WHERE DID CHRISTMAS TREES COME FROM?
 
 

    Christmas trees seem to have their origins in the
ancient celebrations of Saturnalia.
    The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles.
Roman soldiers conquering the British Isles found
Druids who worshipped mistletoe and Saxons who
    used holly and ivy in religious ceremonies.
All those things found their way into
    Christmas customs.

    Interestingly, however, the first person to have lighted
a Christmas tree may have been Martin Luther,
father of the Reformation.
He introduced the practice of putting candles on trees to celebrate
Christmas, citing Isaiah 60:13 as biblical authority for the
    practice: "The glory of Lebanon will come to you,
the juniper, the box tree, and the
    cypress together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary;
and I shall make the place of
    My feet glorious."

    This excerpt was taken from
The Miracle of Christmas by John F. MacArthur, Jr.

    Copyright (c) Zondervan Publishing House, 1995.
 

                   THE TRADITION of the CHRISTMAS TREE
 

                       The modern Christmas tree seems to have
                        originated in Germany during the Middle
                        Ages. A main prop in a medieval play about
                        Adam and Eve was a fir tree hung with
                        apples. Called the "Paradise tree," it
                        represented the Garden of Eden. German
                        families set up a Paradise tree in their
                        homes on December 24, the feast day of
                        Adam and Eve. On it they hung wafers,
                        symbolizing the bread distributed at the
                        celebration of the holy eucharist, or
                        communion, in churches. Because the
                        Christmas holiday followed immediately,
                        candles representing Christ as the light of
                        the world were often added to the tree.
                        Eventually cookies and other sweets were
                        hung instead of wafers.
 
 

Christmas trees have been sold commercially
         in the United states since about 1850. Until
         fairly recently, all Christmas trees came from
         the forest.

         Thirty-four to thirty-six million Christmas
         trees are produced each year and 95 percent
         are shipped or sold directly from Christmas
         tree farms.

         California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington,
         Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina
         are the top Christmas tree producing states.

         The best selling trees are Scotch pine,
         Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine,
         Balsam fir and white pine.

         Over one million acres of land have been
         planted in Christmas trees. The industry
         employs over 100,000 people. Many
         Christmas tree growers grow trees on a
         part-time basis to supplement farm and
         non-farm income.

         More than 2,000 trees are usually planted per
         acre. On an average 1,000-1,500 of these
         trees will survive. In the North, maybe, 750
         trees will remain. Almost all trees require
         shearing to attain the Christmas tree shape.
         At six to seven feet, trees are ready for
         harvest. It takes six to ten years of fighting
         heavy rain, wind, hail and drought to get a
         mature tree.

         Selling directly to the consumer has become a
         major market for many Christmas tree farms.
         Some tree farms offer the consumer the
         chance to select his own tree while it is still
         growing in the tree farm.

         In the United States, there are over 5,000
         Christmas tree farms and 15,000 Christmas
         tree growers.
 
 
 

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE
 
 

   The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient
Romans who during
   their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal.

   An evergreen, the Paradise tree,
was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of
   Adam and Eve held on December 24th during the middle ages.

   In the 16th century Martin Luther was credited as being
the first to decorate an indoo tree.
After a walk through a forest of evergreens with
shining stars overhead,
Luther tried to describe the experience to his family
and showed them by bringing a tree into
   their home and decorating it with candles.

   The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the
United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops.
An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up
   by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Illinois,
the site of Chicago, in 1804.
Most other early accounts in the United States were among the
German settlers in eastern
   Pennsylvania.

   By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states.
Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.

   Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the
Christmas tree to the White
   House in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School children.
The first national Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the
White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.