Guest column: the symbolic tradition of Christmas trees dates back several centuries

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By all accounts, the Christmas custom of cutting down a small evergreen tree, placing it inside the house, and decorating it began in Germany in the early 16th century.

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According to religious folklore, the Christian reformer Martin Luther installed a “Christ tree” in his home on Christmas 1536.

Over the following centuries, this “Christbaum” decorated with fruits, sweets and lighted candles grew beyond religion to represent “Gemütlichkeit”, which means a joyful mood, personal peace of mind and a social mix of food, drink and music. .

The custom of the Christmas tree spread to neighboring countries such as Denmark in 1808, Austria in 1816, and France in 1840. In 1841, 22-year-old Queen Victoria of Great Britain adopted her German husband’s tradition of setting up and decorating a Christmas tree, a custom soon copied by the nation emulating its popular queen and her royal family.

The Christmas tree tradition was introduced to Canada in 1781 when General Friedrich Riedesel and his Baroness wife, hired with their regiment of German soldiers to protect the British colony in Quebec against possible attack by the Americans during the Revolutionary War, entertained the guests in the city of Sorel. with a Christmas tree decorated with fruits and candles.

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Throughout the 1800s, German and Scandinavian immigrants to Canada brought their Old World customs with them, and the rite of decorating an evergreen with sweets and small gifts soon spread to churches, schools, and town halls.

These popular places provided most people in the 19th century with their first view of an ornate Christmas tree.

For example, a Sunday school congregation in Kingsville in 1871 offered “dialogues, recitations, and vocal and instrumental music” from students, in addition to what was described as a prominent feature, “a Christmas tree, laden with prizes and gifts for the scholars. “

In late 1877, Walkerville Sunday School students were enthralled “when three Christmas trees [were] exposed, the central one reserved for the usual decorations, and the sides loaded with gifts for children ”.

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Little by little, the general public adopted the concept of installing a Christmas tree inside every home. This was easily accomplished in places like Ontario where evergreen forests were abundant.

The Windsor Evening Record of December 26, 1894 wrote: “That Christmas tree in the corner is the mainspring of the machinery of a happy home,” indicating how important this custom had become locally.

In the late 1900s, newspaper accounts of tree ornaments made it clear that “china, wooden toys, and blown glass Christmas tree ornaments” had replaced sweets, fruit, and small gifts. At the time, grocery stores in Windsor-Essex were advertising Christmas trees for sale.

A major problem with Christmas trees remained for many years. The candles in the trees and their attraction to young people with matches caused many fires in the houses each year. In late 1914, the newspaper again warned: “… It should be the duty of a person to keep an eye on the candles, that instant action can be taken if the tree catches fire …”

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The first electric Christmas tree lights, developed in the 1890s, were well beyond the price range of the average family. Affordable electric string lights finally appeared in the 1920s. Windsor’s Border Cities Star announced sets of eight lights in late 1919 for “$ 4.50 and up,” still expensive at a time when the median weekly wage was $ 12.

The price gradually fell; in 1921 it was $ 3.50, $ 2.25 in 1928, $ 1.25 in 1929 and $ 0.98 in 1930.

In 1938, more than four million Christmas trees were cut in Canada and exported to the US, “And millions more were used within the Domain.”

But in 1939, despite the start of World War II, the price of Christmas trees in Ontario rose from half a dollar the previous year to $ 1 to $ 1.75 due to increased demand and the mild climate that turned many evergreen areas in swamps, making them largely inaccessible.

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Despite the war, more than six million trees were cut by Christmas 1941, and all were exported or sold. Although the war caused a shortage of glass Christmas tree ornaments made in Germany and Japan, the people of Ontario used substitutes, including popcorn, to decorate their trees.

In 1945, after the end of the war, the Windsor Daily Star clearly titled “Christmas tree farming is good business.” Lots of folks in Windsor jumped into that line of work, with 60 licenses obtained for operating Christmas tree lots.

In the early 1950s, when consumer prices for trees ranged from $ 1.25 to $ 6 each (and were bought in bulk between $ 0.25 and $ 1 each), backyards and vacant residential lots they were used as commercial Christmas tree sites despite zoning regulations prohibiting it.

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With the millions of Christmas trees cut down in Canada each year impacting early environmentalists, it was only a matter of time before artificial trees were announced.

An early recognition of the advantages of artificial trees appeared on the Windsor Star in late 1957, but prices reached as high as $ 198. Mass production and acceptance quickly lowered the price.

The day after Christmas 1961, a Windsor news story reported low sales of actual Christmas trees with hundreds of leftovers. The growing popularity of reusable artificial trees, which then averaged $ 15 each, was blamed.

At the end of 1972, Windsor issued only six permits to sell natural Christmas trees and grocery stores re-sold them without the need for a special license.

Today, just over half of all Christmas trees in use are artificial, but regardless of their composition, a decorated tree remains the most visible, recognized and joyous symbol of the Christmas season.

Windsor author Cris Kohl and his wife, Joan Forsberg, wrote The Christmas Tree Ship, which includes chapters on the history of Christmas trees.