Oh Christmas tree

Years ago I stopped having one. However, for those who still feel that this piece of greenery is essential to Christmas, it may help to know a bit more about how these trees came to be such an integral part of what people celebrate as Christmas today.

The trees we refer to as Christmas trees belong to the family of plants called conifers. There are over 600 different kinds of conifers but the ones used mainly for decorating at this time of the year are the spruce, pine and fir. The pine is the one that can be found growing here in Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean.

The needle shape of conifer leaves allow them to conserve water so they can survive during the harsh cold of winter or high heat of warm climates and a waxy coating on the needles helps prevent water loss. While conifers are called evergreens because most hold their green leaves all year long in some temperate climates, there are some conifers that do lose their leaves and are called deciduous.

These are the ones found mainly in the tropics.

There was a time in Trinidad when you could get a real tree from our forests for use as your Christmas tree. Workers at the Forestry Division used to go out and get real trees for people to buy to put in their homes. That practice was stopped a few years ago.

But if you plant pine seedling and are willing to wait a few years for it to grow to size you can decorate, you can have your own for years to come so you will not have to spend money to get your Christmas tree fix.

The Christmas tree has evolved into an industry where millions of real evergreen trees are grown on special farms (called Christmas Tree Farms) to feed people’s addiction to having one at this time of the year.

Artificial trees and other decorations made parts of the evergreens, such as wreaths, have added to the revenue generated this industry. The US body known as the National Christmas Association states that in 2014, real trees generated US $1.04 billion in sales while artificial ones accounted for $1.19 billion.

Historical accounts have shown that in ancient times, centuries before the dawn of Christianity, pagan (non-Christian) cultures placed significance on evergreens and used them in their celebrations. During their winter festival of Saturnalia, Romans used evergreens when worshipping their god of agriculture.

Egyptians placed palm branches in homes to symbolise life overcoming death.

Volume 19 of the “Arnoldia” a publication issued by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University speaks of the legend that ascribes Martin Luther as the first to make use of lights as Christmas decorations when he hung lighted candles on an evergreen tree in his home.

The bulletin further states that “the earliest authentic record of Christmas trees as we know them today is in a manuscript in which a Strasburg merchant wrote in 1605, ‘At Christmas, they set up fir trees in the parlours at Strasburg and hang thereon rose cut out of many coloured paper, apples, gold foil, sweets, etc.’.” The Royal family under Queen Victoria is credited for making Christmas trees popular and fashionable when, in 1846, an illustration in a newspaper showed the Queen and her family around a Christmas tree.

It should be noted that the Bible makes no mention of Christmas trees (or their presence in the story of the Nativity) although some Christians have taken the passage of Jeremiah 10: 1- 4 as an admonition against Christmas trees.

A little research by anyone of us will reveal that early on the Christian church frowned upon the use of Christmas trees when it first heard about it and Protestants in America went so far as to ban them at one point in time