O tannenbaum . . .

A modern-day Christmas tree

I wrote the following in 1994 and it was published in one of our local newspaper’s magazine sections the week before Christmas. Each year I pull it out and read it again, more for the poem included than anything else. But I also love to be reminded of the long history and tradition of some of our most cherished symbols, the Christmas tree being one we all relate to. It connects us to many eras and many generations of our own families. It allows us to meditate on life, on how things change, and on what our contributions are to the long traditions we keep and pass on to our children and grandchildren. I’ve made a few changes to update the article but it retains its original flavor.

In 1916 Robert Frost wrote the delightful story-poem interspersed throughout this piece. In the poem the owner of the young fir balsams decides he’d rather give away his trees to friends than sell them to someone from the city who only sees Christmas trees as money in his pocket. Frost called the poem “Christmas Trees: A circular Christmas letter.” And it begins ….

The city had withdrawn into itself

And left at last the country to the country;

When between whirls of snow not come to lie

And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove

A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,

Yet did in country fashion in that there

He sat and waited till he drew us out,

A-buttoning coats, to ask him who he was.

Charles Dickens referred to the Christmas tree as “that pretty German toy,” while Clement Miles wrote, it “is a kind of sacrament linking mankind to the mysteries of the forest.” The Christmas tree has been part of human celebrations and rituals since the 14th or 15th century, but humans have venerated the evergreen since time immemorial. And it is an honor well-deserved.

The pines, spruces, balsams, firs, and hemlocks used in Christmas celebrations are descendents of the first seed-producing plants, which appeared on earth millions of years ago and represented a true revolution in the plant world. A seed is self-contained and maintained; it contains an embryo plant, fully equipped with root, trunk, leaves, and its own food supply for nourishment until conditions are favorable, allowing the plant to germinate and grow.

He proved to be the city come again

To look for something it had left behind

And could not do without and keep its Christmas.

He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;

My woods—the young fir balsams like a place

Where houses all are churches and have spires.

I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas trees.

Generat Grant in Kings Canyon National Park

The first ancient seed producers were soon replaced by cone-bearing trees, whose descendents include some of our tallest trees and oldest living plants which have survived centuries and geologic catastrophes because of their ability to adapt. Evergreens were already millions of years old when humans first appeared. When we looked around for a symbol of enduring life it’s easy to see how we chose the evergreen. Ancient cultures looked favorably on all evergreens believing that they contained magical powers. Spruce forests are capable of producing thousands of tons of wind-dispersed pollen each year sprinkling land and water with a gold-like powder. The cones, which contain many seeds, were often used as symbols of fertility. Evergreens figured prominently in many pagan rituals, especially those connected with winter solstice celebrations and vegetation deities—like Attis.

Attis, an Asiatic god of vegetation, was born of a virgin who conceived by putting a ripe almond in her bosom. Although stories of Attis’ death differ, they agree on two counts: it was a bloody death, and after his death under a pine tree, Attis changed into a pine tree, which figured prominently thereafter in vegetation rituals to the god.

I doubt if I was tempted for a moment

To sell them off their feet to go in cars

And leave the slope behind the house all bare,

Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.

I’d hate to have them know it if I was.

Most ancient European and Asian civilizations had some form of tree worship according to Sir James Frazer, author of The Golden Bough. The evergreen symbolized immortal life for the Druids of England who are credited with being the first to hang undecorated evergreens in their homes, more than two centuries before the birth of Christ. Fresh boughs dispelled the gloom of winter and lent their fresh fragrance to the stale winter air inside. They were a reminder that even in the dead of winter, life abounds.

The first Christmas tree, one legend states, was adopted from medieval morality plays in which the evergreen played a major role. Decorated with apples, it represented the tree of life in the story of Adam and Eve. When December 25 became universally accepted as the time to celebrate Christ’s birth, the evergreen tree took on a central role in Christian celebrations of the event. And to some it represented the life-giving tree of the cross. Early decorations included roses (symbol of Mary) and wafers (symbol of last supper).

Eventually all manner of household items were used to decorate the tree. From silver spoons and knives; to cuff links, earrings, bracelets and brightly-colored gloves; cookies, fruit, toys, egg and sea shells, and garlands of cranberries and popcorn.

Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees, except

As others hold theirs or refuse for them,

Beyond the time of profitable growth—

The trial by market everything must come to.

I dallied so much with the thought of selling.

Then whether from mistaken courtesy

And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether

From hope of hearing good of what was mine,

I said, “There aren’t enough to be worth while.”

The Germans are generally given credit for introducing the modern Christmas tree in the 17th century with their beautifully and imaginatively decorated table-top trees. The first candles were added by Martin Luther, goes one legend, when, after observing the clear, star-studded sky one Christmas Eve, he wanted to impress his children with the importance of the birth of the Light of the World, and he added candles to his family’s tree.

Folklore credits Hessian soldiers with introducing the Christmas tree to American colonists during the Revolutionary War. The earliest recorded use of Christmas trees in America was in 1742, in a German Moravian settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; however, widespread use of the Christmas tree in America did not come about until over a hundred years later, around 1850. Taller, ceiling-high trees replaced the European table-top models and became a tradition in American homes.

“I could soon tell how many they would cut,

You let me look them over.”

“You could look

But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”

National Christmas tree, Washington D.C.

President Pierce put up the first White House Christmas tree in 1856 but it wasn’t until 1923, with President Coolidge that the White House tree became a lasting tradition. It was also Coolidge who declared the gigantic sequoia General Grant, in Kings Canyon National Park, California, the National Christmas Tree. Since 1926, an annual Yuletide service is held at the foot of the nearly 2000-year-old tree on the second Sunday of December. On March 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the tree a “National Shrine”, a memorial to those who died in war. It is the only living object to be so declared.

Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close

That lop each other of boughs, but not a few

Quite solitary and having equal boughs

All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,

And paused to say beneath some lovelier one,

With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”

I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.

He climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,

and came down on the north.

In 1882, the world’s first electrically lighted Christmas tree was installed in the New York home of Thomas Edison’s associate Edward Johnson, replacing the hazardous candle-lit trees.

By the early 1900s the Christmas tree in the United States was so popular that shortages began to occur, especially around the cities. In response, the first Christmas tree farm was planted around 1905, and many abandoned farms were brought back into service with crops of conifers as the multi-million dollar industry took root. More recently balled and burlaped trees are used by many for the holiday then planted in backyards to give back to the environment for many years to come.

He said, “A thousand.”

“A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?”

He felt some need of softening that to me:

“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”

I happen to live in Indiana County PA, proudly proclaimed The Christmas Tree Capital of the World. Our local Christmas tree farms provide holiday trees for homes and businesses around the world. The National Christmas Tree Grower’s Association was founded here; and this year the NCTGA has provided a 19-foot balsam fir as the official White House Christmas tree. Indiana County tree growers are proud supporters of the Christmas Spirit Foundation. Since 2005 the CSF has provided 84,000 fresh-cut trees to military families and servicemen and women stationed around the world.

When our sons were young, we enjoyed going out to a local Christmas tree farm and tramping around to choose our tree, cut it down, and drag it back to the car. It never looked as good in the house as it had looked outside and we’d turn it and turn it trying to find the best side. Everyone had a different opinion. But we enjoyed decorating it with strings of popcorn and cranberries … and we each picked out a new ornament to hang each year from Lumley’s Christmas Shop. When we were finished we’d exclaimed this tree the most beautiful tree to date.

Finding a bird’s nest in the chosen tree has long been considered good luck for the new year. A Scandinavian tradition observed by farmers was to bundle a sheaf of wheat and attach it to a pole outside for the birds and animals on Christmas Eve as a show of good faith for a plentiful harvest the following year. Perhaps from these old traditions comes a more recent one of setting out the used Christmas tree and decorating it for the birds.

Many of our used trees served up a royal avian banquet with strings of popcorn and cranberries, slices of apple and peanut butter, suet balls dipped in birdseed, pinecones filled with peanut butter and birdseed, and pieces of stale donuts and bread. Then we would sit by the window and watch all the action. It extended our enjoyment of the rich tradition of the Christmas tree and giving.

Then I was certain I had never meant

To let him have them. Never show surprise!

But thirty dollars seemed so small beside

The extent of pasture I should strip, Three cents

(For that was all they figured out apiece)—

Three cents so small beside the dollar friends

I should be writing to within the hour

Would pay in cities for good trees like those,

Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools

Could hang enough on to pick off enough.

Modern family traditions and festivities will continue to include a Christmas tree and greens decorated with bright lights and baubles for generations to come. It doesn’t matter whether we think of the tree as a delightful toy hung with the handiwork of our creativity, or consider its rich tradition and sacred symbolism of life eternal connecting us with those many generations who have gone before—and those yet to come. We are part of this  long tradition of bringing in the greens.

The Christmas tree will always be an object of priceless memories of Christmas past, a stirring delight of Christmas present, and joyful anticipation of Christmas future.

A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!

Worth three cents more to give away than sell,

As may be shown by a simple calculation.

Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.

I can’t help wishing I could send you one

In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

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