Christmas Tree Decorations
Why do we decorate our Christmas Trees?
The habit is one most likely inherited from the ancient Egyptians who used to decorate their homes with palm tree fronds in the days of the astrological winter. The habit was then adopted by the Romans that used conifer trees native to their homeland instead of palm trees.
But the story really begins around the time of the 7th century when a monk from Devonshire in England came to Germany to teach the word of the Lord. Legend has it that he used the triangular form of the conifer tree to symbolize religious meanings. In 12th century Europe it appears that it was customary to hang the Christmas tree upside down on Christmas day, hanging down from the ceiling!
It appears that decorations were first added to the tree at Riga in 1510. At the beginning of the 16th century, M. Luther decorated the tree with candles to suggest to his children the sparkling of the stars in the sky.
Around the middle of the 16th century, in Germany, the first markets specializing in selling presents for Christmas appeared. The markets usually sold food or objects of practical use.
Christmas decorations that were meant to suggest snow were invented in Germany in 1610. At that time not only they were silvery in colour, but they were also made out of silver. There were machines invented especially to make thin silver strings for the tree. Silver lasted a long time but it oxidized very quickly, so they tried to add cooper and zinc to form an alloy, but the product was so heavy that it just broke under the of his own weight. So silver was used till the middle of the 20th century.
In Great Britain, the Christmas tree was brought by merchants and travellers that originated from Germany and settled in England. Christmas trees were decorated with silver ornaments, candles and pearl-like ribbons that were made in Germany and Eastern Europe at the time. The custom was that every family member or invited person had to have a little tree placed on the table in front of him, with the presents beside it.
In 1846, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – both born in Germany - appear in "Illustrated London News", along with their children, all around a Christmas tree. The popularity of the Royal Family resulted in this custom spreading quickly among the people. The tree became a fashion statement not only in Britain, but also on the eastern coast of America.
There was a great variey in decorations being used to adorn Christmas trees at the time. Decorations were mostly home made because they were expensive at the time. Young ladies spent hours cutting paper snowflakes and stars, folding envelopes for present and paper supports for candy.
In America, the Christmas tree first appeared around 1747, in German communities settled in Pennsylvania, but it was not until the development of better communications systems in the middle part of the 19th century that Christmas trees became more widespread.
spreads only along with the development of communications, at the middle of the 19th century.
In 1882 Edison invented the electric light bulb and around 10 years later, light bulbs began to be used for decorating Christmas trees.
And so, we get to our present trees where decorations are really only limited by one's imagination with an ingenious and creative range of materials being used to beautify our trees.
Read more here on buying christmas lights for your Christmas tree
