Our Christmas tree is again decorated with glowing lights, ornamental glass balls, icicles of tinfoil, long strips of popcorn chains, and topped by an angel. Starry eyed, I repeat the familiar carol’s words: “Oh, Christmas tree, Oh, Christmas tree, How lovely are your branches!”
The Christmas tree itself, with all of its trimmings, evolved out of the customs and traditions of many cultures. The custom of a decorated tree dates back to the Middle Ages, but tree worship was a prominent part of many ancient cultures.
One of the cults that worshipped trees was the Canaanites, often mentioned in the Old Testament. This cult believed that gods inhabited trees.
Different kinds of trees, such as ash, pine and sycamore, were sacred to primitive people – none more so than the oak. The pagan Druids priests of Gaul and the British Isles conducted ceremonies in oak groves dedicated to their gods. The Greeks believed the human race to have sprung from the oak; their kings claimed to have descended from Zeus, the god of the oak. The Greek word for oak, drus, became Druid or oakman.
The ancient Egyptians decorated their homes with branches of the date palm during winter. It was regarded as an emblem of immortality and of the starlit sky.
During the Roman winter feast called Saturnalia, boughs of evergreens – holly, laurel, bay and mistletoe – adorned entire homes. Greens were considered a symbol of good luck and the assurance of ample spring crops. The Romans also trimmed trees with trinkets and toys, and pine trees were trimmed with images of Bacchus, the god of wine. Likewise, the pagan Druids honored the god Woden by hanging apples, carved in gold leaf, and other offerings on tree branches.
One of the earliest traditions found in Germany, dating from the 8th century, is about St. Boniface, a missionary. Boniface cut down the sacred oak of the Druids. Once the tree fell, only a small fir sapling survived the crush. Whereupon, St. Boniface announced the miracle sapling to be the tree of the Christ Child. Thus the fir tree, to Germans, became the Christmas symbol of the coming of Christ.
Another tradition, of the 16th century, is attributed to Martin Luther, the German Protestant churchman and reformer. It is said that while walking one Christmas Eve, he was overwhelmed by the stars shining through the trees, so much so that he recreated the scene for his family with a candlelit tree.
The Romans used candles during Saturnalia, as did the Jews during their Feast of Lights at Hanukkah. Many of our customs in the use of candles, greens and trees were pagan practices. The Christian church simply Christianized them.
During the Middle Ages, the decorated tree is said to have sprouted due to two religious practices in Germany. The first practice was the “Adam and Eve Paradise” plays performed on Dec. 24 in the churches. The Paradise tree (the tree of life in the Garden of Eden) was represented by a fir tree with apples and sweets.
The second practice was the decoration of a wooden pyramid with shelves that held greens, food, or a manger scene.
By the 15th century, due to irreverences of speech and action, the Paradise plays were forbidden by church authorities. This resulted in combining both practices. The Paradise tree, the symbolic object of the play, interpreted as a symbol of the coming Saviour, was brought into the home and the ornaments from the pyramid shelves were placed upon it.
By the 17th century, the trees were known as Christbaume (Christ trees) and were decorated with fruit, candies and flat wafers.
The Christ tree, for about 200 years (1600-1800) was localized mainly along the Rhine in Germany before it spread to the rest of Germany and Eastern Europe. Thanks to the marriage of Prince Albert of Germany and Queen Victoria of England, and the published account of the royal Christmas tree of 1848, the tree took hold in England.
Not only are Europeans indebted to the Germans for the Christmas tree custom, but Americans as well. The Puritans of colonial New England banned what they considered heathen practices at first – carol singing, decorations and feasting. However, other colonial groups – the Dutch of New York, Germans and Moravians of Pennsylvania, and the settlers of the Old South – practiced their homeland Christmas customs in their new land.
German immigrants were the first to set-up Christmas trees in America in the 1820s. The earliest trees were modest, perhaps a few feet in height and erected on a table in the center of the living room. Even though the Christmas trees had been set up sporadically, it was the earlier scholars – Alfred Berlin, Henry Mercer, William Schreiber, Rudolf Hommel, and Alfred Shoemaker – who documented evidence of the Christmas tree.
Pennsylvania newspapers and periodicals mention early references to Christmas trees. The Moravians of Bethlehem, in 1747, following their homeland custom, celebrated Christmas with wooden pyramids decorated with candles, apples, and hymn stanzas. A more traditional tree was probably placed on a table in the center of the family parlor. Earlier scholars claim Massachusetts to have documented evidence of a tree set up in 1832. A more recent tree was set up in Easton, in 1816. Easton honors this first Christmas tree in America with an annual candlelighting during Thanksgiving week.
A Matthew Zahn, living in a German settlement in Lancaster, on December 20, 1821, writes in his diary of a tree in a home. An Allentown woman recalls a “Christmas tree custom since 1827.” The Reading paper mentions a tree as early as 1838.
In our own locality of Kutztown the following was gleaned from The Kutztown Patriot: Published in 1874, the first issue on microfilm dates from 1889. By the mid-19th century, trees were erected in clubs, stores, and churches. Sunday School Christmas festivals helped promote and popularize the Christmas tree tradition. It was common in the early issues of The Kutztown Patriot and other newspapers to list elaborate descriptions of these festivals. “In December 1889, on Christmas Eve, Trinity Lutheran Church in Kutztown is neatly and handsomely decorated with laurel.” In 1901, Maxatawny Zion’s Union Sunday School Christmas festival is described, “At the end the scenery was the usual Christmas tree decorated with tinsel and illuminated with Christmas candles.” A December 1921 issue of The Kutztown Patriot is titled Milton Smith of Noble Street “…Besides side yards the house has a nice front yard, the chief ornament of which is a beautiful Norwegian pine 16 feet high. The grand pine was wired and decorated with red, white and green bulbs. When night came and the current was turned on the tree could be seen for miles around.”
In 1930, the December issue of The Kutztown Patriot features an ad by the Harvey Frey Store where Christmas trees are advertised for 50 and 75 cents. In December of 1936, Kutztown started a tree lighting ceremony. In December 1939 it states “…the 3rd annual community tree lighting ceremony, sponsored by the Woman’s Club, with the help of borough council, will be held on Tuesday, 6:30 p.m. at the residence of Mrs. Charles Kutz, 1st vice-president.”
In addition to The Kutztown Patriot, I interviewed several local people (Note: some are now deceased) about their Christmas tree recollections.
Eighty-two year old, Irene Batz, of Nobel Street, Kutztown, recalled, her husband, “Luther and I couldn’t afford much during the depression years. We had a platform with a tree and decorations. He set up a village on the platform. I purchased little houses at Fenstermacher’s 5 & 10 cent Store for 10 to 20 cents. I also sent away for cardboard farm animals.”
Harold Leibensperger, and his wife, Francis, lived in Kutztown since 1925. Harold said his father never liked Christmas. “One time he cut all the limbs off a tree and brought the stump in the house and said ‘Now here’s your tree!'” But John and Francis did enjoy Christmas. “In our home we had a tree and a platform. I had an American Flyer train set up on it.”
Ninety year old Laura Peters, now living on Church Road, near Maxatawny, told me about Christmas on a farm near Maxatawny, where she and her husband, Russell, raised their four children. “My children followed Russell, one behind the other in the deep, deep snow up into the woods behind our house and picked out a tree. Russell cut down the tree with an ax and they’d all drag it home. By the time they got to the house, I had one of our galvanized buckets filled with coal to place the tree in. The tree was set up on Christmas Eve.”
Mamie Hass, also on Church Road, with her husband, Wayne, reared eight children. In the 40s Mamie claimed, “Nothing was ever thrown out. We used Christmas decorations over and over again.” Mamie especially liked “red balls, icicles, and tinsel” for their tree. “The children helped decorate the tree as well as wrap the presents. We only had one big item and some little presents. We never shopped either – always bought through the Sears catalog.”
Evelyn Christman, now living on the outskirts of Hamburg, when growing up in the 30s, lived on the Richard Weigle farm at Dead Man’s Curve, near Monterey. Evelyn stated, “Many times we didn’t have a tree. Our first ‘little tree’ cost about 75 cents. It was placed on a table and trimmed with balls and tinsel. We also had a fireplace with doors. On Christmas Eve we hung paper chains with our names on them so Santa would know who we were. One year my brother received a farm set to play with. After he outgrew the farm set, we used the farm pieces – the barn and animals – and placed cotton on roofs and in the barnyard to create a winter scene on the living room floor. It was quite pretty.”
Anita Bastian, of Robesonia, raised on the Monterey farm in the 1930s, stated, “Mom knew how to shift and make do. She hunted a large bare tree branch, brought it in the house and covered it with cotton. It was then decorated with paper, popcorn and cranberry chains. We had a few store bought balls too.”
Jannetta Metz, of Emmaus, also raised on the Monterey farm, remembered, “There were no real gifts. Our parents just didn’t have the money with raising a family of ten. Pop always dressed up as Santa. He’d come through the kitchen door and throw oranges and nuts on the floor. We’d usually find candy in our long, cotton stockings we hung throughout the downstairs.”
Of the 40s era, after most of the five older children were raised, Gladys Bleiler, of Allentown, recalled this farm account. “In the earlier years, we still had a cotton tree branch on a table in the living room, but we did eventually bring in a real tree from our farm. Pop still played Santa, bringing oranges and nuts. I especially liked the hard animal candy we received. We all remember Mom always had big Christmas dinners, not just family, but our pastor and his wife as well. Mom played the piano and we’d all stand around singing Christmas carols.”
We have received our various customs for the Christmas tree from a variety of sources, from ancient Romans to Medieval Germans to our own parents. All of us can stand back admiringly at Christmas time, after decorating our trees, and remember the spiritual essence of the tradition. Just as Martin Luther affirmed that evergreens never loose their luster, even in the harsh winter months, neither does God’s love for us diminish.
Reprint: 1st NA Serial Rights to Family Digest 1994; 2012 War Cry; local 2008 Kutztown Historical Society newsletter. Carole Christman Koch grew up in Berks County and has been published in numerous publications. She has a passion for writing and has many stories from growing up on a farm to raising children to humorous stories about her and her husband to everyday stories to season stories and more.
