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Celebrating Christmas without a richly decorated Christmas Tree would not
seem right today. But why do we have a Christmas Tree, and how did it
originate? 
Back in the 7th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, traveled to
Germany to spread the Word of God. Legend has it that he used the
triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to the German people. The German people
started to revere the Fir Tree as "God's Tree". In the next 5 centuries, the
tree became a symbol of Christianity, and was being hung upside-down from
the ceiling as a sign of Christianity. 
The first known decorated Christmas Tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510.
Martin Luther decorated a small Christmas Tree in 1535 with candles for his
children, to show them how the stars twinkle through the night.
In the middle of the 16th century, Christmas started already to turn into a
business as the German people at the local market sold everything from
gifts, food and also more practical items such as knife grinders to sharpen
the knife to carve the Christmas Goose. At these fairs, bakers sold
gingerbreads and wax ornaments for souvenirs to take home for use to
decorate their Christmas Tree.
This has been recorded by a visitor to Strasbourg in 1601, which he stated:
"...a tree decorated with wafers and golden sugar-twists (Barley Sugar) and
paper flowers of all colors". Earlier trees were more biblically symbolized
as the "Paradise Tree in the Garden of Eden" -- the many food items were
symbols of Plenty, the flowers originally were only red (for Knowledge) and
white (for Innocence).
TinselTinsel were invented
in Germany around 1610. Only silver was used at that time and machines had
been invented to pull the silver into the wafer strips for tinsel. Later
they attempted to use a mixture of led and tin to eliminate the tarnishing
of the silver, especially with candlelight. This attempt failed as the
tinsel became to heavy and branches started to break under the weight.
Therefore, silver was used for tinsels right up to the mid-20th century.
The First English TreesThe
first Christmas Tree came to England with the Georgian Kings who came from
Germany. At the same time, German Merchants living in England decorated
their homes with Christmas Trees. The British people were not found of the
German Monarchy, did not copy the fashions at Court, which is why the
Christmas Tree did not establish in Britain at this time. Although, a few
British families did have Christmas Trees, probably more from influence of
their German neighbours than from the Royal Court.
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