The evergreen tree, which was used for the Winter Solstice celebrations, had been a pagan symbol of winter, which symbolized a proof of nature that life persisted during the dark times of callous winter. This symbol of winter had been used in the Winter Solstice celebrations for thousands of years. But Constantine’ newly formed state religion adopted the evergreen tree into the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus (i.e., the celebration of Jesus’ birth.)
The 5th Century Christians of Rome, in an attempt to change this pagan evergreen tree tradition into a Christian tradition, took the first evergreen trees used by Christians and decorated them with apples symbolizing the Garden of Eden epic.
But shortly after, the apples were changed to ornaments (shiny bulbs) symbolizing the sun.
Today, there are a wide variety of traditional ornaments used for the Christmas tree: garland, tinsel, and candy canes to name a few. A star may be placed at the top of the Christmas tree to represent the angel Gabriel, or the star of Bethlehem from the Nativity.
Evergreen Trees During Winter
THE GERMAN CHRISTMAS TREE
Although the evergreen tree’s association with the Winter Solstice goes back far beyond old Germany, the custom of the Christmas tree developed in early modern Germany. Centuries before England and America; it was the Germans who held the Christmas tree in high regard during the Christmas season.
Although the 5th Century Christians of Rome were the first Christians to decorate the Christmas tree (first with apples, later with shiny ornaments); It was the Germans of the 18th Century, then afterwards England and America, who began to lavish the Christmas tree with the illumination of candles. The candles were ultimately replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification.
THE AMERICAN CHRISTMAS TREE
In the early part of the 1800s, the Christmas tree, which held its oldest modern-day roots in Germany, was foreign to America as well as England. America and England’s celebration of Christmas excluded the evergreen fur, up to this point. In fact, it was not until the royal marriage of Victoria, the Queen of England, to her cousin Prince Albert of Germany in 1840 that the evergreen fur began to be associated with Christmas in England and America.
After the marriage of 1840, Prince Albert brought his German ways to Winsor Palace in England, including his annual German Christmas tree. And in 1848, the London Illustrated News published the engraving of the Royal Family standing by the first Christmas tree most English people had ever seen.
Christmas was Illegal in America
In just a few years after the publication of the engraving of the Royal Family standing next to their Christmas tree, a decorated Christmas tree could be found in nearly every English home at Christmas. America had embraced the Christmas tree just as quickly as the English had. In fact, some historians on the matter claim, it wasn’t only the publication that was the selling point for the Christmas tree; but the Christmas tree’s connection to the old world (i.e., old Germany) was its strongest selling point.
The reader should understand, to most Americans in the early 1800s, the Christmas traditions of old Germany, and prior, would be brand new traditions. Therefore, the Americans of the 1800s were looking for reasons for carrying out these traditions that had been associated with Christmas for centuries. Thus, when someone in the 1800s was asked how the holiday was celebrated, we find responses in letters written from those times that state things like, “We’ve had a Christmas tree as is customary” or “We had a Christmas tree as we have always had” in reference to old Germany.
During this time in America, having the evergreen tree with its ornaments seemed to be the proper way to celebrate the Christmas season, as if it were saying, “This is how it is done in England and how it was done in old Germany”.
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"The History of Christmas".
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