{{Short description|Decorated tree associated with Christmas}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{Use American English|date=January 2018}}
alt=Christmas tree decorated with lights, stars and glass balls. Wrapped presents are under tree|thumb|Christmas tree decorated with lights, stars, and glass balls [[File:Johansen Viggo - Radosne Boże Narodzenie.jpg|thumb|{{lang|da|Glade jul}} by Viggo Johansen (1891), showing a Danish family's Christmas tree]] thumb|North American family decorating Christmas tree ({{c.|1970s}})
A '''Christmas tree''' is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-19/the-history-of-the-christmas-tree/8106078|title=The history of the Christmas tree|last=Travers|first=Penny |date=19 December 2016 |publisher=ABC News |location=Australia |language=en-AU|access-date=8 December 2018}}</ref> It may also be an artificial tree of similar appearance.
The custom was developed in Central Europe, particularly Germany and Livonia (now Estonia and Latvia), where Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.<ref name="Perry2010">{{cite book|last=Perry|first=Joe|title=Christmas in Germany: A Cultural History|url=https://archive.org/details/christmasgermany00perr|url-access=limited|date=27 September 2010|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-8078-9941-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/christmasgermany00perr/page/n48 32]|quote=A chronicle from Strasbourg, written in 1604 and widely seen as the first account of a Christmas tree in German-speaking lands, records that Protestant artisans brought fir trees into their homes in the holiday season and decorated them with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, sweetmeats, etc."{{nbsp}}[...] The Christmas tree spread out in German society from the top down, so to speak. It moved from elite households to broader social strata, from urban to rural areas, from the Protestant north to the Catholic south, and from Prussia to other German states.}}</ref><ref name="Lamb">{{cite book |last1=Lamb |first1=Martha Joanna |first4=Martha Joanna |title=The Magazine of American History, Volume X |date=1883 |publisher=Historical Publication Co. |page=473 |language=en |quote=The Christmas Tree originated in the Protestant districts of Germany.}}</ref><ref>Christmas trees were hung in St. George's Church, Sélestat since 1521:{{cite web|url=http://www.selestat.fr/spip_noel/IMG/pdf/histoire_des_decorations_de_l_arbre_de_noel.pdf |title=Office de la Culture de Sélestat—The history of the Christmas tree since 1521 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131218150603/http://www.selestat.fr/spip_noel/IMG/pdf/histoire_des_decorations_de_l_arbre_de_noel.pdf |date=18 December 2013 |archive-date=18 December 2013}}</ref> The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, tinsel, apples, wafers, and confectionery".<ref name="Perry2010" /> Moravian Christians began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles,<ref name="Kelly2010" /> which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification.<ref name="Becker2000">{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Udo |title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=A & C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-1221-8 |page=60 |language=English |quote=In Christianity, the Christmas tree is a symbol of Christ as the true tree of life; the candles symbolize the "light of the world" that was born in Bethlehem; the apples often used as decorations set up a symbolic relation to the paradisal apple of knowledge and thus to the original sin that Christ took away so that the return to Eden-symbolized by the Christmas tree-is again possible for humanity.}}</ref> Today, there is a wide variety of Christmas ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, respectively, from the Nativity.<ref name="Mandryk2005">{{cite book |last=Mandryk |first=DeeAnn |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianchristma0000mand/page/67 |title=Canadian Christmas Traditions |date=25 October 2005 |publisher=James Lorimer & Company |isbn=978-1-55439-098-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/canadianchristma0000mand/page/67 67] |quote=The eight-pointed star became a popular manufactured Christmas ornament around the 1840s and many people place a star on the top of their Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem.}}</ref><ref name="Jones2011">{{cite book |last=Jones |first=David Albert |title=Angels |date=27 October 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-161491-0 |page=24 |quote=The same ambiguity is seen in that most familiar of angels, the angel on top of the Christmas tree. This decoration, popularized in the nineteenth century, recalls the place of the angels in the Christmas story (Luke 2:9–18).}}</ref> Edible items such as gingerbread, chocolate, and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons. The Christmas tree originated as a custom of the Lutheran Churches and only in 1982 did the Catholic Church erect the first Vatican Christmas Tree.<ref name="Cooke1980">Gillian Cooke, ''A Celebration of Christmas'', 1980, page 62: "Martin Luther has been credited with the creation of the Christmas tree.{{nbsp}}[...] The Christmas tree did not spring fully fledged into{{nbsp}}[...] tree was slow to spread from its Alsatian home, partly because of resistance to its supposed Lutheran origins."</ref>
In the Western Christian tradition, Christmas trees are erected on days such as the first day of Advent, or even as late as Christmas Eve, depending on the country;<ref name="Crump2001">{{cite book|last=Crump|first=William D.|title=The Christmas Encyclopedia, 3d ed.|date=15 September 2001|publisher=McFarland|language=en |isbn=978-0-7864-6827-0|page=386|quote=Christmas trees in the countryside did not appear until World War I, although Slovenians of German ancestry were decorating trees before then. Traditionally, the family decorates their Christmas tree on Christmas Eve with electric lights, tinsel, garlands, candy canes, other assorted ornaments, and topped with an angel figure or star. The tree and Nativity scene remain until Candlemas (February 2)}}</ref> customs of the same faith hold that it is unlucky to remove Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, before Twelfth Night and, if they are not taken down on that day, it is appropriate to do so on Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations.<ref name="Crump2001"/><ref name="McGregor2023">{{cite web |last1=McGregor |first1=Kate |title=It's Bad Luck To Take Your Tree Down Before January 6 |url=https://www.aol.com/bad-luck-tree-down-january-005700497.html |publisher=AOL |date=30 November 2023 |quote=According to the tradition of the 12 days of Christmas (explained above), January 6 is the earliest you should be taking down your Christmas tree. According to the legend, bad luck will befall those who stop the Christmas cheer any earlier.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml|title=Candlemas|publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=26 December 2016|quote=Any Christmas decorations not taken down by Twelfth Night (January 5th) should be left up until Candlemas Day and then taken down.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106110011/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml|archive-date=6 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "Yule-tree", especially in discussions of its folkloric origins.<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel J. |last=Foley |title=The Christmas Tree |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJTWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Christmas+tree+is+sometimes+linked%22|publisher=Omnigraphics |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-55888-286-7 |page=45 }}</ref><ref name="Dues">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daAXccS5DVgC&pg=PA13 |first=Greg |last=Dues |title=Advent and Christmas |publisher=Bayard |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-58595-722-4 |pages=13–15|quote=Next to the Nativity scene, the most popular Christmas tradition is to have a Christmas tree in the home. This custom is not the same as bringing a Yule tree or evergreens into the home, originally popular during the month of the winter solstice in Germany.}}</ref><ref name="Karas">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1ngAAAAMAAJ&q=Karas+%22paradise+tree%22 |first=Sheryl |last=Karas |title=The Solstice Evergreen: history, folklore, and origins of the Christmas tree |publisher=Aslan |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-944031-75-9 |pages=103–04 }}</ref> Mount Ingino Christmas Tree, a light display on the side of Mount Ingino in Gubbio, Italy, is sometimes called the tallest Christmas tree in the world.<ref name="tripsavvy">{{Cite web|title=Celebrate Christmas Italian Styles at These City Events|url=https://www.tripsavvy.com/christmas-traditions-things-to-do-italy-4176880|access-date=26 January 2021|website=TripSavvy|language=en|archive-date=1 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210801063326/https://www.tripsavvy.com/christmas-traditions-things-to-do-italy-4176880|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==History== ===Origin of the modern Christmas tree=== [[File:Martin Luther’s Christmas Tree.jpg|thumb|right|Martin Luther is depicted with his family and friends in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.]]
Modern Christmas trees originated in Central Europe and the Baltic states, particularly Germany and Livonia (now Estonia and Latvia) during the Renaissance in early modern Europe.<ref name="Perry2010"/><ref name="Lamb"/> Its 16th-century origins are sometimes associated with Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther, who is said to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/christmaslegends0000haid |url-access=registration |first=Helen |last=Haidle |title=Christmas Legends to Remember' |publisher=David C Cook |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-56292-534-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christmaslegends0000haid/page/119 119] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://booheyheyks.google.com/books?id=YDx3g-05fNoC&lpg=PA22 |author=Debbie Trafton O'Neal, David LaRochelle |title=Before and After Christmas |publisher=Augsburg Fortress |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8066-4156-0 |page=22 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> The Christmas tree was first recorded to be used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539 under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer Martin Bucer.<ref name="Senn2012">{{cite book |last=Senn |first=Frank C. |title=Introduction to Christian Liturgy |date=2012 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-1-4514-2433-1 |page=118 |quote=The Christmas tree as we know it seemed to emerge in Lutheran lands in Germany in the sixteenth century. Although no specific city or town has been identified as the first to have a Christmas tree, records for the Cathedral of Strassburg indicate that a Christmas tree was set up in that church in 1539 during Martin Bucer's superintendency.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |year=1936 |title=The Christmas Tree |journal=Lutheran Spokesman |volume=29–32 |quote=The Christmas tree became a widespread custom among German Lutherans by the eighteenth century.}}</ref> The Moravian Christians put lighted candles on those trees.<ref name="Kelly2010">{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Joseph F. |date=2010 |title=The Feast of Christmas |publisher=Liturgical Press |isbn=978-0-8146-3932-0 |page=94 |quote=German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees.}}</ref><ref name="Blainey2013">{{cite book |last=Blainey |first=Geoffrey |title=A Short History of Christianity |date=24 October 2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers |isbn=978-1-4422-2590-9 |page=418 |quote=Many Lutherans continued to set up a small fir tree as their Christmas tree, and it must have been a seasonal sight in Bach's Leipzig at a time when it was virtually unknown in England, and little known in those farmlands of North America where Lutheran immigrants congregated.}}</ref> The earliest known firmly dated representation of a Christmas tree is on the keystone sculpture of a private home in Turckheim, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, today part of France), with the date 1576.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le Vieux Turckheim|last=Ehrsam|first=Roger|publisher=Jérôme Do Bentzinger|year=1999|isbn=978-2-906238-83-1|location=Ville de Turckheim}}</ref> In later periods these candles were often replaced by electric Christmas lights following the spread of electrification.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Becker |first1=Udo |title=The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols |date=1 January 2000 |publisher=A & C Black |isbn=978-0-8264-1221-8 |page=60}}</ref>
===Possible predecessors=== Modern Christmas trees have been related to the "tree of paradise" of medieval mystery plays that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (representing fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus to the original sin that Christ took away) and round white wafers (to represent the Eucharist and redemption) was used in the set for the play.<ref name="Becker2000"/> Like the Christmas crib, the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red baubles.<ref name="Dues"/><ref name="Karas"/><ref name="Lazowski">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIhIPIYLQ6QC&pg=PA204 |first=Philip |last=Lazowski |title=Understanding Your Neighbor's Faith |publisher=KTAV Publishing House |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-88125-811-0 |pages=203–04 }}</ref><ref name="Foley">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XstmMVLDzIIC&pg=PA18 |first=Michael P. |last=Foley |title=Why Do Catholics Eat Fish on Friday? |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-4039-6967-5 |page=18 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="Ball">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQZuGwDFY68C&pg=PA19 |first=Ann |last=Ball |title=Catholic Traditions in Crafts |publisher=Our Sunday Visitor |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-87973-711-5 |page=19 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |quote=The modern Christmas tree{{nbsp}}[...] originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a fir tree hung with apples (paradise tree) representing the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on 24 December, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung round white discs on it (symbolizing the host, the Christian sign of Christ's body in the Eucharist); in a later tradition, the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, too, were often added as the symbol of Christ. In the same room, during the Christmas season, was the Christmas pyramid, a triangular construction of wood, with shelves to hold Christmas figurines, decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star. By the 16th century, the Christmas pyramid and paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree. |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2003 |title=Christmas tree |url=https://www.britannica.com/plant/Christmas-tree }}</ref>
Fir trees decorated with apples served as the central prop for the paradise play, a kind of folk religious drama often performed on 24 December. These props were called paradise trees, and some researchers believe they were the forerunners of the Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TskZAQAAIAAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Christmas and New Year's Celebrations|page=168|isbn=978-0-7808-0625-2 |last1=Gulevich |first1=Tanya |date=30 October 2023 |publisher=Omnigraphics }}</ref>{{inconsistent|date=December 2025}}
At the end of the Middle Ages, an early predecessor appears referred{{clarify|date=December 2025}} in the 15th century Regiment of the Alcobaça Monastery in Portugal. The Regiment of the local ''high-Sacristans'' of the Cistercian Order refers to what may be considered the oldest references to the Christmas tree: <blockquote>Note on how to put the Christmas branch, ''scilicet'': On the Christmas eve, you will look for a large Branch of green laurel, and you shall reap many red oranges, and place them on the branches that come of the laurel, specifically as you have seen, and in every orange you shall put a candle, and hang the Branch by a rope in the pole, which shall be by the candle of the high altar.<ref>''Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal'' (National Library of Portugal)—''Codices Alcobacenses'' ([http://www.bnportugal.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195%3Acodices-alcobacences&catid=71%3Areservados-manuscritos&Itemid=212&lang=pt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221070531/http://www.bnportugal.pt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195%3Acodices-alcobacences&catid=71%3Areservados-manuscritos&Itemid=212&lang=pt|date=21 February 2013}} ); [BN: cod. alc. CLI / 64, Page. 330] Translated from original Portuguese</ref></blockquote>
thumb|upright|Yggdrasil, in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree.
Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time."<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|year=2012|title=Christmas tree|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115737/Christmas-tree|access-date=2 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030053259/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/115737/Christmas-tree|archive-date=30 October 2012}}</ref> In discussions of these folkloric origins, the Christmas tree has sometimes been compared with the "Yule-tree".<ref>{{cite book |first=Daniel J. |last=Foley |title=The Christmas Tree |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJTWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Christmas+tree+is+sometimes+linked%22|publisher=Omnigraphics |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-55888-286-7 |page=45 }}</ref><ref name="Dues"/><ref name="Karas"/> The Vikings and Saxons worshiped trees.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{Cite news |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20617780 |title=BBC Religion & Ethics—Did the Romans invent Christmas?<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=14 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207095037/http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20617780 |archive-date=7 December 2016 |url-status=live |newspaper=BBC Religion & Ethics |date=17 December 2012 }}</ref> The story of Saint Boniface cutting down Donar's Oak illustrates the pagan practices in 8th century among the Germans. A later folk version of the story adds the detail that an evergreen tree grew in place of the felled oak and states its triangular shape reminds humanity of the Trinity and how it points to heaven.<ref>{{cite book|author=Fritz Allhoff, Scott C. Lowe|title=Christmas|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2010|quote=His biographer, Eddius Stephanus, relates that while Boniface was serving as a missionary near Geismar, Germany, he had enough of the locals' reverence for the old gods. Taking an axe to an oak tree dedicated to Norse god Thor, Boniface chopped the tree down and dared Thor to zap him for it. When nothing happened, Boniface pointed out a young fir tree amid the roots of the oak and explained how this tree was a more fitting object of reverence as it pointed towards the Christian heaven and its triangular shape was reminiscent of the Christian trinity.}}</ref>{{efn|1=The story, not recounted in the {{lang|la|vitae}} written in his time, appears in a BBC Devon website, "Devon Myths and Legends", and in a number of educational storybooks, including ''St. Boniface and the Little Fir Tree: A Story to Color'' by Jenny Melmoth and Val Hayward (Warrington: Alfresco Books 1999 {{ISBN|1-873727-15-1}}), ''The Brightest Star of All: Christmas Stories for the Family'' by Carrie Papa (Abingdon Press 1999 {{ISBN|978-0-687-64813-9}}) and [https://books.google.com/books?id=BdEAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA207 "How Saint Boniface Kept Christmas Eve"] by Mary Louise Harvey in ''The American Normal Readers: Fifth Book'', 207-22. Silver, Burdett and Co. 1912.}}
===Historical practices by region=== ====Estonia, Latvia, and Germany==== {{multiple image | total_width = 400 | align = left | image1 = Tallinn Christmas market 2014 1.JPG | alt1 = Tallinn Christmas Market in Estonia | image2 = Christmas Hanukkah decoration Pariser Platz 2020-12-11 25.jpg | alt2 = Christmas tree and menorah with Brandenburg Gate in background | footer = Left: Tallinn Christmas Market in Estonia; Right: Christmas tree with Hanukkah Menorah next to it in Pariser Platz in Berlin, Germany }} Customs of erecting decorated trees in winter can be traced to Christmas celebrations in Renaissance-era guilds in Northern Germany and Livonia. The first evidence of decorated trees associated with Christmas Day are trees in guildhalls decorated with sweets to be enjoyed by the apprentices and children. In Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), in 1441, 1442, 1510, and 1514, the Brotherhood of Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their guild houses in Reval (now Tallinn) and Riga. On the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square, where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.<ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Amelung |title=Geschichte der Revaler Schwarzenhäupter: von ihrem Ursprung an bis auf die Gegenwart: nach den urkundenmäßigen Quellen des Revaler Schwarzenhäupter-Archivs 1, Die erste Blütezeit von 1399–1557 |language=de|trans-title=History of the Tallinn Blackheads: from their origins until the present day: from the testimonial sources of the Tallinn Blackheads archive. 1: The first golden age of 1399–1557 |location=Reval |publisher=Wassermann |year=1885 }}</ref>
A Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 reports that a small tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels, and paper flowers" was erected in the guild-house for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1jgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22aus+Deutschland%22|title=Das Weihnachtsfest. Eine Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Weihnachtszeit|first=Ingeborg|last=Weber-Kellermann|author-link=Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann|publisher=Bucher|year=1978|isbn=978-3-7658-0273-7|page=22|language=de|trans-title=Christmas: A cultural and social history of Christmastide|quote={{lang|de|Man kann als sicher annehmen daß die Luzienbräuche gemeinsam mit dem Weinachtsbaum in Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts aus Deutschland über die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht der Herrenhöfe nach Schweden gekommen sind.}} ({{langx|en|One can assume with certainty that traditions of lighting, together with the Christmas tree, crossed from Germany to Sweden in the 19th century via the princely upper classes.}})}}</ref> In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow in his {{lang|gml|Chronica der Provinz Lyfflandt}} (1584) wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at 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".
After the Protestant Reformation, such trees are seen in the houses of upper-class Protestant families as a counterpart to the Catholic Christmas cribs. This transition from the guild hall to bourgeois family homes in the Protestant parts of Germany ultimately gives rise to the modern tradition as it developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the present day, the churches and homes of Protestants and Catholics feature both Christmas cribs and Christmas trees.<ref name="Foley2022">{{cite book |last1=Foley |first1=Michael P. |title=Why We Kiss under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained |date=6 September 2022 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-68451-281-2 |language=en}}</ref>
====Poland==== {{Main|Podłaźniczka}} {{Annotated image |float=right |width=170 |height=200 |image=02016 Bielitz-Saybuscher Festspiele "Pastuszki".JPG|caption=A {{lang|pl|podłaźniczka}} hanging from the ceiling rafters|annotations=<!--none--> |image-top=-0|image-left=-270 |image-width=440}}
In Poland, there is a folk tradition dating back to an old Slavic pre-Christian custom of suspending a branch of fir, spruce, or pine from the ceiling rafters, called {{lang|pl|podłaźniczka}}, during the time of the Koliada winter festival.<ref>Janota E. Lud i jego zwyczaje. Lwów, 1878, str. 41–42</ref> The branches were decorated with apples, nuts, acorns, and stars made of straw. In more recent times, the decorations also included colored paper cutouts ({{lang|pl|wycinanki}}), wafers, cookies, and Christmas baubles. According to old pagan beliefs, the powers of the branch were linked to good harvest and prosperity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://kmt.pl/pozycja.asp?ksid=5025|title=Zwyczaje, obrzędy i tradycje w Polsce. Mały słownik|website=Księgarnia Mateusza|language=pl|access-date=15 December 2019|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215205828/http://kmt.pl/pozycja.asp%3Fksid%3D5025}}</ref>
The custom was practiced by Polish peasants until the early 20th century, particularly in the regions of Lesser Poland and Upper Silesia.<ref>Rok karpacki: obrzędy doroczne w Karpatach polskich Urszula Janicka-Krzywda. 1988, s. 13 "W całych Karpatach znano drzewko wigilijne zwane podłaźnikiem. Był to wierzchołek jodły zawieszany u powały szczytem na. dół, ubierany jabłkami i tzw. światami"</ref> Most often the branches were hung above the {{lang|pl|wigilia}} dinner table on Christmas Eve. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the tradition over time was almost completely replaced by the later German practice of decorating a standing Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://niezalezna.pl/303442-slomiane-snopy-i-podlazniczki-to-nasze-poprzedniki-choinki-te-zas-ozdabiano-jablkami |title=Słomiane snopy i podłaźniczki – to nasze poprzedniki choinki. Te zaś ozdabiano jabłkami |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=24 December 2019 |website=Niezależna |access-date=25 December 2019 }}</ref>
===18th to early 20th centuries=== ====Adoption by European nobility==== thumb|upright|German Christmas tree, book illustration (1888)
In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Introduced by Fanny von Arnstein and popularized by Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg, the Christmas tree reached Vienna in 1814, during the Congress of Vienna, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years.<ref name="Jüdisches Museum Wien">{{cite web | title=News Detail | website=Jüdisches Museum Wien | url=https://www.jmw.at/museumsblog/news_detail?j-cc-id=1610672643856&j-cc-node=news&j-cc-name=hybrid-content | language=de | access-date=20 September 2021}}</ref> In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d'Orléans. In Denmark, a newspaper company claims that the first attested Christmas tree was lit in 1808 by Countess Wilhemine of Holsteinborg. It was the aging countess who told the story of the first Danish Christmas tree to Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen in 1865. He had published a fairy tale called ''The Fir-Tree'' in 1844, recounting the fate of a fir tree being used as a Christmas tree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/307946:Kronik--Danmarks-foerste-juletrae-blev-taendt-i-1808 |work=Kristelig Dagblad |title=Danmarks første juletræ blev tændt i 1808 |date=17 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213095846/http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/307946:Kronik--Danmarks-foerste-juletrae-blev-taendt-i-1808 |archive-date=13 December 2013 }}</ref>
====Adoption by country or region==== =====Germany===== thumb|left|upright=1.3|A German Christmas tree in a room at Versailles turned into a military hospital
By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles, expensive items at the time, are found in attestations from the late 18th century.
Along the Lower Rhine, an area of Roman Catholic majority, the Christmas tree was largely regarded as a Protestant custom. As a result, it remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long period of time. The custom did eventually gain wider acceptance beginning around 1815 by way of Prussian officials who emigrated there following the Congress of Vienna.
In the 19th century, the Christmas tree was taken to be an expression of German culture and of {{lang|de|Gemütlichkeit}}, especially among emigrants overseas.<ref>{{cite book |first=Johannes |last=Marbach |title=Die heilige Weihnachtszeit nach Bedeutung, Geschichte, Sitten und Symbolen|language=de |trans-title=The holy Christmas season for meaning, history, customs and symbols |year=1859 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FXhEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA416 |page=416 |quote=Was ist auch eine deutsche Christenfamilie am Christabend ohne Christbäumchen? Zumal in der Fremde, unter kaltherzigen Engländern und frivolen Franzosen, unter den amerikanischen Indianern und den Papuas von Australien. Entbehren doch die nichtdeutschen Christen neben dem Christbäumchen noch so viele Züge deutscher Gemüthlichkeit. [English: What would a German Christian family do on Christmas Eve without a Christmas tree? Especially in foreign lands, among cold-hearted Englishmen and frivolous Frenchmen, among the American Indians and the Papua of Australia. Apart from the Christmas tree, the non-German Christians suffer from a lack of a great many traits of German 'Gemütlichkeit'.] }}</ref>
A decisive factor in winning general popularity was the German army's decision to place Christmas trees in its barracks and military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. Only at the start of the 20th century did Christmas trees appear inside churches, this time in a new brightly lit form.<ref name="Hermelink">{{cite book |first=Jan |last=Hermelink |chapter=Weihnachtsgottesdienst |trans-chapter=Christmas worship |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOrt4xXGSKcC&pg=PA290 |editor-first=Christian |editor-last=Grethlein |editor-first2=Günter |editor-last2=Ruddat |title=Liturgisches Kompendium|language=de |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |year=2003 |isbn=978-3-525-57211-5 |page=290 }}</ref>
=====Slovenia===== Early Slovenian custom, dating back to around the 17th century, was to suspend the tree either upright or upside-down above the well, a corner of the dinner table, in the backyard, or from the fences, modestly decorated with fruits or not decorated at all. German brewer Peter Luelsdorf brought the first Christmas tree of the current tradition to Slovenia in 1845. He set it up in his small brewery inn in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. German officials, craftsmen and merchants quickly spread the tradition among the bourgeois population. The trees were typically decorated with walnuts, golden apples, carobs, and candles. At first, the Catholic majority rejected this custom because they considered it a typical Protestant tradition. However, this tradition was almost unknown to the rural population until World War I, after which the decorating of trees became common. The first decorated Christmas market was organized in Ljubljana in 1859.{{cn|date=December 2025}}
After World War II, during the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia period, spruce trees set in the public places (towns, squares, and markets) were, for political reasons, replaced with fir trees, a symbol of socialism and Slavic mythology, strongly associated with loyalty, courage, and dignity. However, spruce retained its popularity in Slovenian homes during those years and came back to public places after independence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zgodovina okraševanja: Božično drevesce ali novoletna jelka|url=https://www.dormeo.net/clanki/razkrivamo-pomen-predpraznicnih-obicajev-3-del|publisher=dormeo.net|date=15 December 2021|language=sl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Zgodovina okraševanja: Božično drevo s sporočili|url=https://www.vecer.com/vecer-v-nedeljo/zgodovina-okrasevanja-bozicno-drevo-s-sporocili-6364217|publisher=vecer.com|date=10 December 2021|language=sl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Rojstvo tradicije: od bršljana, bele omele do okraskov polne jelke|url=https://mestnik.si/rojstvo-tradicije-od-brsljana-bele-omele-do-okraskov-polne-jelke/|publisher=mestnik.si|date=4 December 2021|language=sl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Kako smo nekoč praznovali novo leto|url=https://www.ljubljana.si/sl/mestna-obcina/glasilo-ljubljana/kako-smo-nekoc-praznovali-novo-leto/|publisher=ljubljana.si|date=15 December 2021|language=sl|access-date=15 December 2021|archive-date=15 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215185225/https://www.ljubljana.si/sl/mestna-obcina/glasilo-ljubljana/kako-smo-nekoc-praznovali-novo-leto/}}</ref>
=====Italy===== {{main|Christmas in Italy}} [[File:Duomo Milano Natale.jpeg|thumb|Christmas tree in Milan, Italy, in front of the Milan Cathedral]] The Christmas tree tradition in Italy originated from Germanic influences introduced in the late 19th century. Queen Margherita of Savoy erected the first tree at the Quirinal Palace in Rome. Domestic adoption occurred in the 1960s, with families using branches from cypress, oak, or cork trees. Decorations consisted of oranges, clementines, candies, twine, candles, and lanterns. Italians erect trees on 8 December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with exceptions in Milan on 7 December for Saint Ambrose and in Bari on 6 December for Saint Nicholas. Families assemble the tree together; adults position lights, while children place ornaments and the top star or angel. Trees remain until 6 January, the Epiphany. Public displays include the Vatican tree, established in 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and the hillside tree of lights in Gubbio.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rinaldi |first=Claudia |date=2016-12-01 |title=Italian Christmas tree traditions: past & present |url=https://www.gourmetproject.net/italian-christmas-tree-traditions/ |access-date=2025-11-30 |website=Gourmet Project |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Christmas in Italy {{!}} Il Cenacolo SF|url=https://www.ilcenacolosf.org/italian_culture/christmas-italy/|access-date=2025-11-30|website=Il Cenacolo Italian Cultural Club|language=en-US}}</ref> The light display on Mount Ingino overlooking the city, often called the Mount Ingino Christmas Tree, is sometimes described as the tallest Christmas tree in the world.<ref name="tripsavvy"/>
=====Britain===== [[File:Christmas Tree 1848.jpg|thumb|upright|An engraving published in the 1840s of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert created a craze for Christmas trees.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/12068658/Queens-Christmas-Day-message-Monarch-quotes-from-Bible-to-address-a-nation-shaken-by-year-of-atrocities.html |title=Queen's Christmas Day message: Monarch quotes from Bible to address a nation shaken by year of atrocities |last=Bingham |first=John |date=25 December 2016 |website=telegraph.co.uk |access-date=25 December 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227124150/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/12068658/Queens-Christmas-Day-message-Monarch-quotes-from-Bible-to-address-a-nation-shaken-by-year-of-atrocities.html |archive-date=27 December 2017 }}</ref>]]
Although the tradition of decorating churches and homes with evergreens at Christmas was long established,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42959/42959-h/42959-h.htm#Footnote_213_213|title=Survey of London|last=Stow|first=John|publisher=John Windet|year=1603|location=London|quote=Against the feast of Christmas every man's house, as also the parish churches, were decked with holm, ivy, bays, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green.|access-date=3 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816193124/http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42959/42959-h/42959-h.htm#Footnote_213_213|archive-date=16 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> the custom of decorating an entire small tree was unknown in Britain until the 19th century. The German-born Queen Charlotte introduced a Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/christmas/christmas_tree.html|title=The History of the Christmas Tree at Windsor|access-date=3 January 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224161224/http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/christmas/christmas_tree.html|archive-date=24 December 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> The custom did not at first spread much beyond the royal family.{{efn|In 1829 the diarist Greville, visiting Panshanger country house, describes three small Christmas trees "such as is customary in Germany", which Princess Lieven had put up.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hole|first=Christine|title=English Custom and Usage|year=1950|publisher=B. T. Batsford Ltd.|location=London|page=16}}</ref>}} Queen Victoria, as a child, was familiar with it and a tree was placed in her room every Christmas. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the 13-year-old princess wrote:<ref>{{cite book |title=The girlhood of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's diaries |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.02324/11132.E13917_The_Girlhood_of_Queen_Victoria_vol_I/page/61/mode/2up |publisher=J. Murray |year=1912 |author=Victoria |author-link=Queen Victoria |editor=Viscount Esher |editor-link=Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher}}</ref>
{{blockquote|After dinner{{nbsp}}[...] we then went into the drawing room near the dining room{{nbsp}}[...] There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees{{nbsp}}[...]}}
In the year following Victoria's marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, in 1841, the custom became even more widespread<ref>{{cite book |author=Marie Claire Lejeune |title=Compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in Europe |page=550 |publisher=Man & Culture |isbn=978-90-77135-04-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g5GBAAAAMAAJ |year=2002 }}</ref> as wealthier middle-class families followed the fashion. In 1842, a newspaper advertisement for Christmas trees makes clear their smart cachet,{{clarify|date=December 2025}} German origins and association with children and gift-giving.<ref>"GERMAN CHRISTMAS TREES. The nobility and gentry are respectfully informed that these handsome JUVENILE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS are supplied and elegantly fitted up{{nbsp}}...":''Times'' [London, England] 20 December 1842, p. 1.</ref> An illustrated book, ''The Christmas Tree'', describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844.<ref>''The Christmas Tree'': published by Darton and Clark, London. "The ceremony of the Christmas tree, so well known throughout Germany, bids fair to be welcomed among us, with the other festivities of the season, especially now the Queen, within her own little circle, has set the fashion, by introducing it on the Christmas Eve in her own regal palace." Book review of ''The Christmas Tree'' from the Weekly Chronicle, 14 December 1844, quoted in an advert headlined "A new pleasure for Christmas" in ''The Times'', 23 December 1844, p. 8.</ref>
In 1847, Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas trees is not less than ours used to be".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Prince Consort, Man of many Facets: The World and The Age of Prince Albert |author=Godfrey and Margaret Scheele |page=78 |publisher=Oresko Books |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-905368-06-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NcFm-0s54HIC }}</ref>
A boost to the trend was given in 1848<ref>At the beginning of the year the custom was well-enough known for ''The Times'' to compare the January budget of 1848 with gifts handed out beneath "the Christmas tree": ''The Times'' (London, England), 21 January 1848, p. 4.</ref> when ''The Illustrated London News'',<ref>Special Christmas supplement edition, published 23 December 1848.</ref> in a report picked up by other papers,<ref>''The Times'' (London, England), 27 December 1848. p. 7</ref> described the trees in Windsor Castle in detail and showed the main tree, surrounded by the royal family, on its cover. In fewer than ten years, the adoption of the tradition in middle and upper-class homes was widespread. By 1856, a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to them,<ref>"Now the best Christmas box / You can give to the young / Is not toys, nor fine playthings, / Nor trees gaily hung{{nbsp}}...": ''Manchester Guardian'', Saturday, 5{{nbsp}}January 1856, p. 6.</ref> as well as reporting the accidental death of a woman whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on a Christmas tree.<ref>''Manchester Guardian'', 24 January 1856, p. 3: the death of Caroline Luttrell of Kilve Court, Somerset.</ref> They had not yet spread down the social scale though, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy or the "romantic".<ref>''The Times'' (London, England), 28 December 1858, p. 8.</ref>
Their use at public entertainments, charity bazaars and in hospitals made them increasingly familiar, and in 1906 a charity was set up specifically to ensure even poor children in London slums "who had never seen a Christmas tree" would enjoy one that year.<ref>The Poor Children's Yuletide Association. ''The Times'' (London, England), 20 December 1906, p. 2. "The association sent 71 trees 'bearing thousands of toys' to the poorest districts of London."</ref> Anti-German sentiment after World War{{nbsp}}I briefly reduced their popularity<ref>"A Merry Christmas": ''The Times'' (London, England), 27 December 1918, p. 2: "...{{nbsp}}the so-called "Christmas tree" was out of favour. Large stocks of young firs were to be seen at Covent Garden on Christmas Eve, but found few buyers. It was remembered that the 'Christmas tree' has enemy associations."</ref> but the effect was short-lived,<ref>The next year a charity fair in aid of injured soldiers featured 'a huge Christmas-tree'. 'St. Dunstan's Christmas Fair'. ''The Times'' (London, England), 20 December 1919, p. 9.</ref> and by the mid-1920s the use of Christmas trees had spread to all classes.<ref>'Poor families in Lewisham and similar districts are just as particular about the shape of their trees as people in Belgravia{{nbsp}}...' 'Shapely Christmas Trees': ''The Times'' (London, England), 17 December 1926, p. 11.</ref> In 1933, a restriction on the importation of foreign trees led to the "rapid growth of a new industry" as the growing of Christmas trees within Britain became commercially viable due to the size of demand.<ref>Christmas Tree Plantations. ''The Times'' (London, England), 11 December 1937, p. 11.</ref> By 2013, the number of trees grown in Britain for the Christmas market was approximately eight million<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-25117501|title=Christmas tree grower Ivor Dungey gets award|work=BBC News|access-date=21 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731014120/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-25117501|archive-date=31 July 2018|url-status=live|date=27 November 2013}}</ref> and their display in homes, shops and public spaces a normal part of the Christmas season.
=====Georgia===== [[File:Chichilaki at Orbeliani Palace.jpg|thumb|Decorated chichilaki at the Orbeliani Palace]]
Georgians have their own type of traditional Christmas tree called chichilaki, made from dried up hazelnut or walnut branches that are shaped to form a small coniferous tree.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.georgianjournal.ge/discover-georgia/29148-chichilaki-georgian-version-of-christmas-tree.html|title=Chichilaki–Georgian version of Christmas tree|website=Georgian Journal|access-date=31 December 2018}}</ref> These pale-colored ornaments differ in height from {{cvt|20|cm|in}} to {{convert|3|m|ft|sp=us}}. Chichilakis are most common in the Guria and Samegrelo regions of Georgia near the Black Sea, but they can also be found in some stores around the capital of Tbilisi.<ref>{{Cite news|date=21 December 2011|title=Georgians rediscover Christmas tree traditions|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-16275554|access-date=3 March 2021}}</ref>
Georgians believe that the chichilaki resembles the beard of St. Basil the Great, because Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates St. Basil on 1 January.{{fact|date=October 2025}}
=====The Bahamas===== The earliest reference to Christmas trees being used in the Bahamas dates to January 1864 and is associated with the Anglican Sunday Schools in Nassau, New Providence: <blockquote>After prayers and a sermon from the Rev. R. Swann, the teachers and children of St. Agnes', accompanied by those of St. Mary's, marched to the Parsonage of Rev. J. H. Fisher, in front of which a large Christmas tree had been planted for their gratification. The delighted little ones formed a circle around it singing 'Come follow me to the Christmas tree.'<ref>13 January 1864 Nassau Guardian{{fcn|date=December 2025}}</ref></blockquote> The gifts decorated the trees as ornaments and the children were given tickets with numbers that matched the gifts. This appears to be the typical way of decorating the trees in 1860s Bahamas. In the Christmas of 1864, there was a Christmas tree put up in the Ladies Saloon in the Royal Victoria Hotel for the respectable children of the neighbourhood. The tree was ornamented with gifts for the children who formed a circle about it and sang the song "Oats and Beans". The gifts were later given to the children in the name of Santa Claus.<ref>28 December 1864 Nassau Guardian{{fcn|date=December 2025}}</ref>
=====North America===== thumb|left|upright=1.3|General and Mrs. Riedesel celebrating Christmas The tradition was introduced to North America in the winter of 1781 by Hessian soldiers stationed in the Province of Québec to garrison the colony against American attack. General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and his wife, the Baroness von Riedesel, held a Christmas party for the officers at Sorel, Quebec, delighting their guests with a fir tree decorated with candles and fruits.<ref name="Werner">{{cite book |title=In Pursuit of Liberty: Coming of Age in the American Revolution |first=Emmy E. |last=Werner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyB_tuMV7YMC&pg=PA115 |page=115 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-275-99306-1 }}</ref>
The Christmas tree became very common in the United States in the early 19th century. Dating from late 1812 or early 1813, the watercolor sketchbooks of John Lewis Krimmel contain perhaps the earliest depictions of a Christmas tree in American art, representing a family celebrating Christmas Eve in the Moravian tradition.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harding |first=Anneliese |url=http://archive.org/details/johnlewiskrimmel0000hard |title=John Lewis Krimmel: Genre Artist of the Early Republic |publisher=Winterthur Publications |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-912724-25-6 |location=Winterthur, DE |pages=44–45 |language=en-US |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The first published image of a Christmas tree appeared in 1836 as the frontispiece to ''The Stranger's Gift'' by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature was in a story in the 1836 edition of ''The Token and Atlantic Souvenir'', titled "New Year's Day", by Catherine Maria Sedgwick, where she tells the story of a German maid decorating her mistress' tree. Also, a woodcut of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in ''The Illustrated London News'' in December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in ''Godey's Lady's Book''. ''Godey's'' copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.<ref name="AFP">{{cite book |author=Alfred Lewis Shoemaker |orig-date=1959 |title=Christmas in Pennsylvania: a folk-cultural study |pages=52–53 |publisher=Stackpole Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8117-0328-4 }}</ref> The republished ''Godey's'' image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Queen Victoria and Prince Albert "the first influential American Christmas tree".<ref name="ADT">{{cite book |author=Karal Ann Marling |year=2000 |title=Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's greatest holiday |page=[https://archive.org/details/merrychristmas00kara/page/244 244] |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/merrychristmas00kara/page/244 }}</ref> Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than ''Godey's Lady's Book''". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become even more common in America.<ref name="AFP"/> thumb|Drawing depicting family with their Christmas tree in 1809
President Benjamin Harrison and his wife Caroline put up the first White House Christmas tree in 1889.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/president/holiday/whtree|title=White House Tree|publisher=White House Archives|access-date=24 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=White House Christmas Trees |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/press-room/press-backgrounders/white-house-christmas-trees |access-date=2025-12-19 |website=White House Historical Association (en-US) |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Heather |date=2019-12-24 |title=Christmas with the Presidents {{!}} Headlines & Heroes |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2019/12/christmas-with-the-presidents |access-date=2025-12-19 |website=The Library of Congress}}</ref>
Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree. Windsor Locks, Connecticut, claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12040705/first-decorated-christmas-tree-in-windsor-locks|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210223922/http://www.wfsb.com/clip/12040705/first-decorated-christmas-tree-in-windsor-locks|archive-date=10 December 2015|title=First Decorated Christmas Tree in Windsor Locks|author=Joseph Wenzel IV|publisher=WFSB|date=30 November 2015|access-date=2 December 2015}}</ref> while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821, leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America.<ref>{{cite web |title=The History of Christmas |work=Gareth Marples |url=http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |access-date=2 December 2006 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628034631/http://www.thehistoryof.net/the-history-of-christmas.html |archive-date=28 June 2006 }}</ref> Other accounts credit Charles Follen, a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce the custom of decorating a Christmas tree to the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990823204728/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/12.12/ProfessorBrough.html |archive-date=23 August 1999 |title=Professor Brought Christmas Tree to New England |date=12 December 1996 |access-date=2 December 2012 |work=Harvard University Gazette }}</ref> In 1847, August Imgard, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio cut a blue spruce tree from a woods outside town, had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and Kuchen.<ref>{{cite web|title=They're Still Cheering Man Who Gave America Christmas Tree|url=http://www.the-daily-record.com/citizen%20news/2007/12/10/they-re-still-cheering-man-who-gave-america-christmas-tree-cleveland-ceremonies-honor-him-august-imgard-of-wooster-ohio|publisher=Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune|access-date=16 May 2013|date=24 December 1938|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219034027/http://www.the-daily-record.com/citizen%20news/2007/12/10/they-re-still-cheering-man-who-gave-america-christmas-tree-cleveland-ceremonies-honor-him-august-imgard-of-wooster-ohio|archive-date=19 December 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> German immigrant Charles Minnigerode, entering into the social life of the Virginia Tidewater in 1842, introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Minnigerode_Charles_1814-1894 |title=Charles Minnigerode (1814–1894) |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Foundation for the Humanities |access-date=11 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801022323/http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Minnigerode_Charles_1814-1894 |archive-date=1 August 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> An 1853 article on Christmas customs in Pennsylvania defines them as mostly "German in origin", including the Christmas tree, which is "planted in a flower pot filled with earth, and its branches are covered with presents, chiefly of confectionary, for the younger members of the family." The article distinguishes between customs in different states, however, claiming that in New England generally "Christmas is not much celebrated", whereas in Pennsylvania and New York it is.<ref>'Notes and Queries', volume{{nbsp}}8 (217), 24 December 1853, p.615</ref>
When Edward Hibberd Johnson was vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, a predecessor of General Electric, he created the first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree at his home in New York City in 1882. Johnson became the "Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com/history.htm|title=A Brief History of Electric Christmas Lighting in America|website=oldchristmastreelights.com|access-date=19 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219174210/http://www.oldchristmastreelights.com/history.htm|archive-date=19 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>
The lyrics sung in the United States to the German tune {{lang|de|O Tannenbaum}} begin "O Christmas tree...", giving rise to the mistaken idea that the German word {{lang|de|Tannenbaum}} (fir tree) means "Christmas tree", the German word for which is instead {{lang|de|Weihnachtsbaum}}.
===1935 to present=== [[File:Bezbozhnik u stanka - Run along, Lord, 1931, n. 22.jpg|thumb|upright|1931 issue of the Soviet magazine {{transliteration|ru|Bezbozhnik u Stanka}} showing an Orthodox priest barred from cutting a Christmas tree]] Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, the Christmas tree—along with the entire celebration of the Christian holiday—was banned as a result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asia.rbth.com/articles/2010/12/15/and_so_is_this_christmas05210.html|title=And so, is this Christmas?|date=15 December 2010|first=Jennifer|last=Eremeeva|work=Russia Beyond the Headlines|quote=Russian Christians adhere to the Eastern Orthodox calendar, which lags 13 days behind the modern day calendar. This discrepancy was corrected in 1918, by the fledgling Bolshevik regime, but Christmas never reverted to December 25th in Russia, because the Bolsheviks began a systematic campaign to phase out traditional religious holidays and replace them with Soviet ones. Christmas was shifted to New Year's Eve. At the beginning, stringent measures were put in place to see off any holdover of the old days: Christmas trees, introduced to Russia by Tsar Peter The Great in the 17th century, were banned in 1916 by the Holy Synod as too German. The Bolsheviks kept the tree ban in place. Stalin declared Ded Moroz "an ally of the priest and kulak", and outlawed him from Russia.|access-date=3 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015214922/http://asia.rbth.com/articles/2010/12/15/and_so_is_this_christmas05210.html|archive-date=15 October 2015}}</ref><ref name="Connelly2000">{{cite book |last=Connelly |first=Mark |date=2000 |title=Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-86064-397-2 |page=186 |quote=A chapter on representations of ''Christmas'' in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.}}</ref><ref name="MIG"/> The League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, among them being the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an anti-religious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.<ref name="Ramet2005">{{cite book |last=Ramet |first=Sabrina Petra |title=Religious Policy in the Soviet Union |date=10 November 2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-02230-9 |page=138 |quote=The League sallied forth to save the day from this putative religious revival. ''Antireligioznik'' obliged with so many articles that it devoted an entire section of its annual index for 1928 to anti-religious training in the schools. More such material followed in 1929, and a flood of it the next year. It recommended what Lenin and others earlier had explicitly condemned—carnivals, farces, and games to intimidate and purge the youth of religious belief. It suggested that pupils campaign against customs associated with Christmas (including Christmas trees) and Easter. Some schools, the League approvingly reported, staged an anti-religious day on the 31st of each month. Not teachers but the League's local set the programme for this special occasion.}}</ref> With the Christmas tree being prohibited in accordance with Soviet anti-religious legislation,<ref name="MIG">{{cite book |date=1993 |title=Echo of Islam |publisher=MIG |quote=In the former Soviet Union, fir trees were usually put up to mark New Year's day, following a tradition established by the officially atheist state.}}</ref><ref name="Dice2009">{{cite book |last=Dice |first=Elizabeth A. |date=2009 |title=Christmas and Hanukkah |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-1971-7 |page=44 |quote=The Christmas tree, or Yolka, is another tradition that was banned during the Soviet era. To keep the custom alive, people decorated New Year's trees instead.}}</ref> the government then introduced a "New-Year spruce" ({{langx|ru|Новогодняя ёлка|Novogodnyaya yolka}}) in 1935 for the New Year holiday.<ref name="MIG"/><ref name=":0322">{{Cite web |last=Weber |first=Hannah |date=25 December 2020 |title=Yolka: the story of Russia's 'New Year tree', from pagan origins to Soviet celebrations |url=https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/9424/yolka-russia-new-year-tree-pagan-soviet-christmas |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113181107/http://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/9424/yolka-russia-new-year-tree-pagan-soviet-christmas |archive-date=13 January 2018 |access-date=12 June 2021 |website=The Calvert Journal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E4CML6akeYMC&pg=PT222|title=Santa Claus|access-date=14 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222171000/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E4CML6akeYMC&pg=PT222|archive-date=22 December 2015|url-status=live|isbn=978-1-55199-608-0|last1=Bowler|first1=Gerry|date=27 July 2011|publisher=McClelland & Stewart }}</ref> It became a fully secular icon: for example, the crowning star was regarded not as a symbol of the Bethlehem Star, but as the Red star. Secular decorations, such as figurines of airplanes, bicycles, space rockets, cosmonauts, and characters of Russian fairy tales, were also produced. This tradition has persisted after the fall of the USSR, with the New Year holiday outweighing Christmas (7 January) for a wide majority of Russian people.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.levada.ru/27-04-2012/1-maya-sobirayutsya-prazdnovat-59-rossiyan |title=1 мая собираются праздновать 59% россиян |trans-title=1 May going to celebrate 59% of Russians |date=27 April 2012 |access-date=2 December 2012 |language=ru |quote=New Year is among the most important holidays for 81% of Russians, while Christmas is such only for 19%, ranking after Victory Day, Easter, International Women's Day. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121101064834/http://www.levada.ru/27-04-2012/1-maya-sobirayutsya-prazdnovat-59-rossiyan |archive-date=1 November 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The ''Peanuts'' TV special ''A Charlie Brown Christmas'' (1965) was influential on the pop culture surrounding the Christmas tree. Aluminum Christmas trees were popular during the early 1960s in the US. They were satirized in the TV special and came to be seen as symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. The term "Charlie Brown Christmas tree," describing any poor-looking or malformed tree, especially a small one, also derives from the 1965 TV special, based on the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://muse.jhu.edu/|title = Materialism and the Modern U.S. Christmas|last = Belk|first = Russell|year = 2000|journal = Advertising & Society Review|volume = 1|doi = 10.1353/asr.2000.0001|s2cid = 191578074|access-date = 5 October 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140506133533/http://muse.jhu.edu/|archive-date = 6 May 2014|url-status = live|url-access = subscription}}</ref>
====Public Christmas trees==== [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12787, Prag, Weihnachtsfeier für Erwerbslose.jpg|thumb|upright|An early example of public Christmas tree for the children of unemployed parents in Prague (Czech Republic), 1931]]
Since the early 20th century, it has become common in many cities, towns, and department stores to put up public Christmas trees outdoors, such as the Macy's Great Tree in Atlanta (since 1948), the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City, and the large Christmas tree at Victoria Square in Adelaide.
The use of fire retardant allows many indoor public areas to display real trees while remaining code-compliant. Licensed applicators of fire retardant solution spray the tree, tag it, and provide a certificate for inspection.{{globalize inline|date=December 2025}}
The United States' National Christmas Tree has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the White House, becoming part of what evolved into a major holiday event at the White House. President Jimmy Carter lit only the crowning star atop the tree in 1979 in honor of the Americans being held hostage in Iran.<ref name="npspp">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/lighting-of-the-national-christmas-tree-history.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115224842/http://www.nps.gov/whho/historyculture/lighting-of-the-national-christmas-tree-history.htm |archive-date=15 January 2008 |title=Lighting of the National Christmas Tree |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=5 April 2009 }}</ref> This was repeated in 1980, except the tree was fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been in captivity.<ref name="npspp"/>
In some cities, a charity event called the Festival of Trees is organized, in which multiple trees are decorated and displayed.{{globalize inline|date=December 2025}}
The giving of Christmas trees has also often been associated with the end of hostilities. After the signing of the Armistice in 1918, the city of Manchester, England, sent a tree, and £500 to buy chocolate and cakes, for the children of the much-bombarded town of Lille in northern France.<ref>'Manchester's Gift To Lille{{nbsp}}... (FROM G. WARD PRICE.)' ''The Times'' (London, England),21 December 1918, p.7</ref>
In some cases, the trees represent special commemorative gifts, such as in Trafalgar Square in London, where the City of Oslo, Norway, presents a tree to the people of London as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during World War II; in Boston, United States, where the tree is a gift from the province of Nova Scotia, in thanks for rapid deployment of supplies and rescuers to the 1917 ammunition ship explosion that leveled the city of Halifax; and in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, where the main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of Bergen, Norway, in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from Nazi occupation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/twintownbergen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070425202440/http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/twintownbergen |archive-date=25 April 2007 |title=Town twinning: Bergen, Norway |publisher=Newcastle City Council }}</ref> Norway also annually gifts a Christmas tree to Washington, D.C., as a symbol of friendship between Norway and the US and as an expression of gratitude from Norway for the help received from the US during World War II.<ref>{{cite news |title=DC: Christmas Tree Lighting at Union Station |url=http://www.norway.org/News_and_events/Christmas-2012/DC-Christmas-Tree-Lighting-at-Union-Station/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209100844/http://www.norway.org/News_and_events/Christmas-2012/DC-Christmas-Tree-Lighting-at-Union-Station/ |archive-date=9 December 2012 |publisher=Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs |access-date=2 December 2012 }}</ref>
==Customs and traditions== ===Setting up and taking down=== thumb|Adding decorations to tree Both setting up and taking down a Christmas tree are associated with specific dates; liturgically, this is done through the 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=978-0-8272-0837-7|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 Advent Sunday, the first day of the 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=978-2-06-718211-0|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=978-1-56854-240-9 |page=161 }}</ref> Traditionally, however, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until the evening of Christmas Eve (24 December), the end of the Advent season and the start of the twelve days of 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 Christmas decorations on the last day of the twelve days of Christmastide that falls on 5 January—Epiphany Eve (Twelfth Night),<ref name="Learning">{{Cite book |title=A Study Guide for William Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-4103-6134-9 |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 Christian countries remove them on Candlemas, the conclusion of the extended Christmas-Epiphany season (Epiphanytide).<ref name="Edworthy2008">{{Cite book |title=The Curious World of Christmas |last=Edworthy |first=Niall |date=7 October 2008 |publisher=Penguin Group |isbn=978-0-399-53457-7 |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=31 January 2008 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-191927-0 |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://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/holydays/candlemas.shtml |title=Candlemas |work=BBC |access-date=9 April 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>
===Decorations=== {{main|Christmas ornament}} {{refimprove section|date=December 2025}} [[File:Christmas market, Strasbourg (5226805005).jpg|thumb|Christmas ornaments at the 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. Edible decorations such as gingerbread, chocolate, and other sweets are also sometimes tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons.<ref name="Mandryk2005"/><ref name="Jones2011"/> Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, in 1847,<ref>{{Cite web|author1= Christmasinter|url= https://christmasinteriordecorating.com/2023/11/23/silent-night-lauscha-glass-ornaments/|title= Silent Night: A Celebration of UNESCO World Heritage Ornaments|work= Cadeaux Christmas Interior Decorating|date= 23 November 2023|publisher= Cadeaux Christmas|location= United States|language= en-US|access-date= 23 June 2024|archive-date= 23 June 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240623204532/https://christmasinteriordecorating.com/2023/11/23/silent-night-lauscha-glass-ornaments/|url-status= dead}}</ref> along with garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations fueled the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds.
Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used as Christmas tree decorations. Silvered saran-based tinsel was introduced later. Delicate mold-blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of the glass factories in the 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 tree-topper, typically an angel or a star, is traditionally placed at the highest point to complete the decoration. The angel decoration is commonly understood as representing the angel Gabriel, while the star represents the Star of Bethlehem described in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus.<ref name="Mandryk2005"/><ref name="Jones2011"/>
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, flocking was very popular on the 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.
==Symbolism and interpretations== The earliest legend of the origin of a fir tree becoming a Christian symbol dates back to 723 AD, involving Saint Boniface as he was evangelizing Germany.<ref name="Forbes2007">{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Bruce David |title=Christmas: A Candid History |date=2007 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-25802-0 |page=45 |language=en |quote=... in 723 Saint Boniface encountered winter sacrifices being conducted in front of a mighty oak tree dedicated to Thor near Geismar, in what is now Germany. In anger, Boniface seized an axe and felled Thor's oak in one mighty blow. The gathering of local citizens expected Thor to strike Boniface with a bolt of lightning, and when lightning failed to appear, Boniface proclaimed it a sign of superiority of the Christian God. He pointed to a young fir tree growing at the roots of the fallen oak, with its branches pointing to heaven, and said that it was a holy tree, the tree of the Christ child who brought eternal life.{{nbsp}}[...] Also, it is said that Boniface explained the triangular shape of the fir tree as an illustration of the Trinity.}}</ref> It is said that at a pagan gathering in Geismar, where a group of people dancing under a decorated oak tree were about to sacrifice a baby in the name of Thor, Saint Boniface took an axe and called on the name of Jesus.<ref name="Forbes2007" /> In one swipe, he took down the entire oak tree, to the crowd's astonishment.<ref name="Forbes2007" /> Behind the fallen tree was a baby fir tree.<ref name="Forbes2007" /> Boniface said, "let this tree be the symbol of the true God, its leaves are ever green and will not die." The tree's needles pointed heavenward and it was shaped triangularly, representing the Holy Trinity.<ref name="Forbes2007" />
When decorating the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree, symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem.<ref name="Mandryk2005" /><ref>{{cite journal |last=Wells |first=Dorothy |year=1897 |title=Christmas in Other Lands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePc9AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA697 |journal=The School Journal |volume=55 |pages=697–8 |quote=Christmas is the occasional of family reunions. Grandmother always has the place of honor. As the time approaches for enjoying the tree, she gathers her grandchildren about her, to tell them the story of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christmas tree; how the evergreen is meant to represent the life everlasting, the candle lights to recall the light of the world, and the star at the top of the tree is to remind them of the star of Bethlehem.}}</ref> It became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus.<ref name="Jones2011" /> Additionally, in the context of a Christian celebration of Christmas, the evergreen Christmas tree symbolizes eternal life; the candles or lights on the tree represent Christ as the light of the world.<ref name="Becker2000" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Crump |first1=William D. |title=The Christmas Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-2293-7 |page=67 |language=English |quote=the evergreen tree (itself symbolic of eternal life through Christ)}}</ref>
==Production==
{{See also|Christmas tree production}} thumb|A large scale Christmas tree farm in the United States thumb|Undecorated Christmas trees for sale thumb|Baling a tree [[File:Balsam Fir Christmas Tree Pruning.jpg|thumb|A grower in Waterloo, Nova Scotia, prunes balsam fir trees in October. The tree must experience three frosts to stabilize the needles before cutting.]] [[File:Christmas Tree Nursery - geograph.org.uk - 1719460.jpg|thumb|Christmas Tree Nursery in Scotland. Each of the hundreds of young trees in serried ranks here is in a black flowerpot, so presumably they are destined for eventual sale as Christmas trees in pots.]] [[File:Karl Wenzel Zajicek A Christmas market in Am Hof Vienna 1908.jpg|thumb|Trees on sale at a Christmas market in Vienna, painting by Carl Wenzel Zajicek (1908)]]
Each year, 33 to 36 million Christmas trees are produced in the United States, and 50 to 60 million are produced in Europe. In 1998, there were about 15,000 growers in America (a third of them "choose and cut" farms). In that same year, it was estimated that Americans spent $1.5{{nbsp}}billion on Christmas trees.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.apsnet.org/education/feature/1225tree/top.htm |title=The Christmas Tree |access-date=8 December 2006 |author=Gary A. Chastagner and D. Michael Benson |year=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206194229/http://apsnet.org/education/feature/1225tree/top.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=6 December 2006 }}</ref> By 2016, that had climbed to $2.04{{nbsp}}billion for natural trees and a further $1.86{{nbsp}}billion for artificial trees. In Europe, 75 million trees worth €2.4{{nbsp}}billion ($3.2 billion) are harvested annually.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Yanofsky|first1=David|title=What the Christmas tree industrial complex looks like from space|url=https://qz.com/1165085/what-giant-christmas-tree-farms-look-like-from-space/|access-date=24 December 2017|work=Quartz|date=21 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171224213558/https://qz.com/1165085/what-giant-christmas-tree-farms-look-like-from-space/|archive-date=24 December 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Natural trees===
{{See also|Christmas tree cultivation}} {{refimprove section|date=December 2025}} The most commonly used species are fir (''Abies''), which have the benefit of not shedding their needles when they dry out, as well as retaining good foliage color and scent; but species in other genera are also used.
In northern Europe most commonly used are: * Norway spruce ''Picea abies'' (the original tree, generally the cheapest) * Silver fir ''Abies alba'' * Nordmann fir ''Abies nordmanniana'' * Noble fir ''Abies procera'' * Serbian spruce ''Picea omorika'' * Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'' * Stone pine ''Pinus pinea'' (as small table-top trees) * Swiss pine ''Pinus cembra''
In North America, Central America, South America and Australia, most commonly used are: * Douglas fir ''Pseudotsuga menziesii'' * Balsam fir ''Abies balsamea'' * Fraser Fir ''Abies fraseri'' * Grand fir ''Abies grandis'' * Guatemalan fir ''Abies guatemalensis'' * Noble fir ''Abies procera'' * Nordmann fir ''Abies nordmanniana'' * Red fir ''Abies magnifica'' * White fir ''Abies concolor'' * Pinyon pine ''Pinus edulis'' * Jeffrey pine ''Pinus jeffreyi'' * Scots pine ''Pinus sylvestris'' * Stone pine ''Pinus pinea'' (as small table-top trees) * Norfolk Island pine ''Araucaria heterophylla'' *Paraná pine ''Araucaria angustifolia'' (when young, resembles a Pine tree)
Several other species are used to a lesser extent. Less-traditional conifers are sometimes used, such as giant sequoia, Leyland cypress, Monterey cypress, and eastern juniper. Various types of spruce tree are also used for Christmas trees (including the blue spruce and, less commonly, the white spruce), but spruces begin to lose their needles rapidly upon being cut, and spruce needles are often sharp, making decorating uncomfortable. Virginia pine is still available on some tree farms in the southeastern United States; however, its winter color is faded. The long-needled eastern white pine is also used there, though it is an unpopular Christmas tree in most parts of the country, owing also to its faded winter coloration and limp branches, making decorating difficult with all but the lightest ornaments. Norfolk Island pine is sometimes used, particularly in Oceania, and in Australia, some species of the genera ''Casuarina'' and ''Allocasuarina'' are also occasionally used as Christmas trees. But, by far, the most common tree is the Pinus radiata Monterey pine. ''Adenanthos sericeus'' or Albany woolly bush is commonly sold in southern Australia as a potted living Christmas tree. Hemlock species are generally considered unsuitable as Christmas trees due to their poor needle retention and inability to support the weight of lights and ornaments.
Some trees, frequently referred to as "living Christmas trees", are sold live with roots and soil, often from a plant nursery, to be stored at nurseries in planters or planted later outdoors and enjoyed (and often decorated) for years or decades. Others are produced in a container and sometimes as topiary for a porch or patio. However, when done improperly, the combination of root loss caused by digging, and the indoor environment of high temperature and low humidity is very detrimental to the tree's health; additionally, the warmth of an indoor climate will bring the tree out of its natural winter dormancy, leaving it little protection when put back outside into a cold outdoor climate. Often Christmas trees are a large attraction for living animals, including mice and spiders. Thus, the survival rate of these trees is low.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/seasonal/hgic1751.html |title=Living Christmas Trees |publisher=Clemson University |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100606222650/https://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/other/seasonal/hgic1751.html |archive-date=6 June 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref> When done properly, replanting provides higher survival rates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.for.msu.edu/extension/ExtDocs/xmastree.htm |title=Christmas tree |publisher=Department of Forestry, Michigan State University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315150004/http://www.for.msu.edu/extension/ExtDocs/xmastree.htm |archive-date=15 March 2012 }}</ref>
European tradition prefers the open aspect of naturally grown, unsheared trees, while in North America (outside western areas where trees are often wild-harvested on public lands)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/newsroom/2004/blm_and_forest_service0.html |title=BLM and Forest Service Christmas tree permits available |publisher=Bureau of Land Management |date=30 November 2004 |access-date=18 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140114174843/http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/BLM_Information/newsroom/2004/blm_and_forest_service0.html |archive-date=14 January 2014 }}</ref> there is a preference for close-sheared trees with denser foliage, but less space to hang decorations.
In the past, Christmas trees were often harvested from wild forests, but now almost all are commercially grown on tree farms. Almost all Christmas trees in the United States are grown on Christmas tree farms where they are cut after about ten years of growth and new trees planted. According to the United States Department of Agriculture's agriculture census for 2007, 21,537 farms were producing conifers for the cut Christmas tree market in America, {{convert|5717.09|km2|acre|0}} were planted in Christmas trees.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/Specialty_Crops/speccrop.pdf |title=2007 Census of Agriculture: Specialty Crops (Volume 2, Subject Series, Part 8) |at=Table 1, page 1 |date=November 2009 |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216135500/http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Online_Highlights/Specialty_Crops/speccrop.pdf |archive-date=16 February 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The life cycle of a Christmas tree from the seed to a {{convert|2|m|ft|0|adj=on}} tree takes, depending on species and treatment in cultivation, between eight and twelve years. First, the seed is extracted from cones harvested from older trees. These seeds are then usually grown in nurseries and then sold to Christmas tree farms at an age of three to four years. The remaining development of the tree greatly depends on the climate, soil quality, as well as the cultivation and how the trees are tended by the Christmas tree farmer.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.weihnachtsbaumversand.de/Wissenswertes:_:35.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071125213649/http://www.weihnachtsbaumversand.de/Wissenswertes%3A_%3A35.html |archive-date=25 November 2007 |title=Unsere kleine Baumschule—Wissenswertes |trans-title=Our little nursery: Trivia |language=de |year=2010 |access-date=18 December 2012 }}</ref> One issue that farmers face is the destruction of pine trees by pests, such as ''T. piniperda.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Grinch That Spoils Christmas Trees |url=https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/1995/dec/trees/ |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov |publisher=USDA ARS}}</ref>
===Artificial trees===
{{Main|Artificial Christmas tree}}
thumb|upright=0.6|An artificial Christmas tree
The first artificial Christmas trees were developed in Germany during the 19th century,<ref name="forbes">{{cite book |author=Bruce David Forbes |title=Christmas: A Candid History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ap8unt4cP54C&pg=PA121 |publisher=University of California Press |year=2007 |pages=121–22 |isbn=978-0-5202-5104-5}}</ref><ref name="hewitt">{{cite book |first=James |last=Hewitt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXdxIt-ZBFgC&pg=PA34 |title=The Christmas Tree |publisher=Lulu.com |year=2007 |pages=33–36 |isbn=978-1-4303-0820-1 }}{{self-published source|date=February 2020}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=February 2020}} though earlier examples exist.<ref name="perkins"/> These "trees" were made using goose feathers that were dyed green,<ref name="forbes"/> as one response by Germans to continued deforestation.<ref name="hewitt"/> Feather Christmas trees ranged widely in size, from a small {{convert|2|in|cm|0|adj=on|order=flip|sp=us}} tree to a large {{convert|98|in|m|adj=on|order=flip|sp=us}} tree sold in department stores during the 1920s.<ref name="silverthorne">{{cite book|first=Elizabeth |last=Silverthorne |title=Christmas in Texas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9G-58ECNgTUC&pg=PA62 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |year=1994 |page=62 |isbn=978-0-8909-6578-8}}</ref> Often, the tree branches were tipped with artificial red berries which acted as candle holders.<ref name="marling">{{cite book |author=Karal Ann Marling |title=Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUc13_ourtYC&pg=PA58 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2000 |pages=58–62 |isbn=978-0-674-00318-7 }}</ref>
Over the years, other styles of artificial Christmas trees have evolved and become popular. In 1930, the U.S.-based Addis Brush Company created the first artificial Christmas tree made from brush bristles.<ref name="cole">{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Cole |title=Christmas Trees: Fun and Festive Ideas |url=https://archive.org/details/christmastreesfu0000cole_c7m9 |url-access=registration |publisher=Chronicle Books |year=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christmastreesfu0000cole_c7m9/page/23 23] |isbn=978-0-8118-3577-0 }}</ref> Another type of artificial tree is the aluminum Christmas tree,<ref name="hewitt"/> first manufactured in Chicago in 1958,<ref name="baltsun">{{cite news |first=Cassandra A. |last=Fortin |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2008/10/26/its-beginning-to-look-a-lot-like-christmas-1958/ |title=It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (1958) |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=26 October 2008 |access-date=18 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211015818/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-10-26/news/0810230187_1_trees-aluminum-color |archive-date=11 December 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> and later in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where the majority of the trees were produced.<ref name="andrews">{{cite book |author=Candice Gaukel Andrews |title=Great Wisconsin Winter Weekends |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OlmGjEU7qU4C&pg=PA178 |publisher=Big Earth Publishing |year=2006 |page=178 |isbn=978-1-9315-9971-9 }}</ref> Most modern artificial Christmas trees are made from plastic recycled from used packaging materials, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).<ref name="hewitt"/> Approximately 10% of artificial Christmas trees are using virgin suspension PVC resin; despite being plastic most artificial trees are not recyclable or biodegradable.<ref name="livescience">{{cite web |url=http://www.livescience.com/3132-fake-christmas-trees-green.html |title=Fake Christmas Trees Not So Green |first=Jennifer |last=Berry |work=LiveScience |date=9 December 2008 |access-date=18 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130104082038/http://www.livescience.com/3132-fake-christmas-trees-green.html |archive-date=4 January 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Trends developed in the early 2000s included optical fiber Christmas trees, which come in two major varieties; one resembling a traditional Christmas tree.<ref name="howstuff">{{cite web |first=Katherine |last=Neer |url=http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas-tree7.htm |title=How Christmas Trees Work |work=howStuffWorks |date=December 2006 |access-date=21 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224133748/http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas-tree7.htm |archive-date=24 December 2008 }}</ref> One Dallas-based company offers "holographic mylar" trees in many hues.<ref name="perkins">{{cite web |first=Broderick |last=Perkins |url=http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20031212_fauxtree.htm |title=Faux Christmas Tree Crop Yields Special Concerns |work=Realty Times |date=12 December 2003 |access-date=21 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080908040211/http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20031212_fauxtree.htm |archive-date=8 September 2008 }}</ref> Tree-shaped objects made from such materials as cardboard,<ref name="popmech">{{cite journal |title=Table-top Christmas Tree |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9oDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA117 |journal=Popular Mechanics |date=January 1937 |page=117 }}</ref> glass,<ref name="diablo">{{cite web |url=http://www.diabloglassschool.com/hotshopclassdetails/holidaytrees.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120215734/http://www.diabloglassschool.com/hotshopclassdetails/holidaytrees.htm |archive-date=20 November 2008 |title=Glass Christmas Tree, one-day course listing |publisher=Diablo Glass School |access-date=21 December 2008 }}</ref> ceramic or other materials can be found in use as tabletop decorations. Upside-down artificial Christmas trees became popular for a short time and were originally introduced as a marketing gimmick; they allowed consumers to get closer to ornaments for sale in retail stores and opened up floor space for more products.<ref name="npr">{{cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5006258 |title=Demand Grows for Upside Down Christmas Tree |format=Audio |work=All Things Considered |publisher=NPR |date=9 November 2005 |access-date=21 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218101909/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5006258 |archive-date=18 December 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Artificial trees became increasingly popular during the late 20th century.<ref name="hewitt"/> Users of artificial Christmas trees assert that they are more convenient, and, because they are reusable, much cheaper than their natural alternative.<ref name="hewitt"/> They are also considered much safer,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://firstaid.about.com/od/injuriesathome/qt/06_xmastree.htm |title=Christmas Tree Safety |work=About.com Health |publisher=About.com |access-date=20 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107234602/http://firstaid.about.com/od/injuriesathome/qt/06_xmastree.htm |archive-date=7 January 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> as natural trees can be a significant fire hazard. Between 2001 and 2007, artificial Christmas tree sales in the U.S. jumped from 7.3 million to 17.4 million.<ref name="hayes">{{cite news |author=Sharon Caskey Hayes |url=http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9009208 |title=Grower says real Christmas trees are better for environment than artificial ones |work=Kingsport Times-News |location=Kingsport, Tennessee |date=26 November 2008 |access-date=21 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100627211924/http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9009208 |archive-date=27 June 2010 }}</ref> Currently, it is estimated that around 58% of Christmas trees used in the United States are artificial, while numbers in the United Kingdom are indicated to be around 66%.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://christmastreesource.com/|title=Christmas Tree Resource: Your Source On Xmas Decorations|website=Christmas Tree Source|language=en-US|access-date=8 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808234749/http://christmastreesource.com/|archive-date=8 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Environmental issues== thumb|Discarded Christmas trees by dumpsterThe debate about the environmental impact of artificial trees is ongoing. Generally, natural tree growers contend that artificial trees are more environmentally harmful than their natural counterparts.<ref name="hayes"/> However, trade groups, such as the American Christmas Tree Association, claim that the PVC used in Christmas trees is chemically and mechanically stable, does not affect human health, and has excellent recyclable properties.<ref name="acta">{{cite web |url=http://www.christmastreeassociation.org/Article%20Pages/facts-on-pvc-used-in-artificial-christmas-trees |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229105616/http://www.christmastreeassociation.org/Article%20Pages/facts-on-pvc-used-in-artificial-christmas-trees |archive-date=29 December 2008 |title=Facts on PVC Used in Artificial Christmas Trees |publisher=American Christmas Tree Association |access-date=21 December 2008 }}</ref> Live trees are typically grown as a crop and replanted in rotation after cutting, often providing suitable habitat for wildlife.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/real_christmas_trees_history_facts_and_environmental_impacts|title=Real Christmas trees: History, facts and environmental impacts|last=Sandborn|first=Dixie|date=2 December 2016|website=canr.msu.edu/|access-date=1 October 2021}}</ref> Alternately, live trees can be donated to livestock farmers who find that trees uncontaminated by chemical additives are excellent fodder.<ref>{{cite news|title=Goats, elk happy to munch on your used Christmas trees|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/goats-elk-happy-to-munch-on-your-used-christmas-trees-1.2885774|access-date=1 January 2015|publisher=CBC News|date=29 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231183148/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/goats-elk-happy-to-munch-on-your-used-christmas-trees-1.2885774|archive-date=31 December 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> In some cases, management of Christmas tree crops can result in poor habitat since it sometimes involves heavy input of pesticides.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ipm.ncsu.edu/wildlife/christmas_trees_wildlife.html|title=Pesticides & Wildlife Christmas Trees|website=ipm.ncsu.edu|access-date=2 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170110211051/http://ipm.ncsu.edu/wildlife/christmas_trees_wildlife.html|archive-date=10 January 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>
Concerns have been raised by arborists about people cutting down old and rare conifers, such as the ''Keteleeria evelyniana'' for Christmas trees.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Kimberly A. C. |title=An arboretum is not a tree farm, people |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/nwheadlines/2009/12/an_arboretum_is_not_a_tree_far.html |website=Oregon Live |date=10 December 2009 |publisher=The Oregonian |access-date=19 December 2023}}</ref>
Real or cut trees are used only for a short time, but can be recycled and used as mulch, wildlife habitat, or used to prevent erosion.<ref>{{cite web |title = Engineer Update: Old Christmas trees protect town beach|url = http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/CEPA/PUBS/mar07/story8.htm|publisher = United States Army Corps of Engineers|date = March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824001534/http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/pubs/mar07/story8.htm|archive-date=24 August 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url = http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2014-12-25/christmas-tree-recycling-begins-friday-columbia-county |title = Christmas tree recycling begins Friday in Columbia County |newspaper = The Augusta Chronicle |access-date = 26 December 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141226180008/http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/metro/2014-12-25/christmas-tree-recycling-begins-friday-columbia-county |archive-date = 26 December 2014 |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/286838101.html |title = Recycling your tree can be a gift for environment |access-date = 26 December 2014 |work = Star Tribune |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141226163650/http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/286838101.html |archive-date = 26 December 2014 |url-status = live }}</ref> Real trees are carbon-neutral: they emit no more carbon dioxide by being cut down and disposed of than they absorb while growing.<ref name="sciam">{{cite web |first=David |last=Biello |url=http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=im-dreaming-of-a-green-christmas-tr-08-12-05 |title=I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas (Tree) |work=Scientific American |format=podcast transcript |date=4 December 2008 |access-date=22 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206023745/http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=im-dreaming-of-a-green-christmas-tr-08-12-05 |archive-date=6 December 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, emissions can occur from farming activities and transportation. An independent life-cycle assessment study, conducted by a firm of experts in sustainable development, states that a natural tree will generate {{cvt|3.1|kg}} of greenhouse gases every year (based on purchasing {{cvt|5|km}} from home) whereas the artificial tree will produce {{cvt|48.3|kg}} over its lifetime.<ref name="LifeCycleAssessment"/> Some people use living Christmas or potted trees for several seasons, providing a longer life cycle for each tree. Living Christmas trees can be purchased or rented from local market growers. Rentals are picked up after the holidays, while purchased trees can be planted by the owner after use or donated to local tree adoption or urban reforestation services.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christmastree.org/dnn/AllAboutTrees/HowtoRecycle.aspx |title=Recycling Your Tree: Real Christmas Trees are Recyclable |publisher=National Christmas Tree Association |access-date=18 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130406092030/http://www.christmastree.org/dnn/AllAboutTrees/HowtoRecycle.aspx |archive-date=6 April 2013 }}</ref> Smaller and younger trees may be replanted after each season, with the following year running up to the next Christmas allowing the tree to carry out further growth.
The use of lead stabilizer in Chinese imported trees has been an issue of concern. A 2004 study found that while in general artificial trees pose little health risk from lead contamination, there do exist "worst-case scenarios" where major health risks to young children exist.<ref name="maas">{{Cite journal | last1 = Maas | first1 = R. P. | last2 = Patch | first2 = S. C. | last3 = Pandolfo | first3 = T. J. | title = Artificial Christmas trees: How real are the lead exposure risks? | journal = Journal of Environmental Health | volume = 67 | issue = 5 | pages = 20–24, 32 | year = 2004 | pmid = 15628192}} Accessed 18 December 2012.</ref> A 2008 United States Environmental Protection Agency report found that as the PVC in artificial Christmas trees aged it began to degrade.<ref name="eparept">{{Cite journal | last1 = Levin | first1 = R. | last2 = Brown | first2 = M. J. | last3 = Kashtock | first3 = M. E. | last4 = Jacobs | first4 = D. E. | last5 = Whelan | first5 = E. A. | last6 = Rodman | first6 = J. | last7 = Schock | first7 = M. R. | last8 = Padilla | first8 = A. | last9 = Sinks | first9 = T. | display-authors = 3| doi = 10.1289/ehp.11241 | title = Lead Exposures in U.S. Children, 2008: Implications for Prevention | journal = Environmental Health Perspectives | volume = 116 | issue = 10 | pages = 1285–1293 | year = 2008 | pmid = 18941567| pmc =2569084 | bibcode = 2008EnvHP.116.1285L }}. Retrieved 18 December 2012.</ref> The report determined that of the fifty million artificial trees in the United States approximately twenty million were nine or more years old, the point where dangerous lead contamination levels are reached.<ref name="eparept"/> A professional study on the life-cycle assessment of both real and artificial Christmas trees revealed that one must use an artificial Christmas tree at least twenty years to leave an environmental footprint as small as the natural Christmas tree.<ref name="LifeCycleAssessment">{{cite web|title=Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Christmas trees—A study ends the debate over which Christmas tree, natural or artificial, is most ecological |url=http://www.ellipsos.ca/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9&lang=english |publisher=Ellipsos Inc. |date=16 December 2008 |access-date=18 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201035904/http://www.ellipsos.ca/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9&lang=english |archive-date=1 December 2012 }}</ref>
== Religious issues ==
Pope John Paul II introduced the Christmas tree custom to the Vatican in 1982. Although at first disapproved of by some as out of place at the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican Christmas Tree has become an integral part of the Vatican Christmas celebrations,<ref name="Stenhouse">{{cite web |url=http://www.wantedinrome.com/news/2000419/christmas-the-vatican-christmas-tree.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730173019/http://www.wantedinrome.com/news/2000419/christmas-the-vatican-christmas-tree.html |archive-date=30 July 2013 |first=Margaret |last=Stenhouse |title=The Vatican Christmas Tree |date=22 December 2010 |access-date=19 December 2012 }}</ref> and in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it as part of the normal Christmas decorations in Catholic homes.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.appleseeds.org/christmas-quotes.htm |title=Pre-Christmas Reflection: May Our Spirits Open to the True Spiritual Light |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=21 December 2005 |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625212305/http://www.appleseeds.org/christmas-quotes.htm |archive-date=25 June 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2004, John Paul II called the Christmas tree a symbol of Christ.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.zenit.org/article-11828?l=english |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071208101926/http://www.zenit.org/article-11828?l=english |archive-date=8 December 2007 |title=Christmas tree is symbol of Christ, says Pope—And a Sign of 'Undying Life' |agency=Zenit News Agency |date=19 December 2004 |access-date=19 December 2012 }}</ref> In the previous year he said: "Beside the crib, the Christmas tree, with its twinkling lights, reminds us that with the birth of Jesus the tree of life has blossomed anew in the desert of humanity. The crib and the tree: precious symbols, which hand down in time the true meaning of Christmas."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/urbi/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20031225_urbi_en.html |title=''Urbi et Orbi'' message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Christmas 2003 |language=la |date=25 December 2003 |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130105060649/https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/urbi/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20031225_urbi_en.html |archive-date=5 January 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Catholic Church's official ''Book of Blessings'' has a service for the blessing of the Christmas tree in a home.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/830/Blessing_a_Christmas_Tree.html |title=Order for the Blessing of a Christmas Tree |publisher=Crossroads Initiative |access-date=19 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121230021152/http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/830/Blessing_a_Christmas_Tree.html |archive-date=30 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Episcopal Church in ''The Anglican Family Prayer Book'' has long had a ritual titled ''Blessing of a Christmas Tree'', as well as ''Blessing of a Crèche'', for use in the church and the home; family services and public liturgies for the blessing of Christmas trees are common in other Christian denominations as well.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kitch |first=Anne E. |date=2004 |title=The Anglican Family Prayer Book |publisher=Morehouse Publishing |page=125}}</ref><ref name="Socias2020">{{cite book |last1=Socias |first1=James |title=Handbook of Prayers |date=24 June 2020 |publisher=Midwest Theological Forum |isbn=978-1-936045-54-9 |language=en}}</ref>
Chrismon trees, which find their origin in the Lutheran Christian tradition though are now used in many Christian denominations such as the Catholic Church and Methodist Church, are used to decorate churches during the liturgical season of Advent; during the period of Christmastide, Christian churches display the traditional Christmas tree in their sanctuaries.<ref name="Weaver2002">{{cite book|last=Weaver|first=J. Dudley |title=Presbyterian Worship: A Guide for Clergy|year=2002|publisher=Geneva Press|language=en |isbn=978-0-664-50218-8|page=79|quote=Many congregations have begun the tradition of using a ''Chrismon tree'' in the sanctuary as part of the Advent and Christmas celebration. It is important, especially for children, that the distinction between this tree and the family Christmas tree be clearly made. The Chrismon tree is decorated only with clear lights and Chrismons made from white and gold material. White, the color of Christmas, is the color of purity and perfection, while gold is the color for majesty and glory. The Chrismons are ancient symbols for Christ or some part of Christ's ministry: the crow, descending down, fish, Celtic cross, Jerusalem cross, shepherd's crook, chalice, shell, and others.}}</ref>
Some cities and institutions in the United States have renamed public “Christmas trees” as “holiday trees” or similar neutral labels in an effort to frame civic displays as inclusive of non-Christian residents. Municipal officials and legal advocates have linked the use of such terms to concerns about maintaining separation between church and state in publicly funded or government-sponsored displays. This neutral naming aims to reduce the risk that a civic tree-lighting ceremony could be interpreted as governmental endorsement of a particular religion.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nemko |first=Marty |date=2011-12-14 |title=The Great Christmas Tree Controversy: The Case for Celebrating Diversity |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/the-great-christmas-tree-controversy-the-case-for-celebrating-diversity/249921/ |access-date=2025-12-07 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> However, these changes have often generated organized opposition from Christian groups and some public officials, who argue that dropping the word "Christmas" diminishes the holiday's religious character and long-established cultural terminology.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Christian Conservatives Fight 'Happy Holidays' |url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1358020 |access-date=2025-12-06 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Mitch |date=November 13, 2019 |title=Christmas tree or holiday tree? The frosty feud splintering a state. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/us/wisconsin-christmas-holiday-tree.html |archive-date= |access-date=December 6, 2025}}</ref>
==See also== {{Portal|Trees}} {{Div col|colwidth=15em}} * {{transliteration|sr|Badnjak}} * Christmas traditions * Christmas tree controversies * Eiresione * Festive ecology * Festivus pole * Hanging of the greens * Hanukkah bush * {{transliteration|ja|Kadomatsu}} * Legend of the Christmas Spider * Nardoqan * New Year tree * Tree worship * {{lang|de|Weihnachten}} * Yule log {{Div col end}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Wiktionary|Christmas tree}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Christmas trees}}
{{Christmas trees|state=expanded}} {{Christmas}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Christmas trees Category:Christmas decorations Category:Christmas in Germany