Christmas tree: Difference between revisions

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"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>
 
==Customs and traditions==
===Setting up and taking down===
[[File:Candle on Christmas tree 3.jpg|thumb|A candle on a Christmas tree]]
{{Further|Hanging of the greens}}
Both setting up and taking down a Christmas tree are associated with specific dates; liturgically, this is done through the [[wikipedia:hanging of the greens|hanging of the greens]] ceremony.<ref name="Dixon2013">{{cite book|last=Dixon|first=Sandy|title=Everlasting Light: A Resource for Advent Worship|date=30 October 2013|publisher=Chalice Press|language=en |isbn=9780827208377|page=5|quote=Many congregations decorate the sanctuary for the Advent season in a service called Hanging of the Greens.}}</ref> In many areas, it has become customary to set up one's Christmas tree on [[wikipedia:Advent Sunday|Advent Sunday]], the first day of the [[wikipedia:Advent|Advent]] season.<ref name="Michelin2012">{{cite book|last=Michelin|title=Germany Green Guide Michelin 2012–2013|quote=Advent – The four weeks before Christmas are celebrated by counting down the days with an advent calendar, hanging up Christmas decorations and lightning an additional candle every Sunday on the four-candle advent wreath.|date=10 October 2012|publisher=Michelin |isbn=9782067182110|page=73}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Mazar |title=School Year, Church Year: Customs and Decorations for the Classroom |year=2000 |publisher=Liturgy Training Publications |isbn=978-1568542409 |page=161 }}</ref> Traditionally, however, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until the evening of [[wikipedia:Christmas Eve|Christmas Eve]] (24 December), the end of the Advent season and the start of the [[wikipedia:twelve days of Christmas|twelve days]] of [[wikipedia:Christmastide|Christmastide]].<ref name="Blainey2004">{{cite book |last1=Blainey |first1=Geoffrey |title=Black Kettle and Full Moon |date=2004 |publisher=Penguin Group Australia |isbn=978-1-74228-327-2 |language=en |quote=But towards the end of the nineteenth century, in the weatherboard halls of a few townships, a tree would annually be set up, usually on Christmas Eve.}}</ref> It is customary for Christians in many localities to remove their [[wikipedia:Christmas decorations|Christmas decorations]] on the last day of the twelve days of Christmastide that falls on 5 January—[[wikipedia:Twelfth Night (holiday)|Epiphany Eve]] (Twelfth Night),<ref name="Learning">{{Cite book |title=A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" |publisher=[[wikipedia:Cengage Learning|Cengage Learning]] |year=2016 |isbn=9781410361349 |edition=2 |page=29 |language=en |quote=Twelfth Night saw people feasting and taking down Christmas decorations. The king cake is traditionally served in France and England on the Twelfth Night to commemorate the journey of the Magi to visit the Christ child.}}</ref> although those in other [[wikipedia:Christian state|Christian countries]] remove them on [[wikipedia:Candlemas|Candlemas]], the conclusion of the extended [[wikipedia:Epiphanytide|Christmas-Epiphany season]] (Epiphanytide).<ref name="Edworthy2008">{{Cite book |title=The Curious World of Christmas |last=Edworthy |first=Niall |date=October 7, 2008 |publisher=[[wikipedia:Penguin Group|Penguin Group]] |isbn=9780399534577 |page=83 |language=en |quote=The time-honoured epoch for taking down Christmas decorations from Church and house in Candlemas Day, February 2nd. Terribly withered they are by that time. Candlemas in old times represented the end of the Christmas holidays, which, when "fine old leisure" reigned, were far longer than they are now.}}</ref><ref name="Roud2008">{{Cite book |title=The English Year |last=Roud |first=Steve |date=January 31, 2008 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=9780141919270 |page=690 |language=en |quote=As indicated in Herrick's poem, quoted above, in the mid seventeenth century Christmas decorations were expected to stay in place until Candlemas (2 February), and this remained the norm until the nineteenth century.}}</ref> According to the first tradition, those who fail to remember to remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve must leave them untouched until Candlemas, the second opportunity to remove them; failure to observe this custom is considered inauspicious.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://metro.co.uk/2016/12/31/when-is-twelfth-night-and-what-does-it-mean-6353917/ |title=When is Twelfth Night and what does it mean? |last=Groome |first=Imogen |date=December 31, 2016 |publisher=[[wikipedia:Metro (British newspaper)|Metro]] |access-date=January 7, 2017 |quote=Twelfth Night 2017 is on Thursday 5 January, which is when we’re meant to put away our Christmas decorations or there’ll be bad luck in the year ahead. If you miss the date, some believe it’s necessary to keep decorations up until Candlemas on 2 February – or you’ll definitely have a rubbish year.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml |title=Candlemas |work=BBC |access-date=April 9, 2014 |quote=Any Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night (January 5th) should be left up until Candlemas Day and then taken down.}}</ref>
 
===Decoration===
 
{{main|Christmas ornament}}
{{More citations needed section|date=December 2012}}
[[File:2002 Blue Room Christmas tree.jpg|thumb|White House Christmas tree]]
[[File:Christmas market, Strasbourg (5226805005).jpg|thumb|Christmas ornaments at the [[wikipedia:Christmas market|Christmas market]], Strasbourg]]
 
Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood, or ceramics) that are used to decorate a Christmas tree. The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. [[wikipedia:Glass|Glass]] baubles were first made in [[wikipedia:Lauscha|Lauscha]], [[wikipedia:Germany|Germany]], and also garlands of glass beads and [[wikipedia:tin|tin]] figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations grew into the production of glass figures made by highly skilled [[wikipedia:artisans|artisans]] with [[wikipedia:clay|clay]] molds.
 
Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used to decorate a Christmas tree. Silvered [[wikipedia:saran (plastic)|saran]]-based tinsel was introduced later. Delicate mold-blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of the glass factories in the [[wikipedia:Thuringian Forest|Thuringian Forest]], especially in Lauscha in the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous-name designers. Baubles are another common decoration, consisting of small hollow glass or plastic spheres coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide coloration.
Lighting with electric lights (Christmas lights or, in the United Kingdom, fairy lights) is commonly done. A [[wikipedia:tree-topper|tree-topper]], sometimes an angel but more frequently a star, completes the decoration.
 
In the late 1800s, home-made white Christmas trees were made by wrapping strips of cotton batting around leafless branches creating the appearance of a snow-laden tree.
In the 1940s and 1950s, popularized by Hollywood films in the late 1930s, [[wikipedia:flocking (texture)|flocking]] was very popular on the [[wikipedia:West Coast of the United States|West Coast of the United States]]. There were home flocking kits that could be used with vacuum cleaners. In the 1980s some trees were sprayed with fluffy white flocking to simulate snow.
 
<gallery class="center" heights="150px" caption="Decorations">