In the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539, the church record mentions the erection of a Christmas tree. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small fir was decorated with apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers, and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day. Another early reference is from Basel, where the tailor apprentices carried around town a tree decorated with apples and cheese in 1597.
In some accounts, Martin Luther is credited with adding lights and decoration to fir branches traditionally hung from ceilings.
18th and 19th century
By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles are attested from the late 18th century. The Christmas tree remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long time. It was regarded as a Protestant custom by the Roman Catholic majority along the lower Rhine and was spread there only by Prussian officials who were moved there in the wake of the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Just like Christmas (Germanic Yuletide), the Christmas tree was "adopted" by the Roman Catholic Church because it could not prevent its use.
In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years. In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d'Orléans.
In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the time of the personal union with Hanover, by George III's Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in early 1800's, but the custom hadn't yet spread much beyond the royal family. Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with the custom. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote, "After dinner...we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room...There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees...". After her marriage to her German cousin, Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became even more widespread throughout Britain. In 1847, Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be".
A woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in the Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in Godey's Lady's Book (illustration, left). Godey's copied it exactly, except removed the Queens crown, and Prince Alberts moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene. The republished Godey's image in 1850, the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America, Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria shorn of their royal trappings; "the first influential American Christmas tree". The book containing the image of the family surrounding a decorated tree, folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states; "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850-60 than Godey's Lady's Book ". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America.
Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree: Windsor Locks, Connecticut, claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House, while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821—leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America. Other accounts credit Charles Follen, a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce to America the custom of decorating a Christmas tree. August Imgard, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, is the first to popularise the practice of decorating a tree with candy canes. In 1847, Imgard cut a blue spruce tree from a woods outside town, had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments and candy canes. The National Confectioners' Association officially recognises Imgard as the first ever to put candy canes on a Christmas tree; the canes were all-white, with no red stripes. Imgard is buried in the Wooster Cemetery, and every year, a large pine tree above his grave is lit with Christmas lights.
20th century
Many cities, towns, and department stores put up public Christmas trees outdoors, such as the Rich's Great Tree in Atlanta, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City and the large Christmas tree at Victoria Square in Adelaide. During most of the 1970s and 1980s, the largest Christmas tree in the world was put up every year on the property of The National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. This tradi
Sarna's Christmas Tree Farm
Sarna's Christmas Tree Farm 1137 East Jefferson Street, Jefferson, Ohio 44047 Phone: 440-576-3450 Email: sarnafarm22@embarqmail.com. About Sarna's Christmas Tree Farm
index Christmas Tree Farm & Gift Shoppe
Grand River Valley Christmas Tree Farm sells beautiful quality Christmas Trees, stands, maple syrup, honey, unique handcrafted gifts, stockings, wreaths.
Ohio Christmas Tree Association
WHITEHOUSE CHRISTMAS TREE FARM WINS THE OHIO STATE FAIR FRAZEYSBURG, OH —- Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm in Lucas County won Grand Champion honors in the 2009 Ohio ...
Christmas Trees, Brenner Christmas Tree Farm, Canton,Ohio
Choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm. Scotch pine, White pine, Blue spruce, Norway spruce, Christmas tree search.
Whitehouse Christmas Tree Farm - Home
Pick the perfect Christmas tree at the Whitehouse Ohio Christmas Tree Farm.
Real christmas trees, Christmas Tree Farm Network
For a list of Christmas Tree Farms (retail) Click a State on the map, use our quick search ... New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio
Ohio Wholesale Christmas tree farms, The Christmas Tree Farm Network
Ohio Wholesale Christmas Tree Farms by The Christmas Tree Farm Network
Galehouse Tree Farms Christmas Open House - Discover Ohio
Galehouse Tree Farms Christmas Open House. Real working Christmas Tree Farm--enjoy the fresh air, walk the fields. Zeke & Rascal--our live reindeer!
Northeast Ohio Christmas Tree Farms
Northeast Ohio has a wealth of tree farms, ideal for choosing that perfect blue spruce or Fraser fir. Learn more about them here.
Christmas Trees, Brenner Christmas Tree Farm, Canton,Ohio
Scotch pine, White pine, Blue spruce, Norway spruce. Choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm, Canton, Ohio.