Sierra Donovan's Blog - Posts Tagged "holidays"
The Magic of Christmas Trees
I love Christmas trees.
Not just the family tree we decorate at home every year (we still buy fresh ones). And not just the second, artificial tree we got about ten years ago (partly to hold our ridiculous overflow of ornaments). I also love light sculptures of Christmas trees, Christmas tree earrings, books stacked in the shape of a Christmas tree … you get the idea.
And because I’m a geek when it comes to things I love, I did some homework. I learned that the tradition of Christmas trees goes back to 16th century Germany. (Makes sense, because I’m half German … it’s in my blood!) It’s believed that Martin Luther may have been the first to put lights on a Christmas tree, in the form of candles, to recreate the effect of stars shining through the branches of tall evergreen trees he saw walking home on a winter night. German soldiers introduced the trees to Canada in the late 1700s, while German immigrants brought them to the United States at around the same time. In England, Christmas trees were popularized by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the 1840s.
Most of the earlier trees were planted in pots and decorated with edible items—candy, nuts, cookies. The first artificial Christmas trees, introduced in Germany in the late 1700s, were made of goose feathers. Trees made from brush bristles were introduced by a British manufacturer in the 1930s (and, sorry ‘bout this, they were made from the same bristles used for toilet brushes).
Then, from Chicago in the late 1950s, came my pride and joy: the silver aluminum Christmas tree.
Looking back on them, most people shake their heads. What were we thinking? A tinsel tree, designed to reflect the light cast by a bulb with a rotating color wheel in front of it, so the tree changed from red to blue to orange to green. What could be more kitschy? But remember, this was the middle of the twentieth century, when “modern” was in.
And if you were a kid and didn’t know any better, it was magic. As children we love bright, shiny things with lots of color, and “tacky” isn’t in our vocabulary. If you haven’t guessed, we had one of those silver trees when I was growing up. I remember sitting in front of it by the hour, watching the colors as I counted down the days to Christmas. That memory, and one of those trees, made it into my latest book, “We Need a Little Christmas.”
That artificial tree of ours? Yep, it’s a silver one, not quite like the pompom-style trees of the ’50s and ’60s. My husband picked it up for me at WalMart several years ago. And while the light projector it came with isn’t quite like the color wheel I had as a kid, something inside me lit up the first time I saw the colors shining on the tree.
It told me that we don’t always have to grow up all the way. While I can step outside and see the cheesiness, I can still look at a shiny tree and feel the magic I felt as a kid. After all, what’s wrong with soft lights and pretty colors?
Mind you, I love the “real” thing, too, like a lit-up, decorated twenty-foot tree in a park or a town square. Or the whimsy of Charlie Brown’s droopy little tree … the one that was just waiting for a little love.
Maybe there’s just something about the symbol of the Christmas tree. It’s where we gather—or sometimes gaze alone—to capture the spirit of this special time of year. Does a Christmas tree do that for you? Or is there another symbol that captures the magic of the season for you?
Not just the family tree we decorate at home every year (we still buy fresh ones). And not just the second, artificial tree we got about ten years ago (partly to hold our ridiculous overflow of ornaments). I also love light sculptures of Christmas trees, Christmas tree earrings, books stacked in the shape of a Christmas tree … you get the idea.
And because I’m a geek when it comes to things I love, I did some homework. I learned that the tradition of Christmas trees goes back to 16th century Germany. (Makes sense, because I’m half German … it’s in my blood!) It’s believed that Martin Luther may have been the first to put lights on a Christmas tree, in the form of candles, to recreate the effect of stars shining through the branches of tall evergreen trees he saw walking home on a winter night. German soldiers introduced the trees to Canada in the late 1700s, while German immigrants brought them to the United States at around the same time. In England, Christmas trees were popularized by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in the 1840s.
Most of the earlier trees were planted in pots and decorated with edible items—candy, nuts, cookies. The first artificial Christmas trees, introduced in Germany in the late 1700s, were made of goose feathers. Trees made from brush bristles were introduced by a British manufacturer in the 1930s (and, sorry ‘bout this, they were made from the same bristles used for toilet brushes).
Then, from Chicago in the late 1950s, came my pride and joy: the silver aluminum Christmas tree.
Looking back on them, most people shake their heads. What were we thinking? A tinsel tree, designed to reflect the light cast by a bulb with a rotating color wheel in front of it, so the tree changed from red to blue to orange to green. What could be more kitschy? But remember, this was the middle of the twentieth century, when “modern” was in.
And if you were a kid and didn’t know any better, it was magic. As children we love bright, shiny things with lots of color, and “tacky” isn’t in our vocabulary. If you haven’t guessed, we had one of those silver trees when I was growing up. I remember sitting in front of it by the hour, watching the colors as I counted down the days to Christmas. That memory, and one of those trees, made it into my latest book, “We Need a Little Christmas.”
That artificial tree of ours? Yep, it’s a silver one, not quite like the pompom-style trees of the ’50s and ’60s. My husband picked it up for me at WalMart several years ago. And while the light projector it came with isn’t quite like the color wheel I had as a kid, something inside me lit up the first time I saw the colors shining on the tree.
It told me that we don’t always have to grow up all the way. While I can step outside and see the cheesiness, I can still look at a shiny tree and feel the magic I felt as a kid. After all, what’s wrong with soft lights and pretty colors?
Mind you, I love the “real” thing, too, like a lit-up, decorated twenty-foot tree in a park or a town square. Or the whimsy of Charlie Brown’s droopy little tree … the one that was just waiting for a little love.
Maybe there’s just something about the symbol of the Christmas tree. It’s where we gather—or sometimes gaze alone—to capture the spirit of this special time of year. Does a Christmas tree do that for you? Or is there another symbol that captures the magic of the season for you?
