The history of the Christmas tree

The first documented use of a tree at Christmas comes from the town of Riga, capital of Latvia, in the year 1510. A reminder of this can be found on a plaque in the town square with “ The first new years tree in Riga 1950” engraved in 8 languages.

Not much is known about the tree, apart from that it was attended by men wearing black hats, and that after a ceremony they burnt the tree.
For thousands of years evergreen Fir trees has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals, yet nobody is really sure when they where first used as Christmas trees.
There’s lots of speculation and folklores regarding the origin of Christmas trees.

One such story implies that preacher Martin Luther was the first person to bring a Christmas tree into the house.
He apparantly walked through the forest on Christmas Eve and saw the stars shining through the tree branches, amazed by it’s beauty he returned home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus whom left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas.

Another story says that St. Boniface of Crediton left England and travelled to Germany to preach to the pagan German tribes and convert them to Christianity.
He is said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree.

In anger, and to stop the sacrifice, St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree.
St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith and his followers decorated the tree with candles so that St. Boniface could preach to the pagans at night.

In another legend, from Germany, a forester and his family were gathered round the fire one cold Christmas Eve when suddenly there was a knock on the door.
When the forester opened the door he found a boy on the doorstep, lost, cold and alone.
He welcomed the boy into their home, washed, fed and put him into his youngest son’s bed to settle in for the night.
The next morning, the family were woken to the sound of a choir of angels and the boy had turned into Jesus the Christ Child.
The Christ Child broke off a branch of a Fir tree in the garden and handed it to the family to thank them for looking after him.
Since then people remember that night by bringing a Christmas trees into their homes.

All though not sure of it’s origin, today families still gather round the Christmas tree where fond memories are made every year.