The tradition of the indoor winter tree emerged in Northern Europe, where towns from Latvia to Germany show evidence of the practice starting in the 15th century.
But the hallowed place of midwinter evergreens reaches even further, with Romans, Norsemen and Egyptians all bringing green boughs indoors as a way of fending off the winter-solstice blues.
By the 18th century, small household trees were common in Germany’s Rhineland. By the 19th century, the custom spread among the wealthy of Europe and Britain.
Many scholars credit George Ticknor, a wealthy Bostonian who had observed the custom in Dresden, Germany, with erecting the first tree in an American living room. The tree trend began to spread.
European trees were tabletop models, used to display a few modest gifts amid a candle or two. But in booming America, as gifts grew larger and more numerous, the tree moved to the floor and stretched toward the ceiling.
By the time of the Depression, the Christmas tree had become a fixture in most U.S. homes. Sizable growing operations sprang up in the upper Midwest timberlands, New England forests and the Pacific Northwest. (About 40 percent of American Christmas trees come from Oregon and Washington.)
In the 1950s, when U.S. tree growers were cutting millions of trees a year, North Carolina’s highland counties were scrabbling along without a blockbuster commodity. Other conifers were timbered, but the Fraser fir was ignored. It wasn’t even popular as a local Christmas tree.
But a few locals, along with some extension agents, began to ponder the Fraser’s broader yule utility. The tree was nearly ideal: strong branches, soft needles, a star-ready spiky top stem. But, mostly, the Fraser boasts a set of stomata, small respiratory holes on its needles that snap shut when the tree is cut. Fraser needles don’t dry out for weeks. Seattle Times
Recent Comments