Christmas Trees

Evergreen trees have a long standing use in winter celebrations. Egyptians used evergreens to symbolize life overcoming death. Romans decorated their houses with greens to celebrate life. Druids used holly and mistletoe to symbolize eternal life and put evergreen branches above doorways to keep away bad spirits. Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes as a display of their hope in the upcoming spring.

The way evergreens found their way into Christianity is through St. Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity. According to tradition, Boniface came across a group of pagans who were worshiping an oak tree. He cut down the tree and before his eyes a young fir tree sprung up from the roots of the oak tree, which he took as a sign of the Christian faith. The tree’s triangular shape was used to explain the trinity, similarly to how St. Patrick used clovers in Ireland. The evergreen became a symbol of eternal life.

The tree’s ties to Christmas came around the year 1500. One Christmas Eve, Martin Luther was walking through the woods when he saw a beautiful grouping of evergreens that were dusted in snow and shimmering in the moonlight. He went home, set up a little fir tree inside and shared the story with his children. He tied candles to the tree and lighted them in honor of Christ’s birth. From that time, many Christians would bring a fir tree inside on Christmas Eve and decorate it to share the hope of Christ’s birth with their children.

The tradition wouldn’t have reached the United States until the American Revolution, when Hessian troops fought for Britain, or possibly later by German immigrants. It wasn’t until 1870 that all schools closed for Christmas Day, and up to that point celebrating Christmas was banned in many schools and churches.

Today, Christmas trees a central part to our winter celebrations: they are decorated with lights, as Christ was the light that came into the world; they are trimmed into triangle shapes, to represent the trinity; they are topped with a star or an angel, symbolizing Christ’s birth being announced to the world; and they are surrounded with presents, so we can practice giving to others to celebrate what God gave to us.