The Christmas tree is one of the most popular
and cherished Christmas traditions. Each year, millions of live
trees are purchased and decorated in the United States alone. But
when, where, and how did this custom begin?
The
earliest record of an evergreen tree being used and decorated (but
without lights) for Christmas is 1521 in Germany. Bringing greenery
into one's home, often at the time of the winter solstice, symbolized
life in the midst of death in many cultures. Fir trees were set
up in the parlors and decorated with colorful roses, colored paper,
apples, wafers, gold-foil, and sweets.
It is believed that the Christmas tree was first
brought to America about 1700 when the first wave of German immigration
settled in western Pennsylvania. During the War of Independence,
Hessian soldiers were said to set up Christmas trees. The Christmas
tree made its royal debut in England when Prince Albert of Germany,
the husband of Queen Victoria, set up a tree decorated in the finest
of hand blown glass ornaments 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." F.W. Woolworth
brought the glass ornament tradition to the United States in 1890.
But the custom spread slowly. The Puritans banned
Christmas in New England. Even as late as 1851, a Cleveland minister
nearly lost his job because he allowed a tree in his church.
The Christmas tree market was born in 1851 when
Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds of evergreens into
New York City and sold them all. Christmas tree farms sprang up
during the depression. Nurserymen couldn't sell their evergreens
for landscaping, so they cut them for Christmas trees. Cultivated
trees were preferred because they have a more symmetrical shape
then wild ones.
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. By 1900, one in five American families had
a Christmas tree, and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.
The first national Christmas Tree was presented in the year 1923
on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.
Sources: http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/chrtree.htm
and http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html
