THE POSSIBILITY OF BIGFOOT / SASQUATCH - Despite what "evidence" people have scraped together from the Bible, blurry photographs, or suspect footprints, there is just no solid proof that Sasquatch or Bigfoot truly exists. Maybe Sasquatch is just an undiscovered apeish animal native to mountain regions. This isn’t illogical as there are new discoveries made every day. The Bible doesn’t say anything directly about Bigfoot. It's extremely likely that Bigfoot does NOT exist. And we should not make up theories simply because we wish them to be true. Sure, Bigfoot is a fun legend to discuss and theorize about. But when it comes to admitting the truth, we should always stand on the side of God's. All around the world, we can find legends of hairy, bipedal, apeish humanoids. In North America, this creature is commonly known as Bigfoot or its Native American name, Sasquatch. The name “Bigfoot” comes from its purportedly huge feet that leave... big... foot... prints. We find stories of the Yeti on the mountain slopes of Nepal, the Almas of Mongolia, and the Nuk-luk wandering the Northwest Territories of the United States. Some people believe Bigfoot is the ancient evolutionary “missing link” between humans and apes. Others believe that Bigfoot is what remains of the prehistoric species Gigantopithecus, which was a 10-foot-tall giant ape that lived in Asia. King Kong's distant ancestor maybe? Skeptics believe any alleged photographs of Bigfoot are merely hoaxes pushing an unscientific agenda.

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The Possibility Of Bigfoot  / Sasquatch

What does the Bible say about the possibility of Bigfoot/Sasquatch?

.

Despite what "evidence" people have scraped together from the Bible, blurry photographs, or suspect footprints, there is just no solid proof that Sasquatch or Bigfoot truly exists. Maybe Sasquatch is just an undiscovered apeish animal native to mountain regions. This isn’t illogical as there are new discoveries made every day.

.

The Bible doesn’t say anything directly about Bigfoot. It's extremely likely that Bigfoot does NOT exist. And we should not make up theories simply because we wish them to be true. Sure, Bigfoot is a fun legend to discuss and theorize about. But when it comes to admitting the truth, we should always stand on the side of God's.

By: Vivian Bricker

All around the world, we can find legends of hairy, bipedal, apeish humanoids.

In North America, this creature is commonly known as Bigfoot or its Native American name, Sasquatch.

The name “Bigfoot” comes from its purportedly huge feet that leave... big... foot... prints. (Oh, so clever!)

In other locales, we find stories of the Yeti on the mountain slopes of Nepal, the Almas of Mongolia, and the Nuk-luk wandering the Northwest Territories of the United States.

But is there any truth to these tales of hairy creatures hiding in woods and mountainsides around the world?

Does the Bible ever mention any sort of hairy creature fitting this description?

Some people believe Bigfoot is the ancient evolutionary “missing link” between humans and apes.

Others believe that Bigfoot is what remains of the prehistoric species Gigantopithecus, which was a 10-foot-tall giant ape that lived in Asia.

King Kong's distant ancestor maybe?

Skeptics believe any alleged photographs of Bigfoot are merely hoaxes pushing an unscientific agenda.

"Biblical" Theories about Bigfoot

Weirdly enough, there's a significant group of people who believe the Bible actually backs up the supposed existence of Sasquatch.

Some theorists claim Bigfoot is descendent from the Nephilim, Cain, or Esau.

There are even complex “Bible codes” based on numeric sequences to find the Sasquatch in the Scriptures.

Since Esau was big and hairy (Genesis 25:25), some say his descendants are men "of the field" (Genesis 25:27).

Maybe Sasquatch is a "man of the field"?

In the context of Genesis 25, that would mean that Bigfoot is a mighty hunter and proficient with weapons.

Seems like evidence of such a creature would have been discovered by now, don't you think?

Other theorists believe Bigfoot is a result of the curse God placed upon Cain to be “a restless wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:12).

Since Cain was cursed to be alone and always on the move, some say Bigfoot meets that criteria.

The creature is reported to always be alone and on the move. But then how does Bigfoot procreate?

Or is he supposed to be immortal?

The final theory surrounding Bigfoot and the Bible is that some people claim he is a remnant of the Nephilim (Genesis 6:4).

The Nephilim were giants whose parents consisted of a human mother and a fallen angel.

These theorists claim Bigfoot is a remnant of the Nephilim or some new kind of creature that appeared down the family line.

Would such creatures live peaceful, quiet lives in total isolation?

Having the DNA of demons inside them?

The truth is that these are all just theories that have been forced into a uncertain fantasies.

The Bible never specifically mentions a beast of this sort, and the connections mentioned here are merely conjecture.

The Truth about Bigfoot

Despite what "evidence" people have scraped together from the Bible, blurry photographs, or suspect footprints, there is just no solid proof that Sasquatch or Bigfoot truly exists.

Of course, as much as it is the case with dragons, we don't want to say this creature is 100% impossible.

Maybe Sasquatch is just an undiscovered apeish animal native to mountain regions. This isn’t illogical as there are new discoveries made every day.

However, we need to acknowledge that the Bible doesn’t say anything directly about Bigfoot.

It's extremely likely that Bigfoot does NOT exist.

And we should not make up theories simply because we wish them to be true.

Sure, Bigfoot is a fun legend to discuss and theorize about.

Some can't resist a good scary story about Sasquatch while sitting around a campfire in the woods.

But when it comes to admitting the truth, we should always stand on the side of God's truth (1 Timothy 4:7).

TL; DR

The Bible doesn’t say anything about Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

Theories that Bigfoot comes from Cain, Esau, or the Nephilim (Genesis 4:12; 6:4; 25:25) are merely conjecture.

The most plausible explanation is that Sasquatch is an undiscovered apeish animal indigenous to mountainous regions.

Bigfoot is a fun legend to discuss and theorize about, but when it comes to admitting the truth, we should always stand on the side of God's truth (1 Timothy 4:7).

By: Vivian Bricker

Vivian loves learning, studying the Word of God, and helping others in their walk with Christ. She is dedicated to helping people learn more about Jesus and is ready to help in any way she can. Her favorite things to do are spending time with her family and friends, cooking, drawing, and spending time outside. When she is not writing, you can find her soaking up the sunshine or going on an adventure.

412teens.org is dedicated to encouraging teens and sharing pearls of biblical truth in a sea of spiritual sludge. We're an outreach of Got Questions Ministries, and we want to do the same as they do: Glorify God by providing biblical, applicable, and timely answers to spiritually-related questions. They do it at GotQuestions.org. We do it right here!

The "412" stands for 1 Timothy 4:12, which is "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." Just because you're young, that doesn't mean you have nothing to offer this world. Teens can still be incredible witnesses to God's amazing grace and love. We believe that teens have awesome insights and perspectives on this universe that adults could really benefit from

https://412teens.org/qna/what-does-the-Bible-say-about-bigfoot-sasquatch.php

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FEMALE POPE - The legend of Pope Joan, allegedly the first and only woman elected pope. The story of Pope Joan was not invented in the Reformation, like many Catholic urban legends were. But the Reformation gave it the impetus to leap into modern thought. Let’s have a Catholic urban legend with a twist. This one dates from before the Reformation and its sources are therefore entirely Catholic. It is the legend of Pope Joan, allegedly the first and only woman elected pope. According to the story, she was pope in the ninth century during the so-called “Dark Ages” until her female identity was revealed. As old as the 13th century, and as recent as a 2005 ABC News “special,” Pope Joan will be around as long as she serves an anti-Catholic purpose. She began as an anti-papal fable, persisted as nativist anti-Catholic propaganda, and has blossomed into a 21st-century feminist icon. In many ways, Pope Joan fits the traditional Catholic urban legend. Take any historical period and she can be molded into a solidly anti-Catholic niche. In the 16th century, Protestant dissenters used her to illustrate the nadir of an ever-corrupt papacy. In the 19th century, she was portrayed as a woman violated and ruined by lascivious clericalism, symbolic of the perversity to which Rome had sunk. In the 21st century, she represents the empowered female who fought the intransigent sexism of the Catholic Church and who therefore had to be destroyed.

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The Female  Pope 

(The Popess Who Just Won’t Go Away)

By:  Robert P. Lockwood     catholicsay.com

Let’s have a Catholic urban legend with a twist. This one dates from before the Reformation and its sources are therefore entirely Catholic. And in a final twist, the first widely accepted refutation came from a Calvinist scholar.

It is the legend of Pope Joan, allegedly the first and only woman elected pope.

According to the story, she was pope in the ninth century during the so-called “Dark Ages” until her female identity was revealed.

As old as the 13th century, and as recent as a 2005 ABC News “special,” Pope Joan will be around as long as she serves an anti-Catholic purpose.

She began as an anti-papal fable, persisted as nativist anti-Catholic propaganda, and has blossomed into a 21st-century feminist icon.

In many ways, Pope Joan fits the traditional Catholic urban legend. Take any historical period and she can be molded into a solidly anti-Catholic niche.

In the 16th century, Protestant dissenters used her to illustrate the nadir of an ever-corrupt papacy.

In the 19th century, she was portrayed as a woman violated and ruined by lascivious clericalism, symbolic of the perversity to which Rome had sunk.

In the 21st century, she represents the empowered female who fought the intransigent sexism of the Catholic Church and who therefore had to be destroyed.

Not-So-Pious Legend

What is the legend of the female pope? Stories abound, but let’s go with the most recent edition, a “special” ABC News television report in December 2005.

Breathlessly narrated by Diane Sawyer, the ABC News rendition begins in the town of Mainz, Germany, in the ninth century, where a bright young girl manages to sneak into a monastery disguised as a boy.

She becomes an adept student and eventually makes her way to Athens, still disguised as a man. But by then she had also taken a lover who shared her secret.

From Athens, the little lady heads to ninth-century Rome, described by Ms. Sawyer as the home of “bawdy monks, scheming cardinals, cross-dressing saints, intrigue, melodrama, corruption and violence.”

Now known as “English John,” the girl becomes a respected curial secretary, then a cardinal, and — drumroll please —” the choice of all for pope in the year 855.”

But there was to be no happy ending: “Pope Joan was in the midst of a papal procession. . . when . . . she felt sharp pains in her stomach . . . The unthinkable happened: The pope was having a baby.”

While acknowledging that the story concludes differently depending on the telling, Sawyer reported that Pope Joan was either stoned or dragged from a horse’s tail to her death.

And then kicking the legend into high gear, Sawyer asserted that embarrassment over Pope Joan resulted in mandated priestly celibacy (“a requirement that’s still controversial today”), a crackdown on powerful female mystics who claimed that they could communicate directly with God and who did not need the male-dominated Church, and a host of “women martyrs . . . who were tortured for their religious beliefs.”

A whole bunch of Catholic urban legends rolled into one there.

The Myth of “English John”

The 21st-century moral of the legend of Pope Joan is clear: The Church fears powerful women, the Church has purposefully redacted out any mention of powerful women from its history, and the persistent tradition of priestly celibacy resulted from the hatred of women.

The fact that priestly celibacy existed in the Western Church centuries before this fable and that powerful women were part of Church history long before secular society would allow such a thing is immaterial to the propaganda.

The amazing thing — or maybe not so amazing — is that no one at ABC News considered that this might be contemporary anti-Catholic woolgathering, rather than any kind of objective presentation.

It’s all just the “normative thinking and part of the cultural baggage of the progressive mind,” to quote myself.

So, what’s the story on Pope Joan?

In a nutshell, as described by a recent historian of the papacy, John-Peter Pham in Heirs of the Fisherman (Oxford University Press), Pope Joan is “a legendary female pope who never existed” (253).

Yet, “from the mid-13th through the mid-17th centuries, the story that there had been a female pope . . . at some date in the ninth, tenth, or eleventh century was almost universally accepted as historical fact” (Pham,Heirs, 253).

According to Pham, the first time “Pope Joan” was mentioned in any known historical record was in the “Universal History of Metz” around 1250.

The work was attributed to Jean de Mailly, a Dominican priest who gave the basic outline of the fable.

He wrote that Pope Victor III (1087), who had only a four-month pontificate, was succeeded by a woman disguised as a man, who died after giving birth during a papal procession.

Another Dominican priest and a Franciscan friar repeated the tale in their own works, but moved the female “papacy” back to 1100, then 915.

It was then included in the “Chronicle of Popes and Emperors” by Martin of Troppau at the end of the 13th century.

Martin gave the story its essential outline, with Joan being elected as “John Anglicus” after the death of Pope Leo IV (847-855).

Riding in procession from St. Peter’s to the Lateran Basilica, she allegedly gave birth on a narrow street between the Coliseum and the Basilica of San Clemente. She died in childbirth and was buried on the spot.

Later generations attached to the story the gory details of an angry mob killing her and the baby.

A Myth Gains, Loses, Steam

The myth of Joan would have been forgotten as the invention it was had it not been picked up in the 14th century by Italian poet Boccaccio, who used it for his own anti-papal propaganda.

Other humanists followed suit, trying to settle an Italian score against the popes for their high-paying sponsors.

Siena Cathedral had a bust of Joan, a sign less of its historicity than of its feud with the Vatican.

Pham points out that the story of Joan was later used by the Bohemian dissenter John Hus (d. 1415) as part of his list of alleged misdeeds of the papacy.

As early as the 15th century, when the first stirrings of what might be called a more disciplined approach to history had begun, the story of Joan was being called into question.

When the fable was used as anti-Catholic fodder during the Reformation, Catholic historians began to question its historicity.

And soon, oddly enough, their perspective was confirmed by a French Calvinist historian.

David Blondel (1590-1655) was a Protestant living in the Netherlands who effectively used the early tools of historical study to dismantle the myth of Pope Joan.

Tracking the history of the popes during that period and the lack of any contemporary mention of Joan in what would have been, if true, an astounding event to be exploited by papal enemies, he dismissed the legend.

His fellow Protestants of the era dismissed Blondel because, as Pierre Bayle said, “the Protestant interest requires the story of Joan to be true.”

Which is why the legend of Pope Joan persisted. It made for good Reformation polemics.

The story of Pope Joan was not invented in the Reformation, like many Catholic urban legends were.

But the Reformation gave it the impetus to leap into modern thought — and eventually show up in an ABC News special in the 21st century.

The Missing Gap

The fundamental flaw in the Pope Joan legend and why any serious historian would reject it is that there is no “gap” in the actual traceable historical record where “Pope Joan” would have served if the legend were true.

The legend places Pope Joan in the papacy from 855 to 857, elected as “John Anglicus.”

But Pope Leo IV, who died in June 855, was immediately succeeded by Pope Benedict III. We know this because Benedict’s election was not without controversy.

The Byzantine Emperor tried to have his son installed as pope in his place. Rome was invaded and Benedict imprisoned.

When the Romans objected to this, Benedict was freed from prison that September. There was simply no historical time gap when an imaginary pope could have served.

Of equal importance to historians is the absence of any record, mention, or reference to a “Pope Joan” until nearly 400 years after her election.

As Blondel realized, it would have been impossible for such an event to have taken place, or for a papacy to have existed for nearly three years without some contemporary record from those years.

And even when some versions push the date forward, a gap of centuries before she is first mentioned remains, and the historical record of the existing popes at those times is irrefutable.

So there was clearly no Pope Joan. Two questions remain: Where did the legend first arise and why are we still dealing with it today?

As to where the legend came from, historians can only guess. Pham states that “the kernel of the story is generally taken to be an ancient Roman folktale” (Heirs 254).

Others see a possible source coming out of allegations that Pope John VIII (872-882) was effeminate, though even that charge seems lacking in substance.

Still others suggest that the story may have come out of the papacy of Pope Sergius (904-911), whom the Romans viewed as weak and dominated by powerful and corrupt women.

Certain historians believe that the legend might have come out of the Eastern Byzantine Empire as a means to discredit the “western” papacy.

Whatever the source, history is rife with legends of women disguised as men rising to great ranks.

Ancient Greece and Rome had them.

But the purpose of such legends was usually satirical: It was meant to show how weak or corrupt the men of the time and place had become.

The moral of the tale was that the men were so spineless that a woman could assume leadership. And that means that the legend of Pope Joan is hardly feminist hagiography.

If anything, it reflects a degrading and persistent animus toward women that lingered from pagan culture.

Why are we still dealing with Pope Joan today when thousands of similar medieval legends have disappeared?

Google Pope Joan and you will find millions of Internet references.

The legend persists for the same reason that all Catholic urban legends persist—they fit in with the contemporary anti-Catholic propaganda.

Joan has survived — despite the earliest forms of historical criticism showing her to be a myth — because she fits an agenda.

As Bayle might say to Blondel were these men around today, “The secular interest requires the story of Joan to be true.”

http://catholicsay.com/the-female-pope-the-popess-who-just-wont-go-away/

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CHRISTMAS TREES - Origin, History and Development - The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals for thousands of years. Pagans used branches of it to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come. The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia. Christians use it as a sign of everlasting life with God.

The History of Christmas Trees 

The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian) for thousands of years.

Pagans used branches of it to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come.

The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia. Christians use it as a sign of everlasting life with God.

Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees. It probably began about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe.

Many early Christmas Trees seem to have been hung upside down from the ceiling using chains (hung from chandeliers/lighting hooks).

Other early Christmas Trees, across many parts of northern Europe, were cherry or hawthorn plants (or a branch of the plant) that were put into pots and brought inside so they would hopefully flower at Christmas time.

If you could not afford a real plant, people made pyramids of woods and they were decorated to look like a tree with paper, apples and candles. Sometimes they were carried around from house to house, rather than being displayed in a home.

It is possible that the wooden pyramid trees were meant to be like Paradise Trees.

These were used in medieval German Mystery or Miracle Plays that were acted out in front of Churches on Christmas Eve.

In early church calendars of saints, 24th December was Adam and Eve's day. The Paradise Tree represented the Garden of Eden. It was often paraded around the town before the play started, as a way of advertising the play. The plays told Bible stories to people who could not read.

The first documented use of a tree at Christmas and New Year celebrations is argued between the cities of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia! Both claim that they had the first trees; Tallinn in 1441 and Riga in 1510.

Both trees were put up by the “Brotherhood of Blackheads” which was an association of local unmarried merchants, ship owners, and foreigners in Livonia (what is now Estonia and Latvia).

Little is known about either tree apart from that they were put in the town square, were dance around by the Brotherhood of Blackheads and were then set on fire. This is like the custom of the Yule Log.

The word used for the “tree” could also mean a mast or pole, tree might have been like a “Paradise Tree” or a tree-shaped wooden candelabra rather than a “real” tree.

In the town square of Riga, the capital of Latvia, there is a plaque which is engraved with "The First New Year's Tree in Riga in 1510," in eight languages. You can find out more about the Riga Tree from this website:www.firstchristmastree.com

In 1584, the historian Balthasar Russow wrote about a tradition, in Riga, of a decorated fir tree in 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.”

There is a record of a small tree in Breman, Germany from 1570. It is described as a tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers." It was displayed in a 'guild-house' (the meeting place for a society of business men in the city).

The first person to bring a Christmas Tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th century German preacher Martin Luther.

A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches.

It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. Some people say this is the same tree as the “Riga” tree, but it isn't! The Riga tree originally took place a few decades earlier.

The custom of having Christmas trees could well have travelled along the Baltic sea, from Latvia to Germany.

In the 1400’s and 1500’s, the countries which are now Germany and Latvia were them part of two larger empires which were neighbors.

Another story says that St. Boniface of Crediton (a village in Devon, UK) left England and traveled to Germany to preach to the pagan German tribes and convert them to Christianity.

He is said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree.

In anger, and to stop the sacrifice, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree.

St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith and his followers decorated the tree with candles so that St. Boniface could preach to the pagans at night.

There is another legend, from Germany, about how the Christmas Tree came into being. It goes:

“Once on a cold Christmas Eve night, a forester and his family were in their cottage gathered round the fire to keep warm. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

“When the forester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step, lost and alone. The forester welcomed him into his house and the family fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest sons own bed (he had to share with his brother that night!)

“The next morning, Christmas Morning, the family were woken up by a choir of angels, and the poor little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ Child.

“The Christ Child went into the front garden of the cottage and broke a branch off a Fir tree and gave it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. So ever since them, people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes!”

In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. Then glass makers made special small ornaments similar to some of the decorations used today.

In 1605 an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc."

At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed to an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus, or a star like the Wise Men saw.

The first Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the 1830’s. They became very popular in 1841, when Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's German husband) had a Christmas Tree set up in Windsor Castle.

In 1848, drawing of "The Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle" was published in the Illustrated London News. The drawing was republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850 (but they removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's moustache to make it look “American”!).

The publication of the drawing helped Christmas Trees become popular in the UK and USA.

In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees.

Tinsel and The Legend of the Christmas SpiderTinsel was also created in Germany, were it was originally made from thin strips of beaten silver. But when plastic/man-made tinsel was invented, it became very popular as it was much cheaper than real silver and also lighter to go on the tree!

There are also folk stories about how tinsel was created - by The Christmas Spider!

These tales seem to have started in Eastern Germany or Ukraine but are also told in parts of Finland and Scandinavia. The stories are now also popular in other countries such as the USA; although I live in the UK and most people in my country have never heard of the story/legend!

All the versions of the story involve a poor family who can't afford to decorate a Tree for Christmas (in some versions the tree grew from a pine cone in their house, in others the family have bought a tree into the house).

When the children go to sleep on Christmas Eve a spider covers the tree in cobwebs. Then on Christmas morning the cobwebs are magically turned into silver and gold strands which decorate the tree!

Some versions of the story say that it's the light of the sun which changed the cobwebs into silver and gold but other versions say it's St Nicholas / Santa Claus / Father Christmas / das Christkind which made the magic happen.

In parts of Germany, Poland, and Ukraine it is meant to be good luck to find a spider or a spider's web on your Christmas Tree.

Spider's web Christmas Tree decorations are also popular in Ukraine. They're called “pavuchky” (which means “little spider”) and the decorations are normally made of paper and silver wire. You might even put an artificial spider's web on your tree!

Christmas Tree Lights

Because of the danger of fire, in 1895 Ralph Morris, an American telephonist, invented the first electric Christmas lights, similar to the ones we use today.

In 1885 a hospital in Chicago burned down because of candles on a Christmas Tree!

And in 1908 insurance companies in the USA tried to get a law made that would ban candles from being used on Christmas Trees because of the many fires they had caused! So we have to say a big thank you to Ralph Morris for making Christmas safer!

The most lights lit at the same time on a Christmas tree is 194,672 and was done by Kiwanis Malmedy / Haute Fagnes Belgium in Malmedy, Belgium, on 10 December 2010!

Many towns and villages have their own Christmas Trees. One of the most famous is the tree in Trafalgar Square in London, England, which is given to the UK by Norway every year as a “thank you” present for the help the UK gave Norway in World War II.

The White House in the USA has had a big tree on the front lawn since the 1920s.

The record for the most Christmas trees chopped down in two minutes is 27 and belongs to Erin Lavoie from the USA. She set the record on 19th December 2008 on the set of Guinness World Records: Die GroBten Weltrekorde in Germany.

Artificial Christmas Trees really started becoming popular in the early 20th century.

In the Edwardian period Christmas Trees made from colored ostrich feathers were popular at “fashionable” parties.

Around 1900 there was even a short fashion for white trees - so if you thought colored trees are a new invention they're not! Over the years artificial trees have been made from feathers, papier mâché, metal, glass, and many different types of plastic (I've got a couple of inflatable trees!).

The tallest artificial Christmas tree was 52m (170.6ft) high and was covered in green PVC leaves!. It was called the “Peace Tree” and was designed by Grupo Sonae Distribuição Brasil and was displayed in Moinhos de Vento Park, Porto Alegre, Brazil from 1st December 2001 until 6th January 2002.

In many countries, different trees are used as Christmas trees. In New Zealand a tree called the 'Pohutakawa' that has red flowers is sometimes used and in India, Banana or Mango trees are sometimes decorated.