According to ancient tales, a seventh century monk traveled from Crediton, Devonshire to Germany to spread the Good News. The dedicated monk spent quite a bit of time in the city of Thuringia which would eventually become the center of the Holiday decoration industry.
The practice of celebrating Christmas with evergreens was condemned in the second century until the Middle Ages. A story was spread that on the day Christ was born, the trees shook off their snow and shoots of green appeared. Around the same time, missionaries began to preach the Lordship of Christ over all things historical, cultural, and in the natural world. Christian stories began to take root over more local pagan traditions and rituals.
Legend holds that this monk used the Fir tree’s triangular shape in sermons to explain the Holy Trinity, in much the same fashion as St. Patrick of Ireland rendered the meaning of the trinity with the lowly clover. These kinds of symbols were used to convert pagans through recognizing the Holy Trinity in everyday life. Use of these symbols made it considerably easier to explain and define even the most complicated theological concepts in terms that anyone could understand.
It is believed that by the twelfth century, these evergreen trees were being hung from ceilings in European Christian homes. In 1510, the first decorated Christmas tree appeared at Riga in Lativa. Again in the early sixteenth century, it is rumored that Martin Luther also had a small decorated tree and was the first to decorate the tree with candles. The candles represented Christ as the “light of the world”.
It is estimated that people during the Renaissance period began decorating the trees with apples (the forbidden fruit) and wafers to commemorate the Eucharist. The use of Evergreen dates back even further to Egyptian and Hebrew times, to commemorate eternal life. Evergreens eventually came to symbolize God's everlasting love for mankind.
A Breman chronicle of 1570 announced the erection of a small tree decorated with “nutmeg, apples, dates, pretzels, paper flowers, and nuts” to the benefit of children, who collected the treats on Christmas day. In 1584, Balthasar Russow, a pastor, declared the established tradition of a decorated spruce in the market square. Couples would gather around the tree to sing and dance, and afterwards they would set the tree on fire.
Germans who emigrated brought their cultural traditions of decorating Christmas trees with them. The custom was first noticed in 1830 in Pennsylvania. At first, Americans thought the practice odd, but about a decade later, the practice became widespread and accepted. However, there was stringent objection to the “pagan” practice of decorating an evergreen tree and bringing it indoors by the Puritans. The Puritans believed that mixing traditions stole from the sacred observance of Christmas.
The Puritans went so far as to fine people for decorating or becoming involved in Christmas festivities. Observances held on the 25th of December, other than a solemn church service, were heavily penalized, but the custom of decorating a Christmas tree in recognition of the birth of Christ extends to this very day. Today, electric lights have replaced the tradition of lighted candles. Candy canes and baubles, which have been tied to Christian symbolism, now decorate trees. Some prefer live trees while others purchase artificial trees, some of which are of other colours other than green. An angel may be placed at the top of the tree to commemorate the host of angels who announced the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and sometimes an illuminated start to symbolize the guiding star that led the three kings to Bethlehem.