10 Amazing Christmas Tree Facts

The Christmas tree is an iconic tradition of modern Christmas culture. It is a symbol of the Christian holiday season known as Christmas and graces homes and offices all over the world.

Did you know that legend has it that the German 16th century protestant reformer, Martin Luther, placed the first candles on an evergreen tree in his home. And nearly four hundred years later, the first Christmas tree farm was started in 1901 with the planting of 25,000 Norway spruce trees on a farm in New Jersey.

Check out ten more facts about this Christmas tradition.

10 Christmas Tree Facts

1. Germany is credited with starting the modern Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.
   
   
2. However, Christmas trees predate Christianity by centuries with the ancient Romans decorating trees with small pieces of metal during the winter festival of Saturnalia, in honour of their god of agriculture, Saturnus.
   
   
3. A tree is prominently displayed in Trafalgar Square from the beginning of December until the 6th of January each year. This is an annual gift from the people of Norway since 1947 in gratitude to their British allies after the Second World War.
   
   The tree is typically a 50 to 60-year-old Norway spruce, generally over 20 metres tall.
   
   
4. When Germans moved to other countries they took their Christmas tree tradition with them, notably to England.
   
   The German-born wife of King George III, Charlotte, had trees decorated for Christmas in the 1790s. However, it was Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, who popularized the tradition among the British by making Christmas trees a prominent part of the holiday’s festivities. An illustration of the royal family around a decorated tree appeared in a London newspaper in 1848, popularising Christmas trees in British homes.
   
   
5. The first written record of a decorated Christmas Tree comes from Riga, Latvia in 1510. Men of the local merchants’ guild decorated a tree with artificial roses, danced around it in the marketplace and then set fire to it.
   
   
6. By the 1890s the American department store Woolworths was selling 25 million dollars of German-imported ornaments made of hand-blown glass and lead to decorate the first trees in American homes.
   
   
7. A Christmas Tree is a short book by Charles Dickens which was published in 1850, seven years after A Christmas Carol.
   
   The opening lines:
   I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects.
   
   
8. The species Nordman Fir is the most popular Christmas tree in the UK. It is an excellent needle retaining tree due to it being a non-needle drop variety and has strong branches which grow into an attractive and compact shape.
   
   Known for its full shape and hardiness to survive being cut and shipped across long distances, the Fraser fir is considered the most popular and top-selling Christmas tree in North America.
   
   
9. Artificial aluminium Christmas trees were popular in the United States from 1958 until the mid-1960s. These aluminium trees featured foil needles and were illuminated from below via a rotating colour wheel.
   
   
10. A star or angel might be placed at the top of a Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem or the Angel Gabriel, from the Nativity.