In 1851, when a Catskill farmer named Mark Carr took two ox sleds filled with evergreen trees to New York City and promptly sold them all, the Christmas tree market was born. In 1890, F.W. Woolworth brought glass Christmas tree ornaments from Germany to the United States. The Christmas tree was beginning to catch on.
Christmas trees began appearing in town squares across the nation and having a Christmas tree in the home would soon become an American tradition. In the year 1900, one in five American homes had a Christmas tree. By the year 1920, they had become nearly universal.
President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) had the first Christmas tree in the White House in the 1850s. The National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn was started by President Calvin Coolidge (1885-1933) in 1923.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, nurseries were unable to sell evergreen trees for landscaping, so they cut them for Christmas trees. Because they were more symmetrical than trees growing in the wild, cultivated trees became preferred and the impromptu Christmas tree farms of the depression-era eventually became full-fledged businesses.
Artificial Christmas trees were first marketed in 1885 when a thirty-three limb tree, priced at 50 cents, could be ordered from Sears, Roebuck and Company. They were produced by brush manufacturers that employed the same techniques used in making brushes. Bristles of animal hair or plastic were dyed pine-green and inserted between twisted wires to form branches in graduated sizes, each with a color-coded tag at the base. The customer assembled the tree by inserting the color-coded branches into a wooden pole that acted as the trunk.
To prevent deforestation, tabletop feather trees made of dyed goose feathers originated in Germany in the 19th century. The Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog sold the first feather trees in America in 1913.
Artificial trees are very popular in the United States where synthetic Christmas trees can be found in 70% of homes. They are considered more convenient and hygienic (especially for those with allergies), and if they are used a number of times, they are less expensive over the long term. In most of Europe, however, artificial trees are considered tacky.
In the 1950s and 60s, metallic trees with all the same shape and color ornaments became the rage. The trees were made of aluminum-coated paper, which posed a fire hazard when Christmas lights were placed directly on them, so they were instead lit by a spotlight with a motorized color wheel in front of it.
The late 1970s saw a return to classic Victorian nostalgia, which was a refreshing change from the "space age" Christmas trees of the previous decades. Green trees were once again in demand and manufacturers created replicas of antique-style German glass ornaments, real silver tinsel and pressed foil decorations.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
fascinating! great report as always Margaret - love the background of tradtions and customs!
2 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Thank you, Eric. It's always nice to get a pat on the back from the man in charge.
3 - GoHah
I never would've thought artificial trees went back that far. Enjoyable history lesson--thanks
4 - Greg Schoppe
wait, what you just wrote boils down to: lighted, decorated trees were created by either Martin Luthor, or St Bonaface. How does that make it not a Christian tradition? The use of evergreen boughs as decoration is not the same, and is derived from a totally seperate tradition.
5 - Margaret Romao Toigo
Well, of course decorated evergreens are a Christian tradition! They just aren't exclusively so, having evolved from numerous ancient customs and beliefs.
Indeed, the legends of Martin Luther and St. Boniface tell part of the story of how decorated evergreens might have become Christmas trees in world culture.
It is interesting that both of those stories originated in Germany, where evergreens were decorated and worshiped by the ancient cultures of that land long before the advent of Christianity.
Let us not forget that Christmas trees really didn't catch on with Christians in America until the 1890s.
Several centuries passed before the notions of our rather joyless Puritan forefathers, who condemned Christmas trees as a "heathen tradition," would fade from our culture. Remarkably, there are a few Christian sects that still subscribe to this belief in the 21st century.
Did you know that there is not one mention of a Christmas tree anywhere in the Bible? Perhaps this is the reason why the Puritans did not care too much for Christmas trees and why a few modern Christians still do not use Christmas trees in their celebrations of the Birth of Christ.
So let's not get all vainglorious and play that silly "War on Christmas" game (besides, it's really nothing more than another holiday fund raising ploy). There's no good reason to make assertions of Christian exclusivity with regard to decorated evergreens.
In fact, the very lack of exclusivity makes decorated evergreens multicultural and therefore suitable and appropriate for governments to display as Holiday Trees that include everyone and marginalize no one.