Christmas Trees
"My woods - the young fir balsams like a place, where houses all are churches and have spires". Robert Frost
Feasting during the dark days of midwinter is a common practice in many religions and cultures. In Britain the Celts (around 700 BCE to 400 CE) believed that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter. To conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year, they kept a Yule log burning continually throughout that time.
As with all Pagan traditions this was incorporated into the Christian calendar as the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’. A large Yule log would be chosen, and at the end of the celebrations a small, unburnt part of the log was kept, to light the new Yule log next year.
Until modern times decorations were limited to greenery and the few berries & flowers left in winter. Now with electricity and plastic we can add light & sparkle, but I still love old fashioned decorations, especially the Christmas tree.
In the timeline of decorations, the Christmas tree is fairly recent1. The custom of bringing a small tree into the house began in medieval Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), and early modern Germany. A chronicle from Strasbourg written in 1604, records that Protestant artisans brought fir trees into their homes during the holiday season, and decorated them with "roses made of coloured paper, apples, wafers, tinsel2, sweetmeats, etc.”
One clear, dark winter night, when the stars shone their brightest, a father was inspired to make the family Christmas tree twinkle like the stars. He bound candles with wires and attached them to the tree, thus starting the tradition of Christmas tree lights. The father was the German religious reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546).
In 1800, at Windsor, Queen Charlotte3, the German wife of King George III was the first person in Britain to include a Christmas tree in her celebrations. Prince Albert, who married Queen Victoria in 1840 was also German. They were responsible for popularising the Christmas tree in Britain; when an engraving of the family decorating their tree appeared in newspapers.
Nowadays there are many different types of Christmas trees. When I was a child in Scotland, we decorated a small fir tree, taken from the woods behind our house. In southern England, near my aunt’s house, a couple hung hundreds of silver baubles on a tree in their front garden, where it could be seen from the pavement. I loved seeing the baubles every year; they were placed on lower and lower branches every year, as the couple grew older, and less able to reach the high branches.
There is also the Bavarian tradition of the Bride’s Tree. A dozen ornaments are hung on a Christmas tree to ensure a harmonious & prosperous life for the new couple. For instance, a fruit basket (symbolising generosity), a heart (representing true love), a house (for protection), and a pine cone (for fertility). If you would like to buy a set for some newlyweds click here.
Modern Christmas is heavily commercialised, with millions of people now buying trees. Should we be taking a tree from the countryside at all? This poem Christmas Trees was written by Robert Frost in 1916 and discusses the matter. He included the poem in a letter he wrote to friends.
The city had withdrawn into itself And left at last the country to the country; When between whirls of snow not come to lie And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove A stranger to our yard, who looked the city, Yet did in country fashion in that there He sat and waited till he drew us out A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was. He proved to be the city come again To look for something it had left behind And could not do without and keep its Christmas. He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees; My woods—the young fir balsams like a place Where houses all are churches and have spires. I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees. I doubt if I was tempted for a moment To sell them off their feet to go in cars And leave the slope behind the house all bare, Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon. I’d hate to have them know it if I was. Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except As others hold theirs or refuse for them, Beyond the time of profitable growth, The trial by market everything must come to. I dallied so much with the thought of selling. Then whether from mistaken courtesy And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether From hope of hearing good of what was mine, I said, “There aren’t enough to be worth while.” “I could soon tell how many they would cut, You let me look them over.” “You could look. But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.” Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close That lop each other of boughs, but not a few Quite solitary and having equal boughs All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to, Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one, With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.” I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so. We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over, And came down on the north. He said, “A thousand.” “A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?” He felt some need of softening that to me: “A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.” Then I was certain I had never meant To let him have them. Never show surprise! But thirty dollars seemed so small beside The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents (For that was all they figured out apiece), Three cents so small beside the dollar friends I should be writing to within the hour Would pay in cities for good trees like those, Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools Could hang enough on to pick off enough. A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had! Worth three cents more to give away than sell, As may be shown by a simple calculation. Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter. I can’t help wishing I could send you one, In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.
Do you have special decorations that you love, that bring back happy memories of past festivities and loved ones? Take pictures and tell their stories.
I won’t post next week, but I will post on the Saturday before the New Year.
I wish you & your loved ones a wonderful time over the festive period.
Click on this link if you want to know more about the history of Christmas Greenery.
17th century tinsel was made from thinly sliced silver, it was very expensive and must have quickly tarnished.
The same Queen Charlotte as in the Bridgerton TV series.
Lovely. Swedish wheat weavings are tree ornaments I crafted in 1978 that have stood the test of time the same way as a grandchild I found myself fascinated by the red and green construction paper weavings on their basalm fir.
Well done, Kate. I always learn something by reading your stories.