View source for Christmas tree

{{short description|Decorated tree used to symbolise festive cheer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2018}}
[[File:Johansen Viggo - Radosne Boże Narodzenie.jpg|thumb|''Glade jul'' by [[wikipedia:Viggo Johansen|Viggo Johansen]] (1891)]]
[[File:Décoration du sapin de Noël.jpg|thumb|A young woman decorates a Christmas tree, painting by Marcel Rieder (1862–1942) from 1898]]
[[File:Christmas tree, Bethlehem.jpg|thumb|upright|Christmas tree in Bethlehem, behind it [[wikipedia:Church of the Nativity|Church of the Nativity]], 2014]]

A '''Christmas tree''' is a decorated tree, usually an [[wikipedia:evergreen|evergreen]] [[wikipedia:pinophyta|conifer]], such as a [[wikipedia:fir|fir]], [[wikipedia:spruce|spruce]], or [[wikipedia:pine|pine]], or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of [[wikipedia:Christmas|Christmas]], originating in [[wikipedia:Germany|Germany]] associated with [[wikipedia:Saint Boniface|Saint Boniface]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-19/the-history-of-the-christmas-tree/8106078|title=The history of the Christmas tree|last=Travers|first=Penny |date=19 December 2016 |website=[[wikipedia:ABC News (Australia)|ABC News (Australia)]] |language=en-AU|access-date=8 December 2018}}</ref> The custom was developed in medieval [[wikipedia:Livonia|Livonia]] (present-day [[wikipedia:Estonia|Estonia]] and [[wikipedia:Latvia|Latvia]]), and in [[wikipedia:early Modern history of Germany|early modern Germany]] where [[wikipedia:Protestant Germany|German Protestant Christians]] brought decorated trees into their homes.<ref name="Perry2010">{{cite book|last=Perry|first=Joe|title=Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History|url=https://archive.org/details/christmasgermany00perr|url-access=limited|date=27 September 2010|publisher=[[wikipedia:University of North Carolina Press|University of North Carolina Press]]|language=en|isbn=9780807899410|page=[https://archive.org/details/christmasgermany00perr/page/n48 32]|quote=A chronicle from Stasbourg, written in 1604 and widely seen as the first account of a Christmas tree in German-speaking lands, records that Protestant artisans brought fir trees into their homes in the holiday season and decorated them with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, sweetmeats, etc."{{nbsp}}... The Christmas tree spread out in German society from the top down, so to speak. It moved from elite households to broader social strata, from urban to rural areas, from the Protestant north to the Catholic south, and from Prussia to other German states.}}</ref><ref>Christmas trees were hung in [[wikipedia:St. George's Church, Sélestat|St. George's Church, Sélestat]] since 1521:{{cite web|url=http://www.selestat.fr/spip_noel/IMG/pdf/histoire_des_decorations_de_l_arbre_de_noel.pdf |title=Office de la Culture de Sélestat—The history of the Christmas tree since 1521 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218150603/http://www.selestat.fr/spip_noel/IMG/pdf/histoire_des_decorations_de_l_arbre_de_noel.pdf |url-status=dead |date=18 December 2013 |archive-date=18 December 2013}}</ref> It acquired popularity beyond the [[wikipedia:Lutheran|Lutheran]] areas of Germany<ref name="Perry2010"/><ref name="Dunphy2010">{{cite book|last=Dunphy|first=John J.|title=From Christmas to Twelfth Night in Southern Illinois|date=26 November 2010|publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated|language=en|isbn=9781614232537|page=28|quote=Having a Christmas tree became so closely identified with following Luther's path that German Catholics initially wanted nothing to do with this symbol of Protestantism. Their resistance endured until the nineteenth century, when Christmas trees finally began finding their way into Catholic homes.}}</ref> and the [[wikipedia:Baltic governorates|Baltic governorates]] during the second half of the 19th century, at first among the upper classes.<ref name="Weber-Kellermann">{{cite book |author=[[wikipedia:Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann|Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann]] |title=Das Weihnachtsfest. Eine Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Weihnachtszeit |language=de|trans-title=Christmas: A cultural and social history of Christmastide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1jgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22aus+Deutschland%22 |publisher=Bucher |year=1978 |isbn=978-3-7658-0273-7 |page=22 |quote={{lang|de|Man kann als sicher annehmen daß die Luzienbräuche gemeinsam mit dem Weinachtsbaum in Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts aus Deutschland über die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht der Herrenhöfe nach Schweden gekommen sind.}} ({{lang-en|One can assume with certainty that traditions of lighting, together with the Christmas tree, crossed from Germany to Sweden in the 19th century via the princely upper classes.}}) }}</ref> 

The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, [[wikipedia:tinsel|tinsel]], [and] sweetmeats".<ref name="Perry2010"/> [[wikipedia:Moravian Church|Moravian Christians]] began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles,<ref name="Kelly2010"/> which were ultimately replaced by [[wikipedia:Christmas lights|Christmas lights]] after the advent of [[wikipedia:electrification|electrification]]. Today, there is a wide variety of [[wikipedia:Christmas ornament|traditional and modern ornaments]], such as [[wikipedia:garland|garland]]s, [[wikipedia:Christmas ornament|baubles]], [[wikipedia:tinsel|tinsel]], and [[wikipedia:candy cane|candy cane]]s. An angel or star might be [[wikipedia:tree-topper|placed at the top of the tree]] to represent the [[wikipedia:Angel|Angel]] [[wikipedia:Gabriel|Gabriel]] or the [[wikipedia:Star of Bethlehem|Star of Bethlehem]], respectively, from the [[wikipedia:Nativity of Jesus|Nativity]].<ref name="Mandryk2005"/><ref name="Jones2011"/> Edible items such as [[wikipedia:gingerbread|gingerbread]], [[wikipedia:chocolate|chocolate]], and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons. The [[wikipedia:Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] had long resisted this custom of the [[wikipedia:Lutheran Church|Lutheran Church]] and the [[wikipedia:Vatican Christmas Tree|Vatican Christmas tree]] stood for the first time in [[wikipedia:Vatican City|Vatican City]] in 1982.<ref name="Cooke1980"/>

In the [[wikipedia:Western Christian|Western Christian]] tradition, Christmas trees are variously erected on days such as the [[wikipedia:first day of Advent|first day of Advent]] or even as late as [[wikipedia:Christmas Eve|Christmas Eve]] depending on the country;<ref name="Crump2001">{{cite book|last=Crump|first=William D.|title=The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3d ed.|date=15 September 2001|publisher=McFarland|language=en |isbn=9780786468270|page=386|quote=Christmas trees in the countryside did not appear until World War I, although Slovenians of German ancestry were decorating trees before then. Traditionally, the family decorates their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with electric lights, tinsel, garlands, candy canes, other assorted ornaments, and topped with an angel figure or star. The tree and Nativity scene remain until Candlemas (February 2)}}</ref> customs of the same faith hold that the two traditional days when Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, are removed are [[wikipedia:Twelfth Night (holiday)|Twelfth Night]] and, if they are not taken down on that day, [[wikipedia:Candlemas|Candlemas]], the latter of which ends the [[wikipedia:Epiphanytide|Christmas-Epiphany season]] in some [[wikipedia:Christian denominations|denominations]].<ref name="Crump2001"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml|title=Candlemas|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=26 December 2016|quote=Any Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night (January 5th) should be left up until Candlemas Day and then taken down.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106110011/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml|archive-date=6 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "[[wikipedia:Yule|Yule]]-tree", especially in discussions of its folkloric origins.<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel J. |last=Foley |title=The Christmas Tree |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJTWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Christmas+tree+is+sometimes+linked%22|publisher=Omnigraphics |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-55888-286-7 |page=45 }}</ref><ref name="Dues">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daAXccS5DVgC&pg=PA13 |first=Greg |last=Dues |title=Advent and Christmas |publisher=Bayard |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58595-722-4 |pages=13–15|quote=Next to the Nativity scene, the most popular Christmas tradition is to have a Christmas tree in the home. This custom is not the same as bringing a Yule tree or evergreens into the home, originally popular during the month of the winter solstice in Germany.}}</ref><ref name="Karas">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1ngAAAAMAAJ&q=Karas+%22paradise+tree%22 |first=Sheryl |last=Karas |title=The Solstice Evergreen: history, folklore, and origins of the Christmas tree |publisher=Aslan |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-944031-75-9 |pages=103–04 }}</ref>

==History==
===Origin of the modern Christmas tree===

{{further|Christmas tree#Religious issues|Hanging of the greens}}

Modern Christmas trees originated during the [[wikipedia:German Renaissance|Renaissance]] in [[wikipedia:early Modern history of Germany|early modern Germany]]. Its 16th-century origins are sometimes associated with Protestant Christian reformer [[wikipedia:Martin Luther|Martin Luther]], who is said to have first added lighted candles to an [[wikipedia:evergreen|evergreen]] tree.<ref name="History.com">{{cite web |title=History of Christmas Trees |url=http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees |publisher=[[wikipedia:History (U.S. TV channel)|History]] |access-date=15 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121225093550/http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees |archive-date=25 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/christmaslegends0000haid |url-access=registration |first=Helen |last=Haidle |title=Christmas Legends to Remember' |publisher=David C Cook |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-56292-534-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christmaslegends0000haid/page/119 119] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://booheyheyks.google.com/books?id=YDx3g-05fNoC&lpg=PA22 |author=Debbie Trafton O'Neal, David LaRochelle |title=Before and After Christmas |publisher=Augsburg Fortress |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8066-4156-0 |page=22 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The earliest known firmly dated representation of a Christmas tree is on the keystone sculpture of a private home in [[wikipedia:Turckheim|Turckheim]], Alsace (then part of Germany, today France), with the date 1576.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le Vieux Turckheim|last=Ehrsam|first=Roger|publisher=Jérôme Do Bentzinger|year=1999|isbn=978-2906238831|location=Ville de Turckheim}}</ref>

===Possible predecessors===

[[File:yggdrasil.jpg|thumb|upright|From ''Northern Antiquities'', an English translation of the [[wikipedia:Prose Edda|Prose Edda]] from 1847. Painted by Oluf Olufsen Bagge.]]

Modern Christmas trees have been related to the "[[wikipedia:tree of life (biblical)|tree of paradise]]" of medieval [[wikipedia:mystery play|mystery play]]s that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and [[wikipedia:name day|name day]] of [[wikipedia:Adam and Eve|Adam and Eve]] in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (to represent the forbidden fruit) and wafers (to represent the [[wikipedia:Eucharist|Eucharist]] and redemption) was used as a setting for the play. Like the [[wikipedia:Nativity scene|Christmas crib]], the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red balls.<ref name="Dues"/><ref name="Karas"/><ref name="Lazowski">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIhIPIYLQ6QC&pg=PA204 |first=Philip |last=Lazowski |title=Understanding Your Neighbor's Faith |publisher=KTAV Publishing House |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-88125-811-0 |pages=203–04 }}</ref><ref name="Foley">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XstmMVLDzIIC&pg=PA18 |first=Michael P. |last=Foley |title=Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday? |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4039-6967-5 |page=18 }}</ref><ref name="Ball">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQZuGwDFY68C&pg=PA19 |first=Ann |last=Ball |title=Catholic Traditions in Crafts |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-87973-711-5 |page=19 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |quote=The modern Christmas tree{{nbsp}}... originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a fir tree hung with apples (paradise tree) representing the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the host, the Christian sign of redemption); in a later tradition, the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, too, were often added as the symbol of Christ. In the same room, during the Christmas season, was the [[wikipedia:Christmas pyramid|Christmas pyramid]], a triangular construction of wood, with shelves to hold Christmas figurines, decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star. By the 16th century, the Christmas pyramid and paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree. |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2003 }}</ref>

At the end of the Middle Ages, an early predecessor appears referred in the Regiment of the [[wikipedia:Cistercians|Order of Cister]] in the 15th century, in Alcobaça, Portugal. The Regiment of the local ''high-Sacristans'' of the Cistercian Order refers to what may be considered the oldest references to the Christmas tree: "Note on how to put the Christmas branch, ''scilicet'': On the Christmas eve, you will look for a large Branch of green laurel, and you shall reap many red oranges, and place them on the branches that come of the laurel, specifically as you have seen, and in every orange you shall put a candle, and hang the Branch by a rope in the pole, which shall be by the candle of the ''altar-mor''."<ref>''Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal'' (National Library of Portugal)—''Codices Alcobacenses'' ([http://www.bnportugal.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195%3Acodices-alcobacences&catid=71%3Areservados-manuscritos&Itemid=212&lang=pt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221070531/http://www.bnportugal.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195%3Acodices-alcobacences&catid=71%3Areservados-manuscritos&Itemid=212&lang=pt |date=21 February 2013 }} ); [BN: cod. alc. CLI / 64, Page. 330] Translated ("''Nota de como has de poer o ramo de natal, scilicet: Em vespera de natal, buscarás huu grande Ramo de loureiro verde, e colherás muitas laranjas vermelhas e poer lhas has metidas pelos ramos que dele procedem specificadamente segundo já viste. E em cada hua laranja, poeras hua candea. E pendurarás o dicto Ramo per hua corda na polee que ha de star acerca da lampada do altar moor''")</ref>

The relevance of ancient pre-Christian customs to the 16th-century German initiation of the Christmas tree custom is disputed.{{By whom|date=December 2019}} Resistance to the custom was often because of its supposed Lutheran origins.<ref name="Cooke1980">Gillian Cooke, ''A Celebration of Christmas'', 1980, page 62: "Martin Luther has been credited with the creation of the Christmas tree.{{nbsp}}... The Christmas tree did not spring fully fledged into{{nbsp}}... tree was slow to spread from its Alsatian home, partly because of resistance to its supposed Lutheran origins."</ref>

Other sources have offered a connection between the symbolism of the first documented Christmas trees in Alsace around 1600 and the trees of pre-Christian traditions. For example, according to the ''[[wikipedia:Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', "The use of [[wikipedia:evergreen|evergreen trees]], wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient [[wikipedia:Egyptians|Egyptians]], [[wikipedia:Chinese people|Chinese]], and [[wikipedia:Hebrews|Hebrews]]. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2012 |title=Christmas tree |encyclopedia=[[wikipedia:Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica]] |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115737/Christmas-tree |access-date=2 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030053259/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115737/Christmas-tree |archive-date=30 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

During the Roman mid-winter festival of [[wikipedia:Saturnalia|Saturnalia]], houses were decorated with [[wikipedia:wreaths|wreaths]] of evergreen plants, along with other antecedent customs now associated with Christmas.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{Cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20617780 |title=BBC Religion & Ethics—Did the Romans invent Christmas?<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=14 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207095037/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20617780 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |url-status=live |newspaper=BBC Religion & Ethics |date=17 December 2012 }}</ref>

The [[wikipedia:Viking|Viking]]s and [[wikipedia:Saxon|Saxon]]s worshiped trees.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/> The story of [[wikipedia:Saint Boniface|Saint Boniface]] cutting down [[wikipedia:Donar's Oak|Donar's Oak]] illustrates the pagan practices in 8th century among the Germans. A later folk version of the story adds the detail that an evergreen tree grew in place of the felled oak, telling them about how its triangular shape reminds humanity of the [[wikipedia:Trinity|Trinity]] and how it points to heaven.<ref>{{cite book|author=Fritz Allhoff, Scott C. Lowe|title=Christmas|publisher=[[wikipedia:John Wiley & Sons|John Wiley & Sons]]|year=2010|quote=His biographer, Eddius Stephanus, relates that while Boniface was serving as a missionary near Geismar, Germany, he had enough of the locals' reverence for the old gods. Taking an axe to an oak tree dedicated to Norse god Thor, Boniface chopped the tree down and dared Thor to zap him for it. When nothing happened, Boniface pointed out a young fir tree amid the roots of the oak and explained how this tree was a more fitting object of reverence as it pointed towards the Christian heaven and its triangular shape was reminiscent of the Christian trinity.}}</ref><ref>The story, not recounted in the ''[[wikipedia:hagiography|vitae]]'' written in his time, appears in a [[wikipedia:BBC|BBC]] Devon website, "Devon Myths and Legends", and in a number of educational storybooks, including ''St. Boniface and the Little Fir Tree: A Story to Color'' by Jenny Melmoth and Val Hayward (Warrington: Alfresco Books 1999 {{ISBN|1-873727-15-1}}), ''The Brightest Star of All: Christmas Stories for the Family'' by Carrie Papa (Abingdon Press 1999 {{ISBN|978-0-687-64813-9}}) and [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_BdEAAAAAYAAJ/page/n208 <!-- pg=207 --> "How Saint Boniface Kept Christmas Eve"] by Mary Louise Harvey in ''The American Normal Readers: Fifth Book'', 207–22. Silver, Burdett and Co. 1912.</ref>

====Georgia====

[[File:Chichilaki Georgian christmass tree.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[wikipedia:Chichilaki|Chichilaki]], a Georgian Christmas tree variety]]

[[wikipedia:Georgians|Georgians]] have their own traditional Christmas tree called [[wikipedia:Chichilaki|Chichilaki]], made from dried up [[wikipedia:hazelnut|hazelnut]] or [[wikipedia:walnut|walnut]] branches that are shaped to form a small coniferous tree.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.georgianjournal.ge/discover-georgia/29148-chichilaki-georgian-version-of-christmas-tree.html|title=Chichilaki–Georgian version of Christmas tree|website=Georgian Journal|access-date=2018-12-31}}</ref> These pale-colored ornaments differ in height from {{convert|20|cm|in|abbr=on}} to {{convert|3|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}}. Chichilakis are most common in the [[wikipedia:Guria|Guria]] and [[wikipedia:Samegrelo|Samegrelo]] regions of Georgia near the [[wikipedia:Black Sea|Black Sea]], but they can also be found in some stores around the capital of [[wikipedia:Tbilisi|Tbilisi]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2011-12-21|title=Georgians rediscover Christmas tree traditions|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16275554|access-date=2021-03-03}}</ref>
Georgians believe that Chichilaki resembles the famous beard of [[wikipedia:St. Basil the Great|St. Basil the Great]], because [[wikipedia:Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox Church]] commemorates St.&nbsp;Basil on 1{{nbsp}}January.

====Poland====

[[File:Podlaznik.jpg|thumb|The hanging of a ''[[:pl:Podłaźniczka|podłaźniczka]]'' is an old Polish folk custom dating back to pagan traditions.]]

In [[wikipedia:Poland|Poland]], there is a folk tradition dating back to an old pre-Christian pagan custom of suspending a branch of fir, spruce or pine from the ceiling, called ''[[wikipedia::pl:Podłaźniczka|podłaźniczka]]'', during the time of the [[wikipedia:Koliada|Koliada]] winter festival.<ref>Janota E. Lud i jego zwyczaje. Lwów, 1878, str. 41–42</ref> The branches were decorated with apples, nuts, acorns, and stars made of straw. In more recent times, the decorations also included colored paper cutouts (''[[wikipedia:wycinanki|wycinanki]]''), [[wikipedia:wafer|wafer]]s, [[wikipedia:cookie|cookie]]s, and [[wikipedia:Christmas baubles|Christmas baubles]]. According to old pagan beliefs, the branch's powers were linked to good harvest and prosperity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kmt.pl/pozycja.asp?ksid=5025|title=Zwyczaje, obrzędy i tradycje w Polsce. Mały słownik|website=Księgarnia Mateusza|language=pl|access-date=2019-12-15}}</ref>

The custom lasted among some of the rural peasants until the early 20th century, particularly in the regions of [[wikipedia:Lesser Poland|Lesser Poland]] and [[wikipedia:Upper Silesia|Upper Silesia]].<ref>Rok karpacki: obrzędy doroczne w Karpatach polskich Urszula Janicka-Krzywda. 1988, s. 13 "W całych Karpatach znano drzewko wigilijne zwane podłaźnikiem. Był to wierzchołek jodły zawieszany u powały szczytem na. dół, ubierany jabłkami i tzw. światami"</ref> Most often the branches were hung above the ''[[wikipedia:wigilia|wigilia]]'' dinner table on [[wikipedia:Christmas Eve|Christmas Eve]] from the [[wikipedia:rafter|rafter]]s. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the tradition over time was almost completely replaced by the German practice of decorating a Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://niezalezna.pl/303442-slomiane-snopy-i-podlazniczki-to-nasze-poprzedniki-choinki-te-zas-ozdabiano-jablkami |title=Słomiane snopy i podłaźniczki - to nasze poprzedniki choinki. Te zaś ozdabiano jabłkami |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=December 24, 2019 |website=Niezależna |access-date=December 25, 2019 }}</ref> The custom was partly revived in the 1970s and continues in some homes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thespruce.com/upside-down-christmas-trees-eastern-tradition-1135800 |title=Eastern European Upside-Down Christmas Trees |last=Rolek |first=Barbara |date=April 5, 2019|website=The Spruce |access-date= December 25, 2019 }}</ref>

====Estonia, Latvia, and Germany====

[[File:Franz Skarbina Unter dem Weihnachtsbaum.jpg|thumb|upright|Girl with Christmas tree, painting 1892 by [[wikipedia:Franz Skarbina|Franz Skarbina]] (1849–1910)]]

Customs of erecting decorated trees in winter time can be traced to Christmas celebrations in Renaissance-era [[wikipedia:guild|guild]]s in [[wikipedia:Northern Germany|Northern Germany]] and [[wikipedia:Livonia|Livonia]]. The first evidence of decorated trees associated with Christmas Day are trees in guildhalls decorated with sweets to be enjoyed by the apprentices and children. In Livonia (present-day [[wikipedia:Estonia|Estonia]] and [[wikipedia:Latvia|Latvia]]), in 1441, 1442, 1510, and 1514, the [[wikipedia:Brotherhood of Blackheads|Brotherhood of Blackheads]] erected a tree for the holidays in their guild houses in Reval (now [[wikipedia:Tallinn|Tallinn]]) and [[wikipedia:Riga|Riga]]. On the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the [[wikipedia:Town Hall Square, Tallinn|Town Hall Square]], where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.<ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Amelung |title=Geschichte der Revaler Schwarzenhäupter: von ihrem Ursprung an bis auf die Gegenwart: nach den urkundenmäßigen Quellen des Revaler Schwarzenhäupter-Archivs 1, Die erste Blütezeit von 1399–1557 |language=de|trans-title=History of the Tallinn Blackheads: from their origins until the present day: from the testimonial sources of the Tallinn Blackheads archive. 1: The first golden age of 1399–1557 |location=[[wikipedia:Tallinn|Reval]] |publisher=Wassermann |year=1885 }}</ref>

A [[wikipedia:Bremen|Bremen]] guild chronicle of 1570 reports that a small tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels, and paper flowers" was erected in the guild-house for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1jgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22aus+Deutschland%22|title=Das Weihnachtsfest. Eine Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Weihnachtszeit|first=Ingeborg|last=Weber-Kellermann|author-link=Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann|publisher=Bucher|year=1978|isbn=978-3-7658-0273-7|page=22|language=de|trans-title=Christmas: A cultural and social history of Christmastide|quote={{lang|de|Man kann als sicher annehmen daß die Luzienbräuche gemeinsam mit dem Weinachtsbaum in Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts aus Deutschland über die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht der Herrenhöfe nach Schweden gekommen sind.}} ({{lang-en|One can assume with certainty that traditions of lighting, together with the Christmas tree, crossed from Germany to Sweden in the 19th century via the princely upper classes.}})}}</ref> In 1584, the pastor and chronicler [[wikipedia:Balthasar Russow|Balthasar Russow]] in his {{lang|gml|Chronica der Provinz Lyfflandt}} (1584) wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated [[wikipedia:Picea abies|spruce]] at the market square, where the young men "went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame".

After the [[wikipedia:Protestant Reformation|Protestant Reformation]], such trees are seen in the houses of upper-class Protestant families as a counterpart to the Catholic [[wikipedia:Nativity scene|Christmas cribs]]. This transition from the guild hall to the bourgeois family homes in the Protestant parts of Germany ultimately gives rise to the modern tradition as it developed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

===18th to early 20th centuries===
====Germany====

[[File:Die Gartenlaube (1888) Nr49 Beilage.jpg|thumb|upright|A little Christmas tree on the table, painting by Ludwig Blume-Siebert in 1888]]

By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper [[wikipedia:Rhineland|Rhineland]], but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles, expensive items at the time, are found in attestations from the late 18th century.

Along the lower Rhine, an area of Roman Catholic majority, the Christmas tree was largely regarded as a Protestant custom. As a result, it remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long period of time. The custom did eventually gain wider acceptance beginning around 1815 by way of [[wikipedia:Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] officials who emigrated there following the [[wikipedia:Congress of Vienna|Congress of Vienna]].

In the 19th century, the Christmas tree was taken to be an expression of [[wikipedia:Culture of Germany|German culture]] and of {{lang|de|[[wikipedia:Gemütlichkeit|Gemütlichkeit]]}}, especially among [[wikipedia:ethnic Germans|emigrants]] overseas.<ref>{{cite book |first=Johannes |last=Marbach |title=Die heilige Weihnachtszeit nach Bedeutung, Geschichte, Sitten und Symbolen|language=de |trans-title=The holy Christmas season for meaning, history, customs and symbols |year=1859 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FXhEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA416 |page=416 |quote={{lang|de|Was ist auch eine deutsche Christenfamilie am Christabend ohne Christbäumchen? Zumal in der Fremde, unter kaltherzigen Engländern und frivolen Franzosen, unter den amerikanischen Indianern und den Papuas von Australien. Entbehren doch die nichtdeutschen Christen neben dem Christbäumchen noch so viele Züge deutscher Gemüthlichkeit.}} ({{lang-en|What would a German Christian family do on Christmas Eve without a Christmas tree? Especially in foreign lands, among cold-hearted Englishmen and frivolous Frenchmen, among the American Indians and the Papua of Australia. Apart from the Christmas tree, the non-German Christians suffer from a lack of a great many traits of German 'Gemütlichkeit'.}}) }}</ref>

A decisive factor in winning general popularity was the German army's decision to place Christmas trees in its barracks and military hospitals during the [[wikipedia:Franco-Prussian War|Franco-Prussian War]]. Only at the start of the 20th century did Christmas trees appear inside churches, this time in a new brightly lit form.<ref name="Hermelink">{{cite book |first=Jan |last=Hermelink |chapter=Weihnachtsgottesdienst |trans-chapter=Christmas worship |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOrt4xXGSKcC&pg=PA290 |editor-first=Christian |editor-last=Grethlein |editor-first2=Günter |editor-last2=Ruddat |title=Liturgisches Kompendium|language=de |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-525-57211-5 |page=290 }}</ref>

====Adoption by European nobility====

[[File:Woonkamer vol keurig geklede kinderen die bij de kerstboom dansen.jpg|thumb|Christmas tree painting 1877 by H. J. Overbeek]]

In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Introduced by [[wikipedia:Fanny von Arnstein|Fanny von Arnstein]] and popularized by [[wikipedia:Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg|Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg]] the Christmas tree reached [[wikipedia:Vienna|Vienna]] in 1814 during the [[wikipedia:Congress of Vienna|Congress of Vienna]], and the custom spread across Austria in the following years.<ref name="Jüdisches Museum Wien">{{cite web | title=News Detail | website=Jüdisches Museum Wien | url=https://www.jmw.at/museumsblog/news_detail?j-cc-id=1610672643856&j-cc-node=news&j-cc-name=hybrid-content | language=de | access-date=2021-09-20}}</ref> In [[wikipedia:France|France]], the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the [[wikipedia:Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans|duchesse d'Orléans]]. In Denmark a Danish newspaper claims that the first attested Christmas tree was lit in 1808 by countess Wilhemine of Holsteinborg. It was the aging countess who told the story of the first Danish Christmas tree to the Danish writer [[wikipedia:Hans Christian Andersen|Hans Christian Andersen]] in 1865. He had published a fairy tale called ''[[wikipedia:The Fir-Tree|The Fir-Tree]]'' in 1844, recounting the fate of a fir tree being used as a Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/307946:Kronik--Danmarks-foerste-juletrae-blev-taendt-i-1808 |work=Kristelig Dagblad |title=Danmarks første juletræ blev tændt i 1808 |date=17 December 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213095846/http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/307946:Kronik--Danmarks-foerste-juletrae-blev-taendt-i-1808 |archive-date=13 December 2013 }}</ref>

====Britain====

[[File:Christmas Tree 1848.jpg|thumb|An engraving published in the 1840s of [[wikipedia:Queen Victoria|Queen Victoria]] and [[wikipedia:Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]] created a craze for Christmas trees.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/12068658/Queens-Christmas-Day-message-Monarch-quotes-from-Bible-to-address-a-nation-shaken-by-year-of-atrocities.html |title=Queen's Christmas Day message: Monarch quotes from Bible to address a nation shaken by year of atrocities |last=Bingham |first=John |date=25 December 2016 |website=[[wikipedia:telegraph.co.uk|telegraph.co.uk]] |access-date=25 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227124150/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/12068658/Queens-Christmas-Day-message-Monarch-quotes-from-Bible-to-address-a-nation-shaken-by-year-of-atrocities.html |archive-date=27 December 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref>]]
[[File:Albert Chevallier Tayler - The Christmas Tree 1911.jpg|thumb|The Christmas Tree 1911 by [[wikipedia:Albert Chevallier Tayler|Albert Chevallier Tayler]]]]

Although the tradition of decorating churches and homes with evergreens at Christmas was long established,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42959/42959-h/42959-h.htm#Footnote_213_213|title=Survey of London|last=Stow|first=John|publisher=John Windet|year=1603|location=London|quote="Against the feast of Christmas every man's house, as also the parish churches, were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green."|access-date=3 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816193124/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42959/42959-h/42959-h.htm#Footnote_213_213|archive-date=16 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> the custom of decorating an entire small tree was unknown in Britain until some two centuries ago. The German-born [[wikipedia:Queen Charlotte|Queen Charlotte]] introduced a Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/christmas/christmas_tree.html|title=The History of the Christmas Tree at Windsor|access-date=3 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224161224/http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/christmas/christmas_tree.html|archive-date=24 December 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> The custom did not at first spread much beyond the royal family.<ref>In 1829 the diarist [[wikipedia:Charles Greville (diarist)|Greville]], visiting [[wikipedia:Panshanger|Panshanger]] country house, describes three small Christmas trees "such as is customary in Germany", which [[wikipedia:Dorothea Lieven|Princess Lieven]] had put up. {{cite book|last=Hole|first=Christine|title=English Custom and Usage|year=1950|publisher=B. T. Batsford Ltd.|location=London|page=16}}</ref> Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with it and a tree was placed in her room every Christmas. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote:<ref>{{cite book |title=The girlhood of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's diaries |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.02324/11132.E13917_The_Girlhood_of_Queen_Victoria_vol_I/page/61/mode/2up] |publisher=J. Murray |year=1912 |first=Queen |last=Victoria |author-link=Queen Victoria |editor=[[wikipedia:Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher|Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher]] }}</ref>
<blockquote>After dinner{{nbsp}}... we then went into the drawing room near the dining room{{nbsp}}... There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees{{nbsp}}...</blockquote>

After Victoria's marriage to her German cousin [[wikipedia:Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]], by 1841 the custom became even more widespread<ref>{{cite book |author=Marie Claire Lejeune |title=Compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in Europe |page=550 |publisher=Man & Culture |isbn=978-90-77135-04-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5GBAAAAMAAJ |year=2002 }}</ref> as wealthier middle-class families followed the fashion. In 1842 a newspaper advert for Christmas trees makes clear their smart cachet, German origins and association with children and gift-giving.<ref>"GERMAN CHRISTMAS TREES. The nobility and gentry are respectfully informed that these handsome JUVENILE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS are supplied and elegantly fitted up{{nbsp}}...":''Times'' [London, England] 20 December 1842, p.&nbsp;1.</ref> An illustrated book, ''The Christmas Tree'', describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844.<ref>''The Christmas Tree'': published by Darton and Clark, London. "The ceremony of the Christmas tree, so well known throughout Germany, bids fair to be welcomed among us, with the other festivities of the season, especially now the Queen, within her own little circle, has set the fashion, by introducing it on the Christmas Eve in her own regal palace." Book review of ''The Christmas Tree'' from the Weekly Chronicle, 14 December 1844, quoted in an advert headlined "A new pleasure for Christmas" in ''The Times'', 23 December 1844, p.&nbsp;8.</ref> On 2{{nbsp}}January 1846 Elizabeth Fielding (née Fox Strangways) wrote from [[wikipedia:Laycock Abbey|Laycock Abbey]] to [[wikipedia:Henry Fox Talbot|William Henry Fox-Talbot]]: ''"Constance is extremely busy preparing the [[wikipedia:Bohemia|Bohemia]]n Xmas Tree. It is made from Caroline's<ref>Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); William Henry Fox-Talbot's half-sister.</ref> description of those she saw in Germany"''.<ref>Correspondence of William Henry Fox-Talbot, British Library, London, Manuscripts—Fox Talbot Collection, envelope 20179 [http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/letters/transcriptName.php?bcode=Talb-WH&pageNumber=5029&pageTotal=10047&referringPage=251].</ref> In 1847 Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas trees is not less than ours used to be".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Prince Consort, Man of many Facets: The World and The Age of Prince Albert |author=Godfrey and Margaret Scheele |page=78 |publisher=Oresko Books |year=1977 |isbn=9780905368061 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcFm-0s54HIC }}</ref> A boost to the trend was given in 1848<ref>At the beginning of the year the custom was well-enough known for ''The Times'' to compare the January budget of 1848 with gifts handed out beneath "the Christmas tree": ''The Times'' (London, England), 21 January 1848, p.&nbsp;4.</ref> when ''The Illustrated London News'',<ref>Special Christmas supplement edition, published 23 December 1848.</ref> in a report picked up by other papers,<ref>''The Times'' (London, England), 27 December 1848. p. 7</ref> described the trees in [[wikipedia:Windsor Castle|Windsor Castle]] in detail and showed the main tree, surrounded by the royal family, on its cover. In fewer than ten years their use in better-off homes was widespread. By 1856 a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to them,<ref>"Now the best Christmas box / You can give to the young / Is not toys, nor fine playthings, / Nor trees gaily hung{{nbsp}}...": Manchester Guardian, Saturday, 5{{nbsp}}January 1856, p.&nbsp;6.</ref> as well as reporting the accidental death of a woman whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on a Christmas tree.<ref>''Manchester Guardian'', 24 January 1856, p.&nbsp;3: the death of Caroline Luttrell of [[wikipedia:Kilve Court|Kilve Court]], Somerset.</ref> They had not yet spread down the social scale though, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy or the "romantic".<ref>''The Times'' (London, England), 28 December 1858, p. 8.</ref>

Their use at public entertainments, charity bazaars and in hospitals made them increasingly familiar however, and in 1906 a charity was set up specifically to ensure even poor children in London slums "who had never seen a Christmas tree" would enjoy one that year.<ref>The Poor Children's Yuletide Association. ''The Times'' (London, England), 20 December 1906, p.&nbsp;2. "The association sent 71 trees 'bearing thousands of toys' to the poorest districts of London."</ref> Anti-German sentiment after World War{{nbsp}}I briefly reduced their popularity<ref>"A Merry Christmas": ''The Times'' (London, England), 27 December 1918, p.&nbsp;2: "...{{nbsp}}the so-called "Christmas tree" was out of favour. Large stocks of young firs were to be seen at Covent Garden on Christmas Eve, but found few buyers. It was remembered that the 'Christmas tree' has enemy associations."</ref> but the effect was short-lived,<ref>The next year a charity fair in aid of injured soldiers featured 'a huge Christmas-tree'. 'St. Dunstan's Christmas Fair'. ''The Times'' (London, England), 20 December 1919, p.&nbsp;9.</ref> and by the mid-1920s the use of Christmas trees had spread to all classes.<ref>'Poor families in Lewisham and similar districts are just as particular about the shape of their trees as people in Belgravia{{nbsp}}...' 'Shapely Christmas Trees': ''The Times'' (London, England), 17 December 1926, p.&nbsp;11.</ref> In 1933 a restriction on the importation of foreign trees led to the "rapid growth of a new industry" as the growing of Christmas trees within Britain became commercially viable due to the size of demand.<ref>Christmas Tree Plantations. ''The Times'' (London, England), 11 December 1937, p.&nbsp;11.</ref> By 2013 the number of trees grown in Britain for the Christmas market was approximately eight million<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-25117501|title=Christmas tree grower Ivor Dungey gets award|work=BBC News|access-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731014120/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-25117501|archive-date=31 July 2018|url-status=live|date=27 November 2013}}</ref> and their display in homes, shops and public spaces a normal part of the Christmas season.

====The Bahamas====
The earliest reference of Christmas trees being used in [[wikipedia:The Bahamas|The Bahamas]] dates to January 1864 and is associated with the Anglican Sunday Schools in Nassau, New Providence: "After prayers and a sermon from the Rev. R. Swann, the teachers and children of St. Agnes', accompanied by those of St. Mary's, marched to the Parsonage of Rev. J. H. Fisher, in front of which a large Christmas tree had been planted for their gratification. The delighted little ones formed a circle around it singing "Come follow me to the Christmas tree"."<ref>January 13th 1864 Nassau Guardian</ref> The gifts decorated the trees as ornaments and the children were given tickets with numbers that matched the gifts. This appears to be the typical way of decorating the trees in the 1860s Bahamas. In the Christmas of 1864, there was a Christmas tree put up in the Ladies Saloon in the Royal Victoria Hotel for the respectable children of the neighbourhood. The tree was ornamented with gifts for the children who formed a circle about it and sung the song "Oats and Beans". The gifts were later given to the children in the name of Santa Claus.<ref>December 28th 1864 Nassau Guardian</ref>

====North America====

[[File:1836-print-of-american-christmas-tree.jpg|thumb|First published image of a Christmas tree, frontispiece to Hermann Bokum's 1836 ''The Stranger's Gift'']]
[[File:xmas1951.jpg|thumb|A Christmas tree from 1951, in a home in New York state]]
[[File:The Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle, by J. L. Williams - ILN 1848 (cropped).jpg|thumb|The [[Queen Victoria|Queen's]] Christmas tree at [[wikipedia:Windsor Castle|Windsor Castle]] published in ''[[wikipedia:The Illustrated London News|The Illustrated London News]]'', 1848]]

The tradition was introduced to [[wikipedia:North America|North America]] in the winter of 1781 by [[wikipedia:Germans in the American Revolution|Hessian soldiers]] stationed in the [[wikipedia:Province of Québec (1763–1791)|Province of Québec (1763–1791)]] to garrison the colony against [[wikipedia:Invasion of Canada (1775)|American attack]]. General [[wikipedia:Friedrich Adolf Riedesel|Friedrich Adolf Riedesel]] and his wife, [[wikipedia:Frederika Charlotte|the Baroness von Riedesel]], held a Christmas party for the officers at [[wikipedia:Sorel-Tracy|Sorel]], Quebec, delighting their guests with a fir tree decorated with candles and fruits.<ref name="Werner">{{cite book |title=In Pursuit of Liberty: Coming of Age in the American Revolution |first=Emmy E. |last=Werner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyB_tuMV7YMC&pg=PA115 |page=115 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2006 |isbn=9780275993061 }}</ref>

The Christmas tree became very common in the United States of America in the early nineteenth century. The first image of a Christmas tree was published in 1836 as the frontispiece to ''The Stranger's Gift'' by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature was in a story in the 1836 edition of ''The Token and Atlantic Souvenir'', titled "New Year's Day", by Catherine Maria Sedgwick, where she tells the story of a German maid decorating her mistress's tree. Also, a woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in ''[[wikipedia:The Illustrated London News|The Illustrated London News]]'' December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in ''[[wikipedia:Godey's Lady's Book|Godey's Lady's Book]]''. ''Godey's'' copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.<ref name="AFP">{{cite book |author=Alfred Lewis Shoemaker |orig-year=1959 |title=Christmas in Pennsylvania: a folk-cultural study |pages=52–53 |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8117-0328-4 }}</ref> The republished ''Godey's'' image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree".<ref name="ADT">{{cite book |author=Karal Ann Marling |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's greatest holiday |page=[https://archive.org/details/merrychristmas00kara/page/244 244] |publisher=[[wikipedia:Harvard University Press|Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/merrychristmas00kara/page/244 }}</ref> Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than ''Godey's Lady's Book''". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become even more common in America.<ref name="AFP"/>

Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree: [[wikipedia:Windsor Locks, Connecticut|Windsor Locks, Connecticut]], claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12040705/first-decorated-christmas-tree-in-windsor-locks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210223922/http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12040705/first-decorated-christmas-tree-in-windsor-locks|url-status=dead|archive-date=10 December 2015|title=First Decorated Christmas Tree in Windsor Locks|author=Joseph Wenzel IV|publisher=WFSB|date=30 November 2015|access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by [[wikipedia:Easton, Pennsylvania|Easton, Pennsylvania]], where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of [[wikipedia:Lancaster, Pennsylvania|Lancaster, Pennsylvania]], recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821, leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America.<ref>{{cite web |title=The History of Christmas |work=Gareth Marples |url=http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |access-date=2 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628034631/http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |archive-date=28 June 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other accounts credit [[wikipedia:Charles Follen|Charles Follen]], a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce to America the custom of decorating a Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990823204728/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 August 1999 |title=Professor Brought Christmas Tree to New England |date=12 December 1996 |access-date=2 December 2012 |work=[[wikipedia:Harvard Gazette|Harvard University Gazette]] }}</ref> [[wikipedia:August Imgard|August Imgard]], a German immigrant living in [[wikipedia:Wooster, Ohio|Wooster, Ohio]], is said to be the first to popularize the practice of decorating a tree with [[wikipedia:candy cane|candy cane]]s.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} In 1847, Imgard cut a blue spruce tree from a woods outside town, had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and [[wikipedia:Kuchen|Kuchen]].<ref>{{cite web|title=They're Still Cheering Man Who Gave America Christmas Tree|url=http://www.the-daily-record.com/citizen%20news/2007/12/10/they-re-still-cheering-man-who-gave-america-christmas-tree-cleveland-ceremonies-honor-him-august-imgard-of-wooster-ohio|publisher=[[wikipedia:Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune|Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune]]|access-date=16 May 2013|date=24 December 1938|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219034027/http://www.the-daily-record.com/citizen%20news/2007/12/10/they-re-still-cheering-man-who-gave-america-christmas-tree-cleveland-ceremonies-honor-him-august-imgard-of-wooster-ohio|archive-date=19 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> German immigrant [[wikipedia:Charles Minnigerode|Charles Minnigerode]] accepted a position as a professor of humanities at the [[wikipedia:College of William & Mary|College of William & Mary]] in [[wikipedia:Williamsburg, Virginia|Williamsburg, Virginia]], in 1842, where he taught Latin and Greek. Entering into the social life of the Virginia Tidewater, Minnigerode introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Minnigerode_Charles_1814-1894 |title=Charles Minnigerode (1814–1894) |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=[[wikipedia:Virginia Foundation for the Humanities|Virginia Foundation for the Humanities]] |access-date=11 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801022323/http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Minnigerode_Charles_1814-1894 |archive-date=1 August 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> An 1853 article on Christmas customs in Pennsylvania defines them as mostly "German in origin", including the Christmas tree, which is "planted in a flower pot filled with earth, and its branches are covered with presents, chiefly of confectionary, for the younger members of the family." The article distinguishes between customs in different states however, claiming that in New England generally "Christmas is not much celebrated", whereas in Pennsylvania and New York it is.<ref>'Notes and Queries', volume{{nbsp}}8 (217), 24 December 1853, p.615</ref>

When Edward H. Johnson was vice president of the [[wikipedia:Edison Electric Light Company|Edison Electric Light Company]], a predecessor of [[wikipedia:Con Edison|Con Edison]], he created the first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree at his home in New York City in 1882. Johnson became the "Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com/history.htm|title=A Brief History of Electric Christmas Lighting in America|website=oldchristmastreelights.com|access-date=19 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219174210/http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com/history.htm|archive-date=19 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

The lyrics sung in the United States to the German tune {{lang|de|[[wikipedia:O Tannenbaum|O Tannenbaum]]}} begin "O{{nbsp}}Christmas tree{{nbsp}}...", giving rise to the mistaken idea that the [[wikipedia:German language|German]] word {{lang|de|Tannenbaum}} (fir tree) means "Christmas tree", the German word for which is instead {{lang|de|Weihnachtsbaum}}.

<gallery class="center" heights="150px" caption="18th to early 20th century representations">
File:The Christmas tree (Boston Public Library).jpg|''The Christmas tree'' by Winslow Homer, 1858
File:Gezin bij de kerstboom.jpg| Christmas in the Netherlands, c. 1899
File:1870 ChristmasTree byEhninger HarpersBazaar.jpeg|Illustration for ''[[wikipedia:Harper's Bazaar|Harper's Bazaar]]'', published 1{{nbsp}}January 1870
File:Julekort, 1880.jpg| Christmas tree depicted as Christmas card by [[wikipedia:Louis Prang|Prang]] & Co. (Boston) 1880
File:Komissarzhevskaya Nora.jpg|[[wikipedia:Vera Komissarzhevskaya|Vera Komissarzhevskaya]] as Nora in [[wikipedia:Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]]'s ''[[wikipedia:A Doll's House|A Doll's House]]'' ({{c.|lk=no}} 1904). Photo by [[wikipedia:Elena Mrozovskaya|Elena Mrozovskaya]].
File:Lodovico and Maria Angelica Calderara 12800u original.jpg|An Italian-American family on Christmas, 1924
</gallery>

===1935 to present===

Under the [[wikipedia:state atheism|state atheism]] of the [[wikipedia:Soviet Union|Soviet Union]], the Christmas tree along with the entire celebration of the Christian holiday, was banned in that country after the [[wikipedia:October Revolution|October Revolution]] but then the government introduced a ''New-year spruce'' ({{lang|ru|Новогодняя ёлка}}, {{lang|ru-Latn|Novogodnyaya yolka}}) in 1935 for the [[wikipedia:New Year|New Year]] holiday.<ref name="MIG"/><ref name="Harper1999">{{cite book |last1=Harper |first1=Timothy |title=Moscow Madness: Crime, Corruption, and One Man's Pursuit of Profit in the New Russia |url=https://archive.org/details/moscowmadness00timo |url-access=registration |date=1999 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=9780070267008 |page=[https://archive.org/details/moscowmadness00timo/page/72 72] |language=en|quote=During the decades of official state atheism in the Soviet era, Christmas had been a nonholiday.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4CML6akeYMC&pg=PT222|title=Santa Claus|access-date=14 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222171000/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E4CML6akeYMC&pg=PT222|archive-date=22 December 2015|url-status=live|isbn=9781551996080|last1=Bowler|first1=Gerry|date=27 July 2011}}</ref> It became a fully secular icon of the New Year holiday, for example, the crowning star was regarded not as a symbol of Bethlehem Star, but as the [[wikipedia:Red star|Red star]]. Decorations, such as figurines of airplanes, bicycles, space rockets, [[wikipedia:cosmonaut|cosmonaut]]s, and characters of Russian fairy tales, were produced. This tradition persists after the fall of the USSR, with the [[wikipedia:Novy God|New Year holiday]] outweighing the Christmas (7 January) for a wide majority of Russian people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.levada.ru/27-04-2012/1-maya-sobirayutsya-prazdnovat-59-rossiyan |title=1 мая собираются праздновать 59% россиян |trans-title=1 May going to celebrate 59% of Russians |date=27 April 2012 |access-date=2 December 2012 |language=ru |quote=New Year is among the most important holidays for 81% of Russians, while Christmas is such only for 19%, ranking after [[wikipedia:Victory Day|Victory Day]], [[wikipedia:Easter|Easter]], [[wikipedia:International Women's Day|International Women's Day]]. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101064834/http://www.levada.ru/27-04-2012/1-maya-sobirayutsya-prazdnovat-59-rossiyan |archive-date=1 November 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The TV special ''[[wikipedia:A Charlie Brown Christmas|A Charlie Brown Christmas]]'' (1965) was influential on the pop culture surrounding the Christmas tree. [[wikipedia:Aluminum Christmas tree|Aluminum Christmas tree]]s were popular during the early 1960s in the US. They were satirized in the Charlie Brown show and came to be seen as symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. The term ''Charlie Brown Christmas tree'', describing any poor-looking or malformed little tree, also derives from the 1965 TV special, based on the appearance of [[wikipedia:Charlie Brown|Charlie Brown]]'s Christmas tree.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://muse.jhu.edu/|title = Materialism and the Modern U.S. Christmas|last = Belk|first = Russell|year = 2000|journal = Advertising & Society Review|volume = 1|doi = 10.1353/asr.2000.0001|s2cid = 191578074|access-date = 5 October 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140506133533/http://muse.jhu.edu/|archive-date = 6 May 2014|url-status = live}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" heights="150px" caption="1935 to present">
File:Christmas tree with presents - 2015.JPG| Christmas tree with presents
File:Governor's Living Room.jpg|Christmas Tree in the cozy room at the Wisconsin Governor's mansion.
File:Елочное украшение "Космонавт" 1960е.JPG|A Soviet-era (1960s) [[wikipedia:New Year tree|New Year tree]] decoration depicting a cosmonaut
File:005 Weihnachtsaltar und Krippe in der Sanoker Franziskanerkirche, 2013.jpg|Christmas Trees in church
File:Aluminum Christmas tree2.jpg|An [[wikipedia:aluminum Christmas tree|aluminum Christmas tree]]
</gallery>

====Public Christmas trees====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12787, Prag, Weihnachtsfeier für Erwerbslose.jpg|thumb|upright|An early example of public Christmas tree for the children of unemployed parents in [[wikipedia:Prague|Prague]] ([[wikipedia:Czech Republic|Czech Republic]]), 1931]]
Since the early 20th century, it has become common in many cities, towns, and department stores to put up public Christmas trees outdoors, such as the [[wikipedia:Macy's Great Tree|Macy's Great Tree]] in [[wikipedia:Atlanta|Atlanta]] (since 1948), the [[wikipedia:Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree|Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree]] in New York City, and the large Christmas tree at [[wikipedia:Victoria Square, Adelaide|Victoria Square]] in [[wikipedia:Adelaide|Adelaide]].

The use of fire retardant allows many indoor public areas to place real trees and be compliant with code. Licensed applicants of fire retardant solution spray the tree, tag the tree, and provide a certificate for inspection. Real trees are popular with high end visual merchandising displays around the world. Leading global retailers such as [[wikipedia:Apple (company)|Apple]] often place real trees in their window displays. In 2009, Apple placed two [[wikipedia:Fraser fir|Fraser fir]] trees in every one of [[wikipedia:Apple Store|its retail establishments]].{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}

The United States' [[wikipedia:National Christmas Tree (United States)|National Christmas Tree]] has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the [[wikipedia:White House|White House]], becoming part of what evolved into a major holiday event at the White House. President [[wikipedia:Jimmy Carter|Jimmy Carter]] lit only the crowning star atop the tree in 1979 in honor of the Americans being [[wikipedia:Iran hostage crisis|held hostage in Iran]].<ref name="npspp">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/lighting-of-the-national-christmas-tree-history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115224842/http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/lighting-of-the-national-christmas-tree-history.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 January 2008 |title=Lighting of the National Christmas Tree |publisher=[[wikipedia:National Park Service|National Park Service]] |access-date=5 April 2009 }}</ref> The same was true in 1980, except the tree was fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been in captivity.<ref name="npspp"/>

During most of the 1970s and 1980s, the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world was put up every year on the property of the ''[[wikipedia:National Enquirer|National Enquirer]]'' in [[wikipedia:Lantana, Florida|Lantana, Florida]]. This tradition grew into one of the most spectacular and celebrated events in the history of southern Florida, but was discontinued on the death of the paper's founder in the late 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flashback Blog: The World's Largest Decorated Christmas Tree |work=[[wikipedia:The Palm Beach Post|The Palm Beach Post]] |date=3 December 2009 |url=http://www.historicpalmbeach.com/flashback/2009/12/the-worlds-largest-decorated-christmas-tree |access-date=4 March 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091205193345/http://www.historicpalmbeach.com/flashback/2009/12/the-worlds-largest-decorated-christmas-tree/ |archive-date=5 December 2009 }}</ref>

In some cities, a charity event called the [[wikipedia:Festival of Trees|Festival of Trees]] is organized, in which multiple trees are decorated and displayed.

The giving of Christmas trees has also often been associated with the end of hostilities. After the signing of the [[wikipedia:Armistice with Germany|Armistice]] in 1918 the city of [[wikipedia:Manchester|Manchester]] sent a tree, and £500 to buy chocolate and cakes, for the children of the much-bombarded town of [[wikipedia:Lille|Lille]] in northern France.<ref>'Manchester's Gift To Lille{{nbsp}}... (FROM G. WARD PRICE.)' ''The Times'' (London, England),21 December 1918, p.7</ref> In some cases the trees represent special commemorative gifts, such as in [[wikipedia:Trafalgar Square|Trafalgar Square]] in [[wikipedia:London|London]], where the City of [[wikipedia:Oslo|Oslo]], [[wikipedia:Norway|Norway]] presents a tree to the people of London as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during the [[wikipedia:World War II|Second World War]]; in [[wikipedia:Boston|Boston]], where the tree is a gift from the province of [[wikipedia:Nova Scotia|Nova Scotia]], in thanks for rapid deployment of supplies and rescuers to the 1917 [[wikipedia:Halifax Explosion|ammunition ship explosion]] that leveled the city of [[wikipedia:Halifax (former city)|Halifax]]; and in [[wikipedia:Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle upon Tyne]], where the main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of [[wikipedia:Bergen|Bergen]], in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from [[wikipedia:Nazism|Nazi]] occupation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/twintownbergen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070425202440/http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/twintownbergen |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 April 2007 |title=Town twinning: Bergen, Norway |publisher=[[wikipedia:Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle City Council]] }}</ref> Norway also annually gifts a Christmas tree to [[wikipedia:Washington, D.C.|Washington, D.C.]] as a symbol of friendship between Norway and the US and as an expression of gratitude from Norway for the help received from the US during [[wikipedia:World War II|World War II]].<ref>{{cite news |title=DC: Christmas Tree Lighting at Union Station |url=http://www.norway.org/News_and_events/Christmas-2012/DC-Christmas-Tree-Lighting-at-Union-Station/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209100844/http://www.norway.org/News_and_events/Christmas-2012/DC-Christmas-Tree-Lighting-at-Union-Station/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 December 2012 |publisher=[[wikipedia:Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway)|Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs]] |access-date=2 December 2012 }}</ref>

<gallery class="center" heights="150px" caption="Public Christmas trees">
File:Christmas tree in Piazza del Duomo to Milan in 2019.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Piazza del Duomo, Milan|Piazza del Duomo]] to [[wikipedia:Milan|Milan]] in 2019. 
File:Vatican Christmas Tree.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Vatican City|Vatican City]], 2007
File:Piazza Portanova Natale 2008.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Salerno|Salerno]] old town, Italy, 2008.
File:Trafalgar Square Christmas tree9.jpg|[[wikipedia:Trafalgar Square Christmas tree|Trafalgar Square Christmas tree]]
File:New Year Tree on the Minin and Pozharsky Square 04.jpg|Christmas tree on [[wikipedia:Minin and Pozharsky Square|Minin and Pozharsky Square]], 2018. [[wikipedia:Nizhny Novgorod|Nizhny Novgorod]], [[wikipedia:Russia|Russia]]
File:Xmastreenewyork06.jpg| [[wikipedia:Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree|Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree]]
File:LEDs on a big Christmas Tree 4572.jpg|thumb|upright|A large Christmas tree front of the [[wikipedia:Turku Cathedral|Turku Cathedral]] in [[wikipedia:Turku|Turku]] ([[wikipedia:Finland|Finland]]), 2009
File:Weihnachtsbaum Römerberg.jpg|Christmas tree on the [[wikipedia:Römerberg (Frankfurt)|Römerberg]] in [[wikipedia:Frankfurt|Frankfurt]] (2008)
File:Christmas Lisbon 2005 b.JPG| in [[wikipedia:Lisbon|Lisbon]] (2005), at {{convert|75|m|abbr=off}} the tallest Christmas tree in Europe.
File:2010 Boston Halifax Christmas tree on Boston Common USA 5273771973.jpg|[[wikipedia:Boston Christmas Tree|Boston's Christmas Tree]].
File:Plaza de San Juan de la Cruz (Madrid) 07.jpg| An {{lang|es|Árbol navideño luminoso}} in Madrid (2011)
File:Choinka plac Zamkowy 2011.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Warsaw|Warsaw]]
File:South Coast Plaza (2013) 01.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:South Coast Plaza|South Coast Plaza]], California
File:Stockholm - NK.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Stockholm|Stockholm]] at the [[wikipedia:Nordiska Kompaniet|NK]] department store
File:HK TST night Harbour City front entrance indoor stairs interior Xmas trees Nov-2013.JPG|Christmas trees in Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, [[wikipedia:Hong Kong|Hong Kong]]
File:Christmas tree in Lugano (2018).jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Lugano|Lugano]] (2018)
File:Vilnius Christmas Tree.jpg|Christmas tree in [[wikipedia:Vilnius|Vilnius]] old town, [[wikipedia:Lithuania|Lithuania]], 2017.
</gallery>

====Chrismon trees====

{{Main|Chrismon tree}}
[[File:Chrismon_tree_stalbans_oviedo_fl.jpg|thumb|A Chrismon tree in the nave of St. Alban's Anglican Cathedral in [[wikipedia:Oviedo, Florida|Oviedo, Florida]]]]

A "Chrismon tree" is a Christmas tree decorated with explicitly Christian symbols in white and gold.<ref name="Jr.20022">{{cite book|title=Presbyterian Worship: A Guide for Clergy|last=Weaver Jr.|first=J. Dudley|publisher=Geneva Press|year=2002|isbn=9780664502188|page=79}}</ref><ref name="SeglerBradley2006">{{cite book|title=Christian Worship: Its Theology and Practice, Third Edition|last2=Bradley|first2=Randall|date=1 October 2006|publisher=B&H Publishing Group|page=222|quote=A Chrismon tree is an evergreen tree adorned with symbols of Christ. The symbols are white and gold, and the three has white lights.|last1=Segler|first1=Franklin M.<!-- |access-date=4 December 2014 -->}}</ref>
First introduced by North American [[wikipedia:Lutheran|Lutheran]]s in 1957,<ref>{{cite book|title=In Search of Christmas|last2=Berger|first2=Stephen A.|last3=Dreher|first3=Eulonda A.|date=1 January 2002|publisher=CSS Publishing|isbn=9780788019166|page=27|quote=Chrismons were first used in 1957 to decorate a Christmas tree in the Lutheran Church of the Ascension in Danville, Virginia.|last1=Morris-Pierce|first1=Elizabeth|first4=Russel W.|last4=Dalton|first5=D. Andrew|last5=Richardson|first6=Jeanne|last6=Mueller|first7=Judith Hale|last7=Wood|first8=Ellen|last8=Edgar|first9=James|last9=Edgar}}</ref> the practice has rapidly spread to other [[wikipedia:Christian denomination|Christian denomination]]s,<ref name="Crump">{{cite book|title=The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3d ed.|last=Crump|first=William D.|date=15 September 2001|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786468270|page=71|quote=Over time, the popularity of the Chrismons tree grew and spread to other denominations around the world, while Chrismons themselves have become meaningful decorations throughout the year.}}</ref> including [[wikipedia:Anglican|Anglican]]s,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stjohnsgso.org/index.php?p=1_12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141209095603/http://www.stjohnsgso.org/index.php?p=1_12|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 December 2014|title=Chrismon Tree|publisher=St. John's Anglican Church|quote=A number of ladies of St. John's have been hard at work producing beautiful Chrismons (Christian Monograms) out of wire and beads to decorate a "Chrismon Tree" that will be put up and dedicated on the First Sunday in Advent|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref>
[[wikipedia:Roman Catholic Church|Catholics]],<ref name="Glavich20102">{{cite book|title=Leading Young Catholics Into Scripture|last=Glavich|first=Mary Kathleen|publisher=[[wikipedia:Twenty-Third Publications|Twenty-Third Publications]]|year=2010|isbn=9781585958009|page=36|quote=A parallel Advent activity is the more recent custom of making a Chrismon tree (Christ + monogram). The Chrismon tree bears symbols of Jesus from the New Testament. While the children hang their symbols, related Scripture texts might be read. Possible figures for the Chrismon tree are Mary, Joseph, the star, manger, shepherd, angel, sheep, three kings, gifts, fish, dove, grapes, wheat, vine, crown, rock, alpha and omega symbols, Chi-Rho, anchor, and cross. The symbols are usually white and gold.}}</ref> [[wikipedia:Methodist|Methodist]]s,<ref>{{cite book|title=First United Methodist Church, Midland, Texas: Offering Christ, 1885–1985: One Hundred Years on Main Street in Downtown Midland|publisher=Taylor Publishing Company|year=1985}}</ref> and the [[wikipedia:Reformed|Reformed]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.b-r-c.info/about-brc/advent--christmas-at-brc.html|title=Advent & Christmas at BRC|publisher=Brunswick Reformed Church|access-date=4 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206102110/http://www.b-r-c.info/about-brc/advent--christmas-at-brc.html|archive-date=6 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

"Chrismon" (plural "Chrismons") was adopted for the type of [[wikipedia:Christmas decoration|Christmas decoration]] and explained as a portmanteau of "'''Chris'''t-'''mon'''ogram" (a [[wikipedia:Christogram|Christogram]]).<ref>so in ''[[wikipedia:The Lutheran Witness|The Lutheran Witness]]'', Volume 83 (1964), p. 548 "the Chrismon (from CHRISt-MONogram) tree", and in James Edgar, Ellen Edgar, ''A Chrismon Service'' (1981), p. 2. The word's actual etymology, from Middle Latin ([[wikipedia:Landulf of Milan|Landulf of Milan]], 12th century) [[wikipedia::wikt:crismon|crismon]], is less than clear: [[wikipedia:George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers|George Henry Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers]], ''The riddle of the 'Labarum' and the origin of Christian symbols'', Allen & Unwin, 1966, p. 28; "I can find no roots, etymology or grounds for the adoption of the word adopted by some Christians, 'Chrismon', which is supposed to mean the 'Monogram of Christ', and which appears in some dictionaries (i.e. Funk and Wagnalis, 1922)."</ref><ref name="Stookey2011">{{cite book|title=Calendar: Christ's Time for the Church|last=Stookey|first=Laurence Hull|date=1 December 2011|publisher=Abingdon Press|isbn=9781426728044|page=107|quote=Beyond that the term "Chrismon" is used loosely to refer to symbols related to Christ, including the orb, crown, fish, star, anchor, and a wide variety of forms on the cross. All of these, often made in materials of gold and white, are used on a pine or fir tree in place of the more usual multicolored ornaments used on trees at home. Lights are also usually of clear glass rather than being colored.}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" heights="150px" caption="Decorations">
File:Boule de Noel.JPG|A transparent Christmas bauble
File:Christmas tree bauble.jpg|A golden [[wikipedia:Christmas ornament|bauble]] decorating a Christmas tree
File:Happy new year 06463.jpg|Christmas baubles
File:A baseball-shaped snowman decoration.jpg|A snowman-shaped decoration painted as a baseball
File:Christmas Tree Bear Decoration.png|A toy bear Christmas decoration.
File:Christmas baubles 08 - 01.JPG|[[wikipedia:Fabergé egg|Fabergé egg]] as a Christmas decoration.
File:Christmas baubles 08 - 12.JPG|Christmas decorations
File:Christmas-bauble-on-gold-11289575412UeK.jpg|Red ornamented Christmas bauble
File:Christmas baubles 08 - 02.JPG|Christmas baubles
</gallery>

==Religious issues==
[[File:Bezbozhnik u stanka - Run along, Lord, 1931, n. 22.jpg|thumb|upright|A 1931 edition of the Soviet magazine ''[[Bezbozhnik (magazine)|Bezbozhnik]]'', distributed by the [[wikipedia:League of Militant Atheists|League of Militant Atheists]], depicting an Orthodox Christian priest being forbidden to cut down a tree for Christmas]]
The earliest legend of the origin of a [[wikipedia:fir tree|fir tree]] becoming a [[wikipedia:Christian symbol|Christian symbol]] dates back to 723 AD, involving [[wikipedia:Saint Boniface|Saint Boniface]] as he was [[wikipedia:evangelism|evangelizing]] Germany.<ref name="Forbes2007"/> It is said that at a pagan gathering in [[wikipedia:Geismar|Geismar]] where a group of people dancing under a decorated oak tree were about to sacrifice a baby in the name of [[wikipedia:Thor|Thor]], Saint Boniface took an axe and called on the name of [[wikipedia:Jesus|Jesus]].<ref name="Forbes2007"/> In one swipe, he managed to take down the entire oak tree, to the crowd's astonishment.<ref name="Forbes2007"/> Behind the fallen tree was a baby fir tree.<ref name="Forbes2007"/> Boniface said, "let this tree be the symbol of the true God, its leaves are ever green and will not die." The tree's needles pointed to heaven and it was shaped triangularly to represent the [[wikipedia:Holy Trinity|Holy Trinity]].<ref name="Forbes2007">{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Bruce David |title=Christmas: A Candid History |date=2007 |publisher=[[wikipedia:University of California Press|University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-25802-0 |page=45 |language=en |quote=... in 723 Saint Boniface encountered winter sacrifices being conducted in front of a mighty oak tree dedicated to Thor near Geismar, in what is now Germany. In anger, Boniface seized an axe and felled Thor's oak in one mighty blow. The gathering of local citizens expected Thor to strike Boniface with a bolt of lightning, and when lightning failed to appear, Boniface proclaimed it a sign of superiority of the Christian God. He pointed to a young fir tree growing at the roots of the fallen oak, with its branches pointing to heaven, and said that it was a holy tree, the tree of the Christ child who brought eternal life. ... Also, it is said that Boniface explained the triangular shape of the fir tree as an illustration of the Trinity.}}</ref> 

The Christmas tree was first recorded to be used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the [[wikipedia:Strasbourg Cathedral|Cathedral of Strasbourg]] in 1539, under the leadership of the [[wikipedia:Protestant Reformers|Protestant Reformer]], [[wikipedia:Martin Bucer|Martin Bucer]].<ref name="Senn2012">{{cite book |last=Senn |first=Frank C. |date=2012 |title=Introduction to Christian Liturgy |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=9781451424331 |page=118 |quote=The Christmas tree as we know it seemed to emerge in Lutheran lands in Germany in the sixteenth century. Although no specific city or town has been identified as the first to have a Christmas tree, records for the Cathedral of Strassburg indicate that a Christmas tree was set up in that church in 1539 during Martin Bucer's superintendency.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=1936 |title=The Christmas Tree |journal=Lutheran Spokesman |volume=29–32 |quote=The Christmas tree became a widespread custom among German Lutherans by the eighteenth century.}}</ref> In the United States, these "German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the [[wikipedia:Moravian Church|Moravians]] put lighted candles on those trees."<ref name="Kelly2010">{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Joseph F. |date=2010 |title=The Feast of Christmas |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=9780814639320 |page=94 |quote=German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees.}}</ref><ref name="Blainey2013">{{cite book |last=Blainey |first=Geoffrey |title=A Short History of Christianity |date=24 October 2013 |publisher=[[wikipedia:Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|Rowman & Littlefield Publishers]] |isbn=9781442225909 |page=418 |quote=Many Lutherans continued to set up a small fir tree as their Christmas tree, and it must have been a seasonal sight in Bach's Leipzig at a time when it was virtually unknown in England, and little known in those farmlands of North America where Lutheran immigrants congregated.}}</ref> When [[wikipedia:Christmas decorations|decorating]] the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the [[wikipedia:Star of Bethlehem|Star of Bethlehem]], a fact recorded by ''The School Journal'' in 1897.<ref name="Mandryk2005">{{cite book |last=Mandryk |first=DeeAnn |date=25 October 2005 |title=Canadian Christmas Traditions |publisher=James Lorimer & Company |isbn=9781554390984 |page=[https://archive.org/details/canadianchristma0000mand/page/67 67] |quote=The eight-pointed star became a popular manufactured Christmas ornament around the 1840s and many people place a star on the top of their Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem. |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianchristma0000mand/page/67 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title= Christmas in Other Lands | last= Wells | first= Dorothy | year=1897|journal=The School Journal|volume=55|pages=697–8|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ePc9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA697 |quote=Christmas is the occasional of family reunions. Grandmother always has the place of honor. As the time approaches for enjoying the tree, she gathers her grandchildren about her, to tell them the story of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christmas tree; how the evergreen is meant to represent the life everlasting, the candle lights to recall the light of the world, and the star at the top of the tree is to remind them of the star of Bethlehem.}}</ref> Professor David Albert Jones of the [[wikipedia:University of Oxford|University of Oxford]] writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the [[wikipedia:Nativity of Jesus|Nativity of Jesus]].<ref name="Jones2011">{{cite book |last=Jones |first=David Albert |date=27 October 2011 |title=Angels |publisher=[[wikipedia:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780191614910 |page=24 |quote=The same ambiguity is seen in that most familiar of angels, the angel on top of the Christmas tree. This decoration, popularized in the nineteenth century, recalls the place of the angels in the Christmas story (Luke 2:9–18).}}</ref>

Under the [[wikipedia:Marxist-Leninist atheism|Marxist-Leninist]] doctrine of [[wikipedia:state atheism|state atheism]] in the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other religious holidays—were prohibited as a result of the Soviet [[wikipedia:Anti-religious campaign during the Russian Civil War|anti-religious campaign]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asia.rbth.com/articles/2010/12/15/and_so_is_this_christmas05210.html|title=And so, is this Christmas?|date=15 December 2010|first=Jennifer|last=Eremeeva|work=[[wikipedia:Russia Beyond the Headlines|Russia Beyond the Headlines]]|quote=Russian Christians adhere to the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which lags 13 days behind the modern day calendar. This discrepancy was corrected in 1918, by the fledgling Bolshevik regime, but Christmas never reverted to December 25th in Russia, because the Bolsheviks began a systematic campaign to phase out traditional religious holidays and replace them with Soviet ones. Christmas was shifted to New Year's Eve. At the beginning, stringent measures were put in place to see off any holdover of the old days: Christmas trees, introduced to Russia by Tsar Peter The Great in the 17th century, were banned in 1916 by the Holy Synod as too German. The Bolsheviks kept the tree ban in place. Stalin declared Ded Moroz "an ally of the priest and kulak", and outlawed him from Russia.|access-date=3 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015214922/http://asia.rbth.com/articles/2010/12/15/and_so_is_this_christmas05210.html|archive-date=15 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Connelly2000">{{cite book |last=Connelly |first=Mark |date=2000 |title=Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=9781860643972 |page=186 |quote=A chapter on representations of ''Christmas'' in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.}}</ref><ref name="MIG"/> The [[wikipedia:League of Militant Atheists|League of Militant Atheists]] encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, among them being the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including [[wikipedia:Easter|Easter]]; the League established an anti-religious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.<ref name="Ramet2005">{{cite book |last=Ramet |first=Sabrina Petra |title=Religious Policy in the Soviet Union |date=10 November 2005 |publisher=[[wikipedia:Cambridge University Press|Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=9780521022309 |page=138 |quote=The League sallied forth to save the day from this putative religious revival. ''Antireligioznik'' obliged with so many articles that it devoted an entire section of its annual index for 1928 to anti-religious training in the schools. More such material followed in 1929, and a flood of it the next year. It recommended what Lenin and others earlier had explicitly condemned—carnivals, farces, and games to intimidate and purge the youth of religious belief. It suggested that pupils campaign against customs associated with Christmas (including Christmas trees) and Easter. Some schools, the League approvingly reported, staged an anti-religious day on the 31st of each month. Not teachers but the League's local set the programme for this special occasion.}}</ref> With the Christmas tree being prohibited in accordance with [[wikipedia:Soviet anti-religious legislation|Soviet anti-religious legislation]], people supplanted the former Christmas custom with New Year's trees.<ref name="MIG">{{cite book |date=1993 |title=Echo of Islam |publisher=MIG |quote=In the former Soviet Union, fir trees were usually put up to mark New Year's day, following a tradition established by the officially atheist state.}}</ref><ref name="Dice2009">{{cite book |last=Dice |first=Elizabeth A. |date=2009 |title=Christmas and Hanukkah |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438119717 |page=44 |quote=The Christmas tree, or Yolka, is another tradition that was banned during the Soviet era. To keep the custom alive, people decorated New Year's trees instead.}}</ref> In 1935, the tree was brought back as [[wikipedia:New Year tree|New Year tree]] and became a secular, not a religious holiday.

[[wikipedia:Pope John Paul II|Pope John Paul II]] introduced the Christmas tree custom to the Vatican in 1982. Although at first disapproved of by some as out of place at the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, the [[wikipedia:Vatican Christmas Tree|Vatican Christmas Tree]] has become an integral part of the Vatican Christmas celebrations,<ref name="Stenhouse">{{cite web |url=http://www.wantedinrome.com/news/2000419/christmas-the-vatican-christmas-tree.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730173019/http://www.wantedinrome.com/news/2000419/christmas-the-vatican-christmas-tree.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 July 2013 |first=Margaret |last=Stenhouse |title=The Vatican Christmas Tree |date=22 December 2010 |access-date=19 December 2012 }}</ref> and in 2005 [[wikipedia:Pope Benedict XVI|Pope Benedict XVI]] spoke of it as part of the normal Christmas decorations in Catholic homes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.appleseeds.org/christmas-quotes.htm |title=Pre-Christmas Reflection: May Our Spirits Open to the True Spiritual Light |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=21 December 2005 |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625212305/http://www.appleseeds.org/christmas-quotes.htm |archive-date=25 June 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2004, Pope John Paul called the Christmas tree a symbol of Christ. This very ancient custom, he said, exalts the value of life, as in winter what is evergreen becomes a sign of undying life, and it reminds Christians of the "tree of life",<ref>{{Bibleverse||Genesis|2:9}}</ref> an image of Christ, the supreme gift of God to humanity.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-11828?l=english |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208101926/http://www.zenit.org/article-11828?l=english |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 December 2007 |title=Christmas tree is symbol of Christ, says Pope—And a Sign of 'Undying Life' |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=19 December 2004 |access-date=19 December 2012 }}</ref> In the previous year he said: "Beside the crib, the Christmas tree, with its twinkling lights, reminds us that with the birth of Jesus the tree of life has blossomed anew in the desert of humanity. The crib and the tree: precious symbols, which hand down in time the true meaning of Christmas."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/urbi/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20031225_urbi_en.html |title=''Urbi et Orbi'' message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Christmas 2003 |language=la |date=25 December 2003 |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105060649/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/urbi/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20031225_urbi_en.html |archive-date=5 January 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Catholic Church's official ''Book of Blessings'' has a service for the blessing of the Christmas tree in a home.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/830/Blessing_a_Christmas_Tree.html |title=Order for the Blessing of a Christmas Tree |publisher=Crossroads Initiative |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230021152/http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/830/Blessing_a_Christmas_Tree.html |archive-date=30 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[wikipedia:Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] in ''The Anglican Family Prayer Book'', which has the [[wikipedia:imprimatur|imprimatur]] of The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam of the [[wikipedia:Anglican Communion|Anglican Communion]], has long had a ritual titled ''Blessing of a Christmas Tree'', as well as ''Blessing of a Crèche'', for use in the church and the home.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kitch |first=Anne E. |date=2004 |title=The Anglican Family Prayer Book |publisher=Morehouse Publishing |page=125}}</ref>

[[wikipedia:Chrismon tree|Chrismon tree]]s, which find their origin in the [[wikipedia:Lutheranism|Lutheran Christian]] tradition though now used in many Christian denominations such as the Catholic Church and Methodist Church, are used to decorate churches during the liturgical season of [[wikipedia:Advent|Advent]]; during the period of [[wikipedia:Christmastide|Christmastide]], Christian churches display the traditional Christmas tree in their sanctuaries.<ref name="Weaver2002">{{cite book|last=Weaver|first=J. Dudley |title=Presbyterian Worship: A Guide for Clergy|year=2002|publisher=Geneva Press|language=en |isbn=9780664502188|page=79|quote=Many congregations have begun the tradition of using a ''Chrismon tree'' in the sanctuary as part of the Advent and Christmas celebration. It is important, especially for children, that the distinction between this tree and the family Christmas tree be clearly made. The Chrismon tree is decorated only with clear lights and Chrismons made from white and gold material. White, the color of Christmas, is the color of purity and perfection, while gold is the color for majesty and glory. The Chrismons are ancient symbols for Christ or some part of Christ's ministry: the crow, descending down, fish, Celtic cross, Jerusalem cross, shepherd's crook, chalice, shell, and others.}}</ref>

In 2005, the city of Boston renamed the spruce tree used to decorate the Boston Common a "Holiday Tree" rather than a "Christmas Tree".<ref>{{cite web |title=Boston's 'Holiday Tree' Sparks Controversy |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510132 |work=[[wikipedia:The Harvard Crimson|The Harvard Crimson]] |date=28 November 2005 |access-date=8 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071107035844/http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=510132 |archive-date=7 November 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref> The name change was reversed after the city was threatened with several lawsuits.<ref>{{cite web |title=At Christmas, what's in a name? |url=https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/ChristmasCountdown/story?id=1356566 |work=[[wikipedia:ABC News|ABC News]] |date=29 November 2005 |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521092727/https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/ChristmasCountdown/story?id=1356566 |archive-date=21 May 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==See also==
{{col-list|colwidth=20em|
* [[wikipedia:Badnjak (Serbian)|Badnjak]]
* [[wikipedia:Christmas traditions|Christmas traditions]]
* [[wikipedia:Christmas controversy#Christmas tree|Christmas tree controversies]]
* [[wikipedia:Eiresione|Eiresione]]
* [[wikipedia:Festive ecology|Festive ecology]]
* [[wikipedia:Festivus pole|Festivus pole]]
* [[wikipedia:Hanukkah bush|Hanukkah bush]]
* [[wikipedia:Kadomatsu|Kadomatsu]]
* [[wikipedia:Legend of the Christmas Spider|Legend of the Christmas Spider]]
* [[wikipedia:Tree worship|Tree worship]]
* [[wikipedia:Weihnachten|Weihnachten]]
* [[wikipedia:Yule log|Yule log]]
}}
{{-}}

==References==

{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==

{{commons|Christmas tree}}
{{Catholic Encyclopedia poster|Christmas}}
* {{curlie|Business/Agriculture_and_Forestry/Horticulture/Ornamentals/Trees_and_Shrubs/Christmas_Trees|Christmas trees}}

[[Category:Popular culture]]