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THE CHRISTMAS TREE

So like most other Canadians, even north Americans, we celebrate the traditional Christmas and went out on a Christmas tree hunt a few weeks back (early I know). During the whole getting the tree in the house crawling under it and getting it into just the right spot I started getting annoyed.

Girlfriend: "it’s a little crooked",

Me: "what about that?"

Girlfriend:"a little more to the right"

Me: " how about now?"

Girlfriend:"now its leaning forward"

Me: "Good god gill this is driving me nuts"

Girlfriend"is it tight"

After going under the damned Christmas tree for the umpteenth time I started to wonder WHY ON EARTH DO WE BRING TREES IN THE HOUSE ANYWAYS, and why do we decorate Christmas trees?

So this prompted a bit of a search. Ya I’m a losr and actually looked it up.

At first I thought this tradition was probably inherited from the Egyptians that used to decorate their houses with palm tree leaves in the day of the astrological winter. Then I thought maybe The habit was taken by the Romans that used instead of palm trees the conifers.

But the story really begins around the 7th century when a monk from Devonshire came to Germany to teach the word of the Lord. Legend says that he used the triangular form of the Christmas tree to symbolize religious meanings. In the Europe of the 12th century, on Christmas day, the Christmas tree was installed upside down, hanging down from the ceiling! HAHAHAHA what a lark that would have been, not only did they have to set it up once, but then had to do it all over again but this time upside down, theres a great idea huh, hang the frikken thing like a pig in a slaughter house from the ceiling.

Heres what wiki-pedia had to say about the origins and history of the christmas tree: Kinda weird but okay:

Patron trees (for example, the Irminsul, Thor’s Oak and the figurative Yggdrasil) held special significance for the ancient Germanic tribes, appearing throughout historic accounts as sacred symbols and objects. According to Adam of Bremen, in Scandinavia the Germanic pagan kings sacrificed nine males (the number nine is a significant number in Norse mythology) of each species at the sacred groves every ninth year.

According to Church records, Saint Boniface (who, also according to Church records, had felled the Thor’s Oak) attempted to Christianise the indigenous Germanic tribes by introducing the notion of trinity by using the cone-shaped evergreen trees because of their triangular appearance.
Ok so thats all fine and good for the whole tree thingy, but then why decorate it at all?

     It appears the tree was first decorated at Riga in 1510. At the beginning of the 16Ith century, M. Luther decorated the tree with candles to suggest to his children the sparklings of the stars in the sky.

At the middle of the 16th century, in Germany, appear the first markets specialized in selling presents for Christmas, usually food or objects of practical use.

"in the mid 16th century, Christmas markets were set up in German towns, to provide everything from gifts, food and more practical things such as a knife grinder to sharpen the knife to carve the Christmas Goose! At these fairs, bakers made shaped gingerbreads and wax ornaments for people to buy as souvenirs of the fair, and take home to hang on their Christmas Trees."

Christmas decorations that were meant to suggest snow were invented in Germany in 1610. At that time not only they were silvery, but they were also made out of silver. There were invented machines to make thin silver strings for the tree. Silver lasted long but it oxidized very quickly, so they tried to alloy it with cooper and zinc, but the product was so heavy that it just broke under the action of his own weight. (not liek we havent had THAT problem) ever tried hanging a hockey puck on a tree). So silver was used till the middle of the 20th century.

In Great Britain, the Christmas tree came along with merchants that originated from Germany and settled in England. Decorating the Christmas tree meant silver ornaments, candles and pearl-like ribbons all produced in Germany and Eastern Europe at the time. The custom said that every family member or invited person had to have a little tree placed on the table in front of him, with the presents besides it.

     In 1846, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – both born in Germany - appear in "Illustrated London News", along with their children, all around the Christmas tree. The popularity of the regal family made this custom to spread fast among the people. The tree became a fashion matter not only in the Britain Islands, but also on the eastern coast of America.

     Decorations were of a huge variety. Mostly home made because they were expensive at the time. Young ladies spent hours cutting paper snowflakes and stars, folding presents envelopes and paper supports for candy. Ahhhh I remember those days driving my parents nuts cutting up everything in the house to put on the tree, how many bags of popcorn did we hang on the tree? countless I’m sure.

Ok enough reminiscing

     In America, the Christmas tree appears around 1747, in German communities from Pennsylvania, but it spreads only along with the development of communications, at the middle of the 19th century.

     In 1882 the electric light bowl is invented and in 1892 it is adapted for the Christmas tree.
And so, we get to our present tree that combines all the elements presented above in the most ingenious and creative mixtures.

What Christmas tree decorating traditions do you have? If any at all 

Now that Im christmassy and thinking about trees and all that, I wonder what techno-geeky gadgets exist for the tree?

I suppose out side of the usual hanging cd’s or dvd’s that sparkle and shine, maybe like a computer chip or piece of circuit board?

HAHAHA check this out!!!!

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