Most Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus today, but Christmas is special for many non-Christians as well. Christmas is a time for family, for giving, for happy children, for sharing a meal – acts and feelings that aren’t exclusive for just Christians. One iconic symbol of the season unites just about everyone, regardless of their beliefs – the Christmas tree.
Look around this time of year, and you’ll see perhaps more kinds of Christmas trees than there are religious beliefs. The traditional fir and pine trees abound, but “trees” are also made of plastic and acrylic, paper and cardboard. They can be as tiny as a thumb or several stories high – and virtually every size in between.
Many people experience several different tree rituals over a lifetime. Every family should, at least once, savor cutting down a live tree on snow-covered ground, bringing the fresh tree home and – if you’re lucky – hearing the pine cones pop and crackle over the next couple of weeks. As we age and lose the desire for the labor required in sawing down a live tree, we turn to the tree lots that crop up at businesses, churches and elsewhere over the season, inspecting each tree to find the one of perfection, one that fits the designated room just right. Later, we settle for an artificial tree that doesn’t leave sap, doesn’t have to be watered, doesn’t trigger allergies.
Christmas tree ornaments become treasures to hold for life, memories of people and years, symbols of different life stages.
Buying – or assembling – a tree, placing it in its stand and adding lights, ornaments, garland and other decorations is, for many families, as much a part of the Christmas tradition as buying and giving presents. And most families share the tradition of finishing the decorating by placing a star or angel at the top.
Christmas trees are ubiquitous in our favorite Christmas movies – how could there be “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Story” without a Christmas tree? Even pitifully undergrown and misshapen trees can still serve the purpose, as Charlie Brown taught us in the first “Peanuts” TV special.
History offers various versions of the beginning of Christmas trees. European pagans commonly worshipped trees. The triangular fir tree may have been used to symbolize the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and by some accounts, Martin Luther decorated a tree with candles.
Most agree that the traditions we follow today have roots in Germany. A German medieval play about Adam and Eve featured a “paradise tree” representing the Garden of Eden, and Germans began placing such trees in their homes on Dec. 24. People hung wafers – symbolizing Christian redemption – and later cookies and candles. Homes also had Christmas pyramids, holding evergreens, Christian figurines and a star. Around the 16th century, the pyramid and paradise tree became one, and by the 18th century, the Christmas tree was an established tradition for German Lutherans.
Britian’s Prince Albert is credited for bringing the tradition to England in the 19th century and adding toys and gifts. Germans also brought the tree tradition to North America as early as the 17th century. By the end of the 19th century, F.W. Woolworth was selling millions of dollars in ornaments each year, and electric lights were available.
Perhaps the tree’s near-universal appeal in Western nations is the fact that as an inanimate object, non-Christians can consider the tree secular, while the Christmas tree tradition is well-steeped in Christianity.
Whatever your family’s traditions are today, they will most likely – at some point – involve the Christmas tree. So enjoy your tree with the knowledge that throughout the nation and beyond, the tree is one element of Christmas that nearly everyone shares.
Merry Christmas.
With: www.fortwayne.com
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