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CHRISTMAS DECORATING

Deck the Halls
Advent Wreaths
Christmas Tree
Outdoor Lighting

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert celebrating Christmas with their children.

Early Documents of the Christmas Tree

The first written evidence of a Christmas tree was found in the diaries of a Strasbourg resident of 1605. It reports that at Christmas time they set up fir trees in the parlors. The trees were decorated with paper roses, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc. Back in those years Strasbourg belonged to Germany.

The tradition of decorating a fir tree for Christmas originated in Germany. At first more popular in Protestant homes, it slowly became acceptable in Catholic households and inside churches as well.

The German aristocracy who had strong ties to the English Palace brought the tradition to England. Queen Victoria, at the age of 13, wrote in her journal of having Christmas trees which were decorated with lights and sugar ornaments.

The member of the royal family who really made the Christmas tree popular in England was the Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburn, the German husband of Queen Victoria. In 1848 The Illustrated London News printed a full page illustration of their tree and the fashion quickly spread.

Legend credits Martin Luther, the founder of the 16th-century Protestant movement, with being the first to add holiday decorations to an indoor tree. As he walked home through the forest one clear winter night, he observed the beauty of the stately evergreens and the stars sparkling through the branches from above. When Luther arrived home and tried to describe the beautiful experience to his wife and children, he was unable to find the words. To illustrate the scene, he went to the woods and returned with a small fir tree which was erected in the home and decorated with lighted candles. By the middle of the 16th century, decorated standing trees became popular in Germany and France.

Illustration by Ludwig Richter Christmas around 1800

The fir tree was put into a great tub filled with sand... The servants, and the young ladies also decked it out. On one branch they hung little nets, cut out of colored paper; every net was filled with sweetmeats; golden apples and walnuts hung down as if they grew there, and more than a hundred little candles, red, white and blue, were fastened to the different boughs. Dolls that looked exactly like real people - the Tree had never seen such before - swung among the foliage, and high on the summit of the Tree was fixed a tinsel star. It was splendid, particularly splendid. "This evening," said all, "this evening it will shine."
Hans Christian Anderson

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