Where Did the Christmas Tree Originate?

The Christmas tree is the one decoration everybody knows. A fir in the corner, lit and hung with baubles, is shorthand for the whole season.

But where did it come from? The answer runs back a long way, through pagan solstice rites, Roman festivals, German craftsmen and a Victorian prince.

The symbolism of evergreens

People were bringing greenery indoors in midwinter long before anyone called it Christmas.

In Ancient Egypt the winter solstice was marked with palms at the temples of Ra, the sun god. Pagans across Europe cut branches and leaves at the solstice as a promise that spring would return. The Romans decorated their temples with fir during Saturnalia, the festival for Saturn held between 17 and 23 December.

The evergreen carried into Christian tradition too. Paradise trees were firs hung with apples, standing for the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

The thread through all of it is the same. In the darkest part of the year, a tree that stays green is a symbol of life continuing.

The first Christmas tree

Pinning down the first actual Christmas tree is harder.

Many credit the 16th century and Martin Luther, who is said to have been the first to put candles on an evergreen.

The documented trail runs through Eastern Europe and Germany. Trees are recorded in Tallinn in 1441 and Riga in 1510. A private house in Turckheim, in Alsace, carries a keystone dated 1576 showing a decorated evergreen.

Where did baubles come from?

Germany again.

The first glass Christmas baubles were made in the 1840s by Hans Greiner, a craftsman in Lauscha. They were blown glass, and they were expensive. Everything since is a version of what he made.

The Victorians made it British

The Christmas tree arrived in England properly in the 19th century, and it arrived with Prince Albert.

Albert was German, and he brought the custom with him. In 1848 he and Queen Victoria began sending decorated evergreens to barracks and schools around Windsor. The royal tree at Windsor Castle was photographed and written about, and within a generation the country had copied it.

That is why Britain decorates a Norway Spruce. It is the tree Albert knew.

The Christmas tree today

The tree is now the fixed point of a British Christmas, and the arguments about it are modern ones.

Real or artificial is the big one, and the answer is less obvious than people assume. A real tree absorbs carbon while it grows and composts at the end. An artificial one needs about ten years of reuse before it breaks even. See our comparison of real vs artificial Christmas trees.

Which type to buy is the other. The Nordmann Fir holds its needles for weeks. The Norway Spruce smells like Christmas and drops sooner. See our guide to the types of real Christmas tree.

Whatever you choose, the tree in your front room is doing the same job it did for the Romans, the pagans and the Victorians. It is a green thing in a dark month.

Read our complete guide to real Christmas trees, or choose your tree. Delivery is free.