The Humble Christmas Tree by Louise E. Rule

The Humble Christmas Tree: most of us have one in our home over this celebratory season. When I was a small child, back in the early 1950s, I remember asking my Mum, “Why do we always have a tree in our house at Christmas?” and the reply was, “Ask your Dad.” so I asked my Dad, and he said, “Because your mother wants one in the house, that’s why.”

So, we had a Christmas tree in the house, and one year it was enormous! It was so tall that my Dad had to cut about one foot off the top to fit it in the front room. We decorated it with baubles, and paper chains that my brother and I had eagerly, and painstakingly licked and stuck together; cotton wool balls were thrown with gusto at the tree, long strands of shiny silver and gold lametta were tossed at the branches to dangle like thin icicles, and lights, oh, the lights! The lights were the best. They were about an inch long, shaped like a tight tulip bud: bright reds, blues, greens and yellows. I would stare at them until I could see nothing else; I just loved them. They would reflect in and off of the baubles, glass, they were, pale blues, silver greens, deepest reds, and gold, the deepest gold that you could imagine. When a yellow light reflected in the gold bauble it was just so beautiful! And if you twisted the bauble so that it spun freely, then let it go, it would make the branch bounce in a syncopated, scintillating rhythm, making the light shimmer around the darkened room, spinning light off the walls like fairy sunbeams. So, the humble Christmas tree is transformed into something spectacular!

Lights on trees now seem full of flash and shimmer: on, off, on, off. For me, I like the steady lights so that you can look into them like the flames of a coal fire, imagining all sorts of things dancing in front of your eyes, just magical. The quintessential Christmas tree is an evergreen conifer tree. The ideal one has branches that spread wide, making it easy to decorate.

So, memories of Christmas as a small person are magical enough, but how did all this Christmas ritual of decorated trees inside our homes come about? It is generally associated with Germany, where it is called Weihnachtsbaum or Christbaum, and, of course, there is the well-known song, 

“O Tennenbaum”  

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,

Wie true sind deine Blätter!

Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,

Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,

Wie true sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit

Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:

Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit

Gibt Trost und Kraft zu jeder Zeit.

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum!

Das soll dein Kleid mich lehren.

“O Christmas Tree”

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

How loyal are your leaves!

You’re green not only in the summertime,

No, also in winter when it snows.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

How loyal are your leaves!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

You can please me very much!

How often has not at Christmastime

A tree like you given me such joy!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

You can please me very much!

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

Your dress wants to teach me something:

Your hope and durability

Provide comfort and strength at any time.

O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,

That’s what your dress should teach me.

We have adopted the Christmas tree from its pagan roots, and worked it into Christian beliefs. The shape of the tree, for example, being of a roughly triangular shape, is supposed to represent the Holy Trinity, and the fact that it is evergreen represents everlasting life.

The Holy Trinity (picture from Wikipedia)

Although we have this knowledge of Christmas trees originating in early Renaissance Germany, it has also been linked to Martin Luther, a Protestant Christian reformer, and it is said that it was he who first put lighted candles onto an evergreen tree.

There is a story about Donar’s Oak which I have found very interesting. Doner’s Oak, sometimes referred to as Jove’s Oak, or Thor’s Oak, was a Germanic pagan sacred tree, said to be somewhere near Hesse, Germany. The story goes that the Anglo-Saxon missionary St. Boniface and his entourage cut down said tree early in the 8^th century. Then, reportedly, wood from the tree was used to build a church at the site dedicated to St. Peter. The Germanic people widely venerated sacred trees and sacred groves, and scholars also have linked Donar’s Oak and others to the tree in Norse mythology, Yggdrasil.

From Northern Antiquities,
an English translation of the Prose Edda from 1847.
Painted by Oluf Olufsen Bagge. (picture from Wikipedia)

To quote from Encyclopaedia Britannica:

The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolise eternal life, was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans, and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn, with evergreens at the New Year, to scare away the devil, and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmastime.

It has also been said that it is identified with the Tree of Paradise of medieval mystery plays. These plays were performed on 24^th December, which is the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. It is said that in plays such as these, the tree is decorated with apples, representing the forbidden fruit, and wafers representing the Eucharist, and therefore, redemption. 

The Tree of Paradise, then, was used for the setting of the plays, much like we now use the crib for Baby Jesus; the Paradise Tree was later placed in homes. In time the apples were replaced by other round objects, usually red, thus we now have our baubles to hang on our Christmas trees.

I believe that nowhere in the Bible does it say that the apple was the forbidden fruit. It is thought to be through a poor translation that we think of it as such, when the Latin word malum should have been translated as evil instead of apple, the accent, (one of a choice of two) over the letter 'a' being critical. 

Many countries have their own mythologies regarding Christmas, together with its pagan origins but on the whole, in this modern age, Christmas means many different things to different people. First and foremost, it is celebrated as the day Jesus was born; but even if one doesn't hold with that, then surely it can be used to symbolise a new beginning, a rebirth, a starting afresh with good intentions. Whatever and whichever is your Christmas belief, enjoy it, have fun, and have a truly great time!