O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches!
In beauty green will always grow
Through summer sun and winter snow.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree
How lovely are your branches!
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
Your beauty green will teach me
That hope and love will ever be
The way to joy and peace for me.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree
Your beauty green will teach me.
This Christmas, when you stand in the glow of the beautiful Christmas tree lights, you should thank your blessings that you are in a warm, snug home safe from the bitter cold of the winters people lived through when Christmas trees first found their way into people's hearts.
Historians have traced Christmas trees as far back as the 1400s in Germany. The first written mention of them was a law forbidding people from cutting evergreens down for Christmas. As with holly, ivy and mistletoe, evergreen trees were considered to be symbolic of life everlasting, for these plants remained green through the harshest winters. The halls were decked with holly and pine boughs during the Yule celebration.
We don't give much thought to trees these days, but in earlier eras, they were vital to survival. They provided food, building material for ships and homes, wood for the fireplace, tannin for preparing leather, and herbal remedies. In many areas, there were laws passed to prevent wholesale cutting of trees, which became a problem throughout Europe. They would cut only branches from the trees, rather than cutting them down completely.
The trees also figured prominently in the religious practices of early Europeans. In their creation legends, the cosmic tree (the Axis mundi) bears all nine worlds of the Norse cosmos in its branches and among its roots. The trees were also sacred to the Celtic peoples, who believed that the boughs of trees could protect their homes from evil.
The pine tree, which is the favored tree for the Christmas Yule tree, is an especially valuable tree. Laplanders removed the bark from Scotch pines and hung the strips of the inner bark under their eaves to dry. They used the dried bark for dog and cattle feed or in times of need would grind it and and make it into a type of bread. Another extremely valuable use of the Pine tree was to make pine tea, which was very high in vitamin C, vitally needed during the cold winter months. The seeds of all of the different types of pine trees can be eaten, so can the bark from young twigs. If the stocks of hay for livestock ran out, they could be fed pine branches.
In the mid 1400s, popular plays, called Mystery Plays, were performed by the Church. The plays were about the fall of man from the garden of good and evil. Pine trees were decorated with apples and used as props in the Mystery plays. Historians have traced the practice of decorating Christmas trees to the Mystery Plays.
By the 1600s, Christmas trees were very popular in Germany and people had taken to decorating them. They were usually small, table sized trees and were decorated with roses from colored paper, wafers, cookies, candies, apples and other treats. It's possible that the practice of putting Christmas presents under the Christmas tree started with the practice of hanging little items from the trees along with the treats, which were given out to family and guests.
In England, they became popular after Queen Victoria's husband Albert, who came from Germany, made a tree part of the celebrations at Windsor Castle. This is still one of the most famous Christmas tree sites in the world.
During the Victorian era, people went all out decorating their Christmas trees. Mass production of tinsel and Christmas tree lights and candles made the trees even more popular and beautiful. People were proud of the beauty of their Christmas trees and households spent a great deal of time fashioning and hanging decorations.
So, when you trim your Christmas tree this year, think of the blessings of your life and of the beautiful symbolism of joy and life it has brought to so many throughout its long history.
