Christmas Trees
Why Do We Have Christmas Trees?
The history behind evergreens, ornaments, and holiday gift giving.
EDWIN
AND JENNIFER WOODRUFF TAIT
The evergreen tree was an ancient symbol of life in the midst of
winter.
Romans decorated their houses with evergreen branches during the New Year, and ancient inhabitants of northern Europe cut
evergreen trees and planted them in boxes inside their houses in wintertime.
.
Many early Christians were hostile to such
practices.
The second-century theologian Tertullian
condemned those Christians who celebrated the winter festivals, or decorated
their houses with laurel boughs in honor of the emperor:
"Let
them over whom the fires of hell are imminent, affix to their posts, laurels
doomed presently to burn: to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of
their penalties are suitable. You are
a light of the world, and a tree ever green. If you have renounced temples,
make not your own gate a temple."
But by
the early Middle Ages, the legend had grown that when Christ was born in the
dead of winter, every tree throughout the world miraculously shook off its ice
and snow and produced new shoots of green.
At the
same time, Christian missionaries preaching to Germanic and Slavic peoples were
taking a more lenient approach to cultural practices—such as evergreen trees.
These
missionaries believed that the Incarnation proclaimed Christ's lordship over
those natural symbols that had previously been used for the worship of pagan
gods.
Not
only individual human beings, but cultures, symbols, and traditions could be
converted.
Of
course, this did not mean that the worship of pagan gods themselves was
tolerated.
According
to one legend, the eighth-century missionary Boniface, after cutting down an
oak tree sacred to the pagan god Thor (and used for human sacrifice), pointed
to a nearby fir tree instead as a symbol of the love and mercy of God.
Paradise
trees
Not until the Renaissance are there clear records of trees being
used as a symbol of Christmas—beginning in Latvia in 1510 and Strasbourg in
1521.
Legend
credits the Protestant reformer Martin Luther with inventing the Christmas
tree, but the story has little historical basis.
The
most likely theory is that Christmas trees started with medieval plays.
Dramas
depicting biblical themes began as part of the church's worship, but by the
late Middle Ages, they had become rowdy, imaginative performances dominated by
laypeople and taking place in the open air.
The
plays celebrating the Nativity were linked to the story of creation—in part
because Christmas Eve was also considered the feast day of Adam and Eve.
Thus,
as part of the play for that day, the Garden of Eden was symbolized by a
"paradise tree" hung with fruit.
These
plays were banned in many places in the 16th century, and people perhaps began
to set up "paradise trees" in their homes to compensate for the
public celebration they could no longer enjoy.
The
earliest Christmas trees (or evergreen branches) used in homes were referred to
as "paradises."
They
were often hung with round pastry wafers symbolizing the Eucharist, which
developed into the cookie ornaments decorating German Christmas trees today.
The
custom gained popularity throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, against the
protests of some clergy.
Lutheran
minister Johann von Dannhauer, for instance, complained (like Tertullian) that
the symbol distracted people from the true evergreen tree, Jesus Christ.
But
this did not stop many churches from setting up Christmas trees inside the
sanctuary.
Alongside
the tree often stood wooden "pyramids"—stacks of shelves bearing
candles, sometimes one for each family member.
Eventually
these pyramids of candles were placed on the tree, the ancestors of our modern
Christmas tree lights and ornaments.
Nicholas and Wenceslas
It also took a long time for trees to become associated with
presents.
Though
legend connects the idea of Christmas gifts with the gifts the Magi brought
Jesus, the real story is more complicated.
Like
trees, gifts were first a Roman practice—traded during the winter solstice.
As
Epiphany, and later Christmas, replaced the winter solstice as a time of
celebration for Christians, the gift-giving tradition continued for a while.
By late
antiquity it had died out, although gifts were still exchanged at New Year's.
Gifts
were also associated with St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey),
who became famous for giving gifts to poor children.
His
feast day (December 6) thus became another occasion for gift exchanges.
During
the early Middle Ages, Christmas gifts most often took the form of tributes
paid to monarchs—although a few rulers used the holiday season as an
opportunity to give to the poor or to the church instead (most notably Duke
Wenceslas of Bohemia, whose story inspired the popular carol, and William the Conqueror,
who chose Christmas 1067 to make a large donation to the pope).
Like
trees, gifts came "inside" the family around the time of Luther, as
the custom of giving gifts to friends and family members developed in Germany,
the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.
Often
these were given anonymously, or hidden.
One
Danish custom was to rewrap a gift many times with different names on each
wrapper, so that the intended recipient was only discovered when all the layers
were opened.
Victorian Christmas
In the English-speaking world, the union of gifts, trees, and
Christmas was due to the influence of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince
Albert, a native of Saxony (now part of Germany).
German
immigrants had brought the custom of Christmas trees with them in the early
1800s, but it spread widely after Victoria and Albert set up an elaborate tree
for their children at Windsor Castle in 1841.
At this
point, Christmas presents were usually hung on the tree itself.
German
and Dutch immigrants also brought their traditions of trees and presents to the
New World in the early 1800’s.
The
image of happy middle-class families exchanging gifts around a tree became a
powerful one for American authors and civic leaders who wished to replace
older, rowdier, and more alcohol-fueled Christmas traditions—such as
wassailing—with a more family-friendly holiday.
This
family-centered image was widely popularized by Clement Moore's 1822 poem,
known today as "T’was the Night Before Christmas" (which also helped
give us our modern picture of Santa Claus).
As many
of us make trees and gifts the center of our own Christmas practice, we would
do well to remember that they are ultimately symbols of the One who gave
himself to unite heaven and earth, and who brings all barren things to flower.
Edwin Woodruff Tait is assistant professor of Bible
and religion at Huntington University. Jennifer Woodruff Tait is adjunct
professor of church history at Asbury Theological Seminary.
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