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Christmas
Tree Angels
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The History of Christmas Tree Angels
by Whitney Hopler
Angels are traditionally
placed at the top of Christmas trees to represent their role in the birth of
Jesus.
Several
angels appear in the biblical story of the first Christmas.
Gabriel, the archangel of
revelation, informs the Virgin Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus.
An angel visits Joseph in a
dream to tell him that he will serve as Jesus's father on Earth.
And angels appear in the sky
over Bethlehem to announce and celebrate Jesus's birth.
It's
that last part of the story - the angels appearing high above the Earth - that
offers the clearest explanation for why angels are placed at the top of
Christmas trees.
Early
Christmas Tree Traditions
Evergreen trees were pagan symbols of life for centuries before
Christians adopted them as Christmas decorations.
Ancient people prayed and
worshiped outside among evergreens and decorated their homes with
evergreen branches during the winter months.
After
the Roman Emperor Constantine selected December 25 as the date to celebrate
Christmas, the holiday fell during winter for all of Europe.
It made sense that Christians
would adopt regional pagan rituals associated with winter to celebrate the
holiday.
In the
Middle Ages, Christians began decorating "Paradise Trees" that
symbolized the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
They hung fruit from tree
branches to represent the biblical story of the fall of Adam and Eve and
hung wafers made from pastry to represent the Christian ritual of communion.
The
first time in recorded history that a tree was decorated specifically to
celebrate Christmas was in Latvia in 1510, when people placed roses on the
branches of a fir tree.
The tradition quickly gained
popularity, and people began to decorate Christmas trees in churches, town
squares, and their homes with other natural materials such as fruit and nuts,
as well as with cookies baked in a variety of shapes, including angels.
Tree
Topper Angels
Christians eventually took up the practice of placing angel figures
at the top of their Christmas trees to symbolize the significance of the angels
who appeared over Bethlehem to announce Jesus's birth.
If they didn't use an angel
ornament as a tree topper, they usually used a star.
According to the biblical
story of Christmas, a bright star appeared in the sky to guide people to
Jesus's birthplace.
By
placing angels at the top of their Christmas trees, some Christians were also
making a statement of faith intended to scare evil spirits away from their
homes.
Streamers
and Tinsel: Angel 'Hair'
After Christians began decorating Christmas trees, they would
sometimes pretend that angels were actually the ones decorating the trees.
This was a way of making the
Christmas festivities fun for children.
People wrapped paper
streamers around the trees and told children that the streamers were pieces of
angel hair that had been caught in the branches when the angels leaned in too
closely while decorating.
Later,
after people figured out how to hammer out silver (and then aluminum) to
produce shiny streamers called tinsel, they used it on their Christmas trees to
represent angel hair.
Angel
Ornaments
The first angel ornaments were handmade ones, such as
angel-shaped cookies or angel ornaments fashioned out of natural materials like
straw.
By the 1800s, glassblowers in
Germany were making glass Christmas ornaments, and glass angels began to adorn
many Christmas trees throughout the world.
After
the Industrial Revolution made it possible to mass produce Christmas ornaments,
many different styles of angel ornaments were sold in large department stores.
Angels
remain popular Christmas tree decorations today.
High-tech angel ornaments
implanted with microchips (which enable the angels to glow from within, sing,
dance, talk, and play trumpets) are now widely available.
Whitney Hopler
· Professional
writer and editor since 1994, in print and online
· Communications
director for the Center for Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason
University
Experience
Whitney
Hopler is a former writer for ThoughtCo. She has served as the religion editor
for a secular newspaper chain in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, as
well as an editor at Crosswalk.com and The Salvation Army’s
national magazines. Hopler has written for a variety of national publications.
She is the communications director for the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at
George Mason University.
Education
Hopler
graduated with honors from George Mason University, where she studied
comparative religion. She has a certification as a professional technical
communicator from the Society for Technical Communications.
Publications
· "Dream Factory," a
novel with spiritual themes
ThoughtCo
and Dotdash
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publication.
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