O' Christmas Tree

O' Christmas Tree 

The origins of the Christmas tree go back to pagan times, when trees were considered a symbol of life. The ancient Egyptians brought green palm branches into their homes on the shortest day of the year to celebrate the triumph of life over death, when the sun would begin its triumph over darkness. The Romans decorated their homes with greens during their winter festival in honor of Saturn, also at the winter solstice. Druid priests decorated oak trees with golden apples for their winter solstice celebration.

By legend, the first Christmas tree may have originated in 8th century Germany with a British missionary, St. Boniface, who cut down a giant oak that crushed every tree in its path except a small fir sapling. Seeing this as a miracle, St. Boniface called it "the tree of the Christ child." In the middle ages, the Paradise tree, an evergreen hung with red apples, was the symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve, hence the connection of the tree to a Christian celebration. Ever since, the evergreen has been associated with Christmas. In Strasbourg, Germany, in the 16th century, families decorated fir trees with colored paper, fruits, and sweets.

The tradition of the decorated evergreen spread throughout Europe, but did not appear in England until after 1840, when it was introduced by Prince Albert, son of a German duke, when he married Queen Victoria. It arrived even earlier in the United States with German settlers. Pilgrims considered the decorated tree a pagan mockery of a holy day -- after all, it did have pagan origins. Nevertheless, the Christmas tree, as do many other beautiful traditions, gained widespread acceptance. In 1851, an enterprising man named Mark Carr, hauled two ox sleds of trees from the Catskills to New York City, opening the first retail lot in the United States. In 1856, President Franklin Pierce introduced the tradition to the White House, and in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge conducted the first national tree-lighting ceremony on the White House lawn, a tradition continuing to this day.