Click on the picture to trim the tree

How did it all begin? No one really knows, though the custom of having Christmas trees certainly comes from Germany. At one time 'Adam and Eve Day' was celebrated on 24 December. They decorated a tree, known as the Paradise Tree, with apples and fruit. And they acted the story of the Garden of Eden and how, in the beginning, the world was spoilt.

A legend links the Christmas tree with St Boniface of Crediton, who left England to bring the good news about Jesus to the tribes of Germany. One dark night he and his monks came upon a group of villagers preparing to sacrifice a boy to their god, Odin. They had tied him to an oak tree. Boniface set the boy free and chopped the oak tree down. He pointed instead to an evergreen fir and his followers stepped forward and put their candles on its branches. By its light, the people listened as Boniface told them of a loving God who had brought life and light to the world through his Son.
Some say it was Martin Luther, the great sixteenthcentury reformer, who first brought the lighted Christmas tree indoors. As he walked through the forest one night he looked up to see the stars shining through the branches. It was so beautiful he went home to tell his children how the lighted tree was like a picture of Jesus, who left the starry heaven to bring light to earth.

DECORATING THE TREE

At first, Christmas trees were decorated with things to eat - edible angels, gingerbread men and apples. German glass-blowers may have been the first to make glass ornaments which were not so heavy. At first a little model of baby Jesus was put at the top of the tree. This changed to an angel with gold wings; then to the fairy we see on so many Christmas trees today!
Candles were used to light the tree at first, and there were many bad accidents from fire.
In 1895 an American telephone worker, Ralph Morris, thought how good the tiny light bulbs on the switchboard would look on his tree! His inspiration led to the many shapes and colours of electric Christmas tree lights manufactured today.

SPECIAL CHRISTMAS TREES

Many towns have their own Christmas tree, set up in the square or high street. One of the best-known stands in Trafalgar Square in London. Every December a magnificent fir tree is shipped over from Oslo in Norway as a present from the people of Norway, in gratitude for the help given to them by Britain in the second world war.

Since the 1920s there has been a large Christmas tree on the White House lawn in Washington. The President himself switches on the lights.

In New Zealand the Christmas tree is alive and growing. Its Maori name is Pohutakawa, but early settlers called it the Christmas tree because its beautiful red flowers bloom in December. The huge trees grow mostly by lake and seaside and holidaymakers can tread a carpet of its red stamens down to the water's edge.