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Summary
- For Christians the Christmas tree stands for the life Christ brings: an evergreen that stays green in winter, a reminder of the tree of life and the cross, and a tree of lights for the one who said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).
- The Bible never mentions the Christmas tree, and Jeremiah 10:3–5 describes a carved idol, not a Christmas tree.
- The US Catholic bishops trace the custom to the medieval plays that showed the tree of paradise, and in old church calendars 24 December was the day of Adam and Eve.
- The first clear description of a decorated tree in a home comes from Strasbourg in 1605: fir trees hung with paper roses, apples, wafers and sweets.
- The claims for Riga in 1510 and Tallinn in 1441 are disputed, and the stories that Saint Boniface or Martin Luther started the custom are legends.
- Queen Victoria’s tree, printed in the Illustrated London News in 1848, made the custom popular in Britain, and since 1982 a tree has stood in St Peter’s Square in Rome.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), quoted from BibleGateway: Genesis 2:9; Genesis 3:24; Jeremiah 10:3–5; Ezekiel 17:22; John 1:5; John 8:12; Romans 14:5; 1 Peter 2:24; Revelation 2:7; Revelation 22:2.
- Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912), chapter 11, “The Christmas-tree, Decorations, and Gifts”, Project Gutenberg.
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Blessing of a Christmas Tree“.
- Pope John Paul II, Angelus, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 19 December 2004, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
- Medievalists.net, “Where and when was the first Christmas tree?” (11 December 2023), drawing on Bernd Brunner, Inventing the Christmas Tree (Yale University Press, 2012).
- LSM, Latvian Public Broadcasting, “Baltic states battle it out for Xmas tree supremacy” (24 December 2015).
- Sélestat Haut-Koenigsbourg tourist office, “Exhibition: 1521, the Christmas tree tradition“.
- Royal Collection Trust, “A Royal Christmas“.
- Royal Collection Trust, Carl August Schwerdgeburth, “Dr. Martin Luther in Kreise seiner Familie zu Wittenberg am Christabend, 1536“, engraving dated 1843, RCIN 755032.
- Francesca Merlo, “Christmas tree set up in St. Peter’s Square“, Vatican News (22 November 2018).
- Willibald, The Life of St. Boniface, chapter 6, translated by C. H. Talbot (1954), Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University.
- Henry van Dyke, “The First Christmas Tree” (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897), reprinted in Short Stories for High Schools (1915), Project Gutenberg.
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