What put the tree into Christmas?
Legend has it that a monk from Devon went to Germany to teach about the Trinity and he used a fir tree as a symbol because of its shape.
The people then revered the tree as God’s tree. The first decorated tree was in 1510 in Latvia. Martin Luther is reputed to have decorated a small tree with candles.
In 1846 Queen Victoria and her German Prince Albert were illustrated in The London News, standing round a decorated Christmas tree. What was done at Court immediately became fashionable with their subjects.
By the 1870s glass ornaments were being imported into Britain from Thuringia, and became a status symbol. After Victoria died the Country went into mourning and the tree somehow ‘died’ with her !
In the 1930s, with a revival of Dickensian nostalgia, the tree came back larger than ever and more decorated with angels and tinsel.
World War 2 put a stop to the import of these trees. However, very large ones were erected in public places to boost morale.
Post war Britain saw a revival of the tree and new kinds such as silver or aluminium ones were imported from America along with many new glass decorations.
Let us not forget the original symbolism this Christmas.
Lou Pickering
