Roman times
The Christmas tree actually predates
Christianity by centuries! Ancient Romans decorated trees with small
pieces of metal during Saturnalia, their winter festival in honor of Saturnus,
the god of agriculture. There is much evidence to suggest that December 25th
was chosen as the day to celebrate Christ's birth in order to take over the
holiday from the pagans. (Most historians place the birth of Christ as in the
spring or summer; shepherds don't watch over their flocks in the fields in the
dead of winter! Historians believe the Emporer Constantine did this
around the year 390 to combine Christmas with the Saturn and Mithras
celebrations and also with the cult of Sol Invictus, a form of Sunday worship
that had come to Rome from Syria a century before).
Middle Ages
During the middle ages, an evergreen was
decorated with apples and called the Paradise tree, as a symbol of the feast of
Adam and Eve and was held on December 24th each year.
1400's
Tallin, Estonia claims to be the home of the
Christmas tree. A Christmas tree on Tallinn Town Hall Square was first
mentioned in 1441,according to one
Estonian website. and Wikipedia. The custom
then was to dance around the tree and celebrate, and later burn it.
1500's
The modern Christmas trees appeared in the
middle 1500's. The trees were sold at local markets and set up in
homes without any ornaments in the Strassbourg area of Alsace in
1531, which was then a part of Germany. A decorated tree is reported at Riga in
Latvia, in 1510.
1600's
The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree
came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg. The tree was decorated with paper
roses, apples and candies.
Around 1650, an English theologian, Professor
Dannhauer, wrote "amongst the other absurdities which men
are often more busied at Christmas than with the word of God, there is the
Christmas or fir tree which they erect in their houses, hang with dolls and
sweetmeats, and then shake it and cause it to shed its 'flowers'-- it is a
children's game. Far better were it to lead the children to the spiritual
cedar, Christ Jesus".
Tinsel was invented in Germany around 1610. Real
silver was used at that time, and special machines were invented to pull the
silver out into wafer thin strips for tinsel. Silver was durable, but tarnished
quickly, especially with candlelight which was used at that time. Attempts were
made to use a mixture of lead and tin, but this was heavy and tended to break
under its own weight so was not so practical. So silver was used for tinsel
right up to the mid-20th century when plastics took its place.
In the early 16th century, Martin Luther is said
to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how
the stars twinkled through the dark night. In Austria & Germany during the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung
upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and
strips of red paper.
1700's
The first record of Christmas trees in America
was for children in the German Moravian Church's settlement in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden
pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.
The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced
in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. An early
account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn,
Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United
States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania. Just as the first
trees introduced into Britain did not immediately take off, the early trees
introduced into America by the Hessian soldiers were not recorded in any
particular quantity. Even so, it is known that the Pennsylvanian German
settlements had community trees as early as 1747.
Decorations were still of a 'home-made' variety.
Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilling snowflakes and stars,
sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds
in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany
together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were
often placed into wooden hoops for safety.
1800's - The tree really
catches on in the English speaking countries
Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of
decorating trees in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1842.
Somewhere around 1846 - 48, Queen Victoria's
husband, Prince Albert, was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to
Windsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historians state that in actuality
Queen Charlotte, Victoria's grandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in
the Queen's lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800. It is certain that
in the Illustrated London News in 1846, an illustration of Queen Victoria, Prince,
Albert and their children around a Christmas tree appeared. Unlike the previous
Royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at
Court immediately became fashionable - not only in Britain, but with
fashion-conscious East Coast American Society.
The decorations were tinsels, silver wire
ornaments, candles and small beads. All these had been manufactured in Germany
and East Europe since the 17th century. The custom was to have several small
trees on tables, one for each member of the family, with that persons gifts
stacked on the table under the tree.
In America, until this time, Christmas trees
were considered a quaint foreign custom. America was so geographically
large, that it tended to have 'pockets' of customs relating to the immigrants
who had settled in a particular area. It was not until the telegraph
communications really got going in the 19th century, that such customs began to
spread. Thus references to decorated trees in America before about the middle
of the 19th century are very rare. But by 1850, the Christmas tree had become
fashionable in the eastern states.
Meanwhile, in Germany, companies, like Lauscha,
began to produce fancy shaped glass bead garlands for the trees, and short
garlands made from necklace 'bugles' and beads. These were readily available in
Germany but not produced in sufficient quantities to export to Britain or
America. The Rauschgoldengel was a common sight. Literally, 'Tingled-angel',
bought from the Thuringian Christmas markets, and dressed in pure gilded tin.
Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to
the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot
in the United States. 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.
By the 1870's, Glass ornaments were being
imported into Britain from Lauscha, in Thuringia (Germany). It became a status
symbol to have glass ornaments on the tree, the more one had, the better ones
status! Still many home-made things were seen. The British Empire was growing,
and the most popular tree topper was the Union Jack (the nation's flag).
Sometimes there were flags of the Empire and flags of the allied countries.
Trees became very patriotic.
The glass ornaments started being imported into
America around 1880, where they were sold through stores such as FW Woolworth.
They were quickly followed by American patents for electric lights (1882),
(until this time candles were attached to tree branches - which resulted in a
lot of fires!) and metal hooks for safer hanging of decorations onto the trees
(1892). You can still find candle clips and tree candles in German
department stores. The artificial Christmas tree was invented in the 1880's in
Germany, to combat some of the damage being done by so many native Fir trees
being chopped for Christmas.
The main meal in England on Christmas day was
goose (if they were wealthy), ham or roast beef. Turkey is a relatively
recent addition, as turkeys are native to America and don’t do well in the
English climate. Christmas pudding, Figgy pudding and plum pudding are English
fruitcakes, saturated in brandy, that date back to the Middle Ages. Suet,
flour, sugar, raisins, nuts, and spices are tied loosely in cloth and boiled
until the ingredients are "plum," meaning they have enlarged enough
to fill the cloth. Brandy is poured over it daily for weeks until it is well
pickled! It is then unwrapped, sliced, and topped with cream or custard. You
can feel your arteries hardening just looking at it; but it still tastes better
than a fruitcake. For some reason those Claxton fruitcakes caught on
around the beginning of the 1900's in America. (Personally, I think
people are still passing around the same ones manufacture red at the turn of
the 1900 century, as no one I know would want to eat one!)
1900's
The Christmas tree popularity died down somewhat
in the UK after the death of Queen Victoria. but in the 1930's (in Britain)
there was a revival of Dickensian nostalgia, particularly in Britain. Christmas
cards all sported Crinoline ladies with muffs and bonnets popular in the
1840's. Christmas Trees became large, and real again, and were decorated with
many bells, balls and tinsels, and with a beautiful golden haired angel at the
top.
But wartime England put a stop to many of these
trees. It was forbidden to cut trees down for decoration, and with so many
raids, many people preferred to keep their most precious heirloom Christmas
tree decorations carefully stored away in metal boxes, and decorated only a
small tabletop tree with home-made decorations, which could be taken down into
the shelters for a little Christmas cheer, when the air-raid sirens went.
The first national American Christmas Tree was
lighted in the year 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.
A tree from the National Christmas Tree Association has been displayed in the
Blue Room of the White House since 1966. See Christmas Trees at the White House.
After World War II, the Christmas tree again
became popular!
The mid-1960's saw another change. Sammy Davis
Jr, and the Mod 60's were booming, and plastic was everywhere. Silver aluminum
trees became popular. The 'Silver Pine' tree, patented in the 1950's, was
designed to have a revolving light source under it, with coloured gelatine
'windows, which allowed the light to shine in different shades as it revolved
under the tree. No decorations were needed for this tree. Very "hip"!
No comments:
Post a Comment