O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree: Why do we deck thy branches?

The Christmas tree is one of the most universally recognized symbols for both the secular and religious observations of the holiday. But did you know that the practice of decorating Christmas trees has a long, colorful, and even dangerous history? Christmas trees as we know them originated in Germany. As early as the 16th century, people began to bring small trees into their homes to celebrate December 24th, the feast day of Adam and Eve. This tradition grew from medieval Christian plays that featured fir trees adorned with apples. These trees were called “paradise trees,” as the plays, intended to help teach the Bible to often illiterate audiences, told the story of the Garden of Eden. In the 1700s, trees continued to be hauled inside and decorated with candles, the flickering firelight intended to symbolically represent Christ as the light of the world. Other early decorations were edible. Fruit and cookies were common. It was in the 1800s that the tradition became widespread in England with Prince Albert, a native of Germany and the husband of Queen Victoria. In addition to cookies and candles, small toy gifts and popcorn garlands began to be used as decor. An influx of German immigrants about this time brought these Christmas tree traditions to America. These early trees continued to be decorated primarily with candles and homemade treats. Shiny glass balls didn’t make it to America or Britain until about the 1880s. About the same time, weighted candle holders were introduced to make the candles more stable. There are many tragic tales of Christmas tree candles starting fires that burned homes, schools, and even hospitals; some of these fires killed dozens. The dangers were such that insurance companies began refusing to pay out for Christmas tree fires about 1900. Electric holiday lights were thought of as a lavish decoration when they debuted in 1882, with the price of a strand of lights and the cost of electricity to power them out of reach for many. But strands of electric lights soon grew in popularity as Christmas tree decorations—right along with the country’s electric grid. In 1925 only half of American households had electricity. By 1960 almost all houses did, and electric holiday lights had almost wholly replaced candles. Live fire was not the only dangerous Christmas tree decor, however. Tinsel, which was originally crafted from silver, may have been a featured accoutrement of some early German Christmas trees. Because silver was expensive and tarnished, however, other metals were substituted. The most common one was lead, as the risks of lead poisoning weren’t known until the 1960s. Tinsel is now made of PVC, so feel free to fling handfuls of it at your tree. When commercial Christmas tree sales began in 1851 in the U.S., sellers harvested trees at will from local forests. In the 21st century, most Christmas trees sold commercially in the United States come from Christmas tree farms, with more than 350,000 acres planted annually. Some people still prefer to cut their own, though: the state of Alaska, for example, allows residents to harvest one tree from state land each year.