This week’s column: O Christmas Tree

In my search for the history behind our holiday traditions, I decided nothing says Christmas more than the evergreen Christmas Tree. Oh wait — I apologize, make that “Holiday Tree,” “X-mas Tree,” or “Gift Bush.”
I want to be sure I don’t offend anyone.
The tree brings out the holiday spirit in everyone – almost.
People from around the world come to New York City just to watch someone flip a light switch on the giant tree in Rockefeller Center.
The White House hosts a huge ceremony and party each year to bring in the annual Tannenbaum.
According the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association, nearly 200,000 trees are produced annually on approximately 150 Christmas tree farms in Texas.
The tree growers contribute over $12-million to the Texas economy each year.
Robert Feigly who’s operating his second Christmas tree stand in Waxahachie this year, said there’s nothing quite like a fresh cut Christmas tree.
Feigly’s trees vary in size, but he said that most people are looking for an eight to twelve-foot tree.
“I have a 21-foot tree coming this weekend,” Feigly said. “And I have a feeling it will be gone almost right away.”
The trees average in price around $65 a piece.
“People who choose artificial trees miss out on the Christmas experience,” Feigly said. “You miss the smells, the family time while picking out the tree and then taking time to decorate the tree as a family. A lot of people with artificial trees will decorate them and then store it in a closet for next year — with all the decorations on it. You don’t get to enjoy time with your family while decorating it each year.”
While many believe the Christmas tree is an American Christian tradition, others hold firm that the symbol of the season originated in many pagan cultures.
The idea of the evergreen tree represents a celebration of continuing renewal of life and a number of medieval legends tended to concentrate on the miraculous “flowering” of the evergreen trees at Christmastime.
According to German medieval chronicler, Adam Bremenis, aka Adam of Bremen, Scandinavian kings sacrificed nine males of different species, including slaves, by suspending them on the branches of trees.
And while the medieval stories sound frightenly familiar to our tradition of hanging ornaments on an evergreen, there’s no specific proof tying our modern day tradition with the horrific tales of the past.
Our modern traditions can however be traced to a 16th century professor. Professor Ingeborg Weber-Keller identified a reference to reports of a small fir decorated with apples, dates, nuts and paper flowers to benefit the children of a local working guild.
Another story tells of a tailor’s apprentices that carried a tree around town, decorated with apples and cheese.
It’s suggested by some that both of these references were spurred by a family tradition begun by Protestant theologian Martin Luther. The tree has often been used to illustrate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, for its triangle shape and many believe Luther used the Trinity illustration, along with candles on the branches to illustrate the “Light of the World,” found in Christ.
But despite which story you choose to believe, the Christmas tree tradition began to flourish in the 17th century. And like many other traditions, the church wasn’t entirely happy with the newfound custom.
A priest from Stasbourg, Johann Konrad Dannerhauer, complained that the custom was distracting people from the Word of God. For the next 100 years the tradition remained confined to the lower Rhine, now the northern areas of France and southern areas of Germany. It was also regarded as only a Protestant custom.
In 1816 the Christmas tree was introduced in Austria by Princess Henrietta von Nassau-Weilburg. The tree was soon introduced in Britain by King George III and spread across the nation through illustrations in the Illustrated London News.
By 1850 the tradition was copied in America, although Easton, Pa. and Windsor Locks, Conn. both claim the country’s first Christmas tree as early as 1777.
Traditionally the trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve and then removed after the 12th night. To have a tree up beyond the 12 days of Christmas was considered bad luck.
But now with the increasing commercialization and business of the holidays, it’s not uncommon to see Christmas trees in homes before Thanksgiving.
Personally I’m quite sure my aunt would display her love of Christmas and leave her tree up year round if it wasn’t so taboo.
It’s also interesting to note that some ultra-conservative Christians believe the Bible prohibits the Christmas Tree tradition in Jeremiah 10:3-4.
“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.”
So whatever you call it, whichever origin you choose to believe, whether you hang your tree upside down or set it up-right and however long you choose to leave your tree up – lets lift our glass of eggnog and say a toast to the Christmas tree whose “branches green delight us.”