91 Fun Facts About Christmas Tree

In which region did the modern Christmas tree custom first develop?

Central Europe and the Baltics: German settlers later carried the custom across the Atlantic to North America.

A 1539 record puts a Christmas tree inside which cathedral, then led by the reformer Martin Bucer?

Strasbourg: the city had turned Protestant in the Reformation, and in 1681 Louis XIV of France seized it.

Which guild in Tallinn and Riga put up holiday trees as early as 1441?

The Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild of unmarried merchants, set up trees in their guild houses in Tallinn from 1441 and in Riga by 1510; a 1584 chronicle describes young men dancing round the tree and setting it alight.

Which Protestant reformer is sometimes credited with first putting lighted candles on an evergreen tree?

Martin Luther is said to have added the candles, and electric Christmas lights later took their place.

An 1848 engraving of which royal family's tree made Christmas trees fashionable in Britain and America?

The Illustrated London News printed an engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's decorated tree at Windsor Castle in December 1848, and the fashion spread quickly through the British middle classes and across the Atlantic.

Which ornament do some American families hide on the Christmas tree for someone to find?

A pickle: whoever finds it first wins an extra present or good luck for the coming year.

The first known electric Christmas tree was lit in 1882 by a vice-president of whose company?

Thomas Edison: electric tree lights stayed too costly for most families at first, and they replaced candles on most trees only around 1930.

Modern tinsel was invented around 1610 in which German city?

Nuremberg: traditional tinsel was cut from tin-lead foil, heavy enough to hang straight, until lighter plastic strands took over.

The mould-blown glass bauble was invented in which small German town?

Lauscha: around 1880 the American retailer F. W. Woolworth began bringing its glass baubles to the United States for his stores.

What were the earliest German artificial Christmas trees made from?

Green-dyed goose feathers: as German forests dwindled, families made these wire-branched feather trees as a stand-in for real evergreens.

The 'Christmas Tree Ship' Rouse Simmons sank in a 1912 storm on which Great Lake?

Lake Michigan: everyone aboard was lost, but the captain's widow and daughters kept the family's Christmas tree business going for years.

Where were aluminium Christmas trees first manufactured in the United States, in 1958?

Aluminium trees were first made in Chicago in 1958; most were later produced in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the Aluminum Specialty Company, and the Charlie Brown TV special helped kill the fad.

In 1979, why was only the National Christmas Tree's star lit?

For the hostages in Iran: 50 smaller trees were lit, one for each hostage, and President Carter promised to light the rest when they came home.

Which president lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in 1923?

Calvin Coolidge: that first tree was a cut balsam fir, but from the next year living trees were lit instead, until 1953.

Builders started Rockefeller Center's tree tradition during which crisis?

The Great Depression: the construction workers pooled their money to buy that first small tree.

Which author's tale follows an evergreen that longs for Christmas, then is chopped up?

Andersen: left in a dark loft after Christmas, the fir finally sighs, 'Had I but rejoiced when I had reason to do so!'

Oslo's annual Trafalgar Square tree thanks Britain for support during which war?

World War II: King Haakon VII spent the German occupation in exile in Britain, returning home in June 1945.

Which composer's ballet is set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree?

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker's first performance was a failure, and the ballet only became a favourite years later.

Medieval 'paradise plays' used a fir hung with apples to stand for which tree?

The tree of knowledge: the plays were given on 24 December, the feast day of Adam and Eve, with apples for the forbidden fruit and wafers for the Eucharist.

Which pope introduced the Christmas tree to St Peter's Square?

John Paul II: the Polish-born pope started the tradition in 1982, and each year since, a different country or region has donated the tree.

What does the traditional tree topper represent, according to the Nativity story?

A star or angel topper stands for the Star of Bethlehem and the angel Gabriel respectively: the star guided the Magi to the stable, and Gabriel announced the birth, both in the Nativity story.

Around 723, Saint Boniface is said to have chopped down what, sacred to the god Donar?

A giant oak: its timber was reportedly used to build a church dedicated to Saint Peter on the spot.

Which 1965 special mocked aluminium Christmas trees?

A Charlie Brown Christmas: it cemented the shiny trees' reputation for bad taste, and by about 1967 their heyday was over.

Which fir, found in the wild only in the southern Appalachian Mountains, is widely grown as a Christmas tree?

Fraser fir: in the wild, an introduced insect, the balsam woolly adelgid, has killed large numbers of mature trees.

In Dr. Seuss's story, which little Who catches the Grinch taking her family's Christmas tree?

Cindy-Lou Who: the Grinch fobs her off with a crafty lie, then strips the other houses in Whoville of their trees too.

What is a chichilaki?

A chichilaki is a Georgian tree made of shaved hazelnut branches, dried and curled into strips; Georgians say it resembles the beard of Saint Basil, and it is burned before Epiphany to send off the old year's troubles.

What does Tannenbaum, as in the carol O Tannenbaum, mean in German?

The song began as a folk tune about the fir's faithfulness before it became a Christmas carol.

What were the earliest decorated German trees hung with?

Apples, nuts and sweets: early guild trees were hung with treats for apprentices and children to collect.

Which British Labour Party anthem is sung to the tune of 'O Tannenbaum'?

The Red Flag: its Irish writer, Jim Connell, had first set it to a different tune, a Jacobite anthem by Robert Burns.

Which is generally the cheapest, original Christmas tree species used in northern Europe?

Norway spruce: it is thought to have grown wild in the British Isles before the last Ice Age, and it was later reintroduced.

Firs became the most used Christmas tree genus mainly because of what?

They keep their needles: firs don't shed when they dry out, which is why the soft-needled Nordmann fir is now the most used Christmas tree.

What tiny stowaway was found inside the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020?

An owl: rescuers nicknamed the little saw-whet owl Rocky, short for Rockefeller, and after a few days of care released her into the wild.

What are most modern artificial Christmas trees made from?

Most modern artificial trees are made from PVC plastic, polyvinyl chloride cut into needle-like strips and wound onto wire branches, largely in Chinese factories; PVC is neither recyclable in ordinary schemes nor biodegradable.

Which country's tree stands in Boston every Christmas as a thank-you gift?

Canada: the province of Nova Scotia sends Boston the tree to thank the city for rushing help after the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

Which mountain light display in Italy is sometimes called the tallest Christmas tree in the world?

Mount Ingino: in 2014 Pope Francis switched the display on from the Vatican using a tablet, as Pope Benedict XVI had done in 2011.

According to tradition, it is unlucky to take the Christmas tree down before when?

Twelfth Night, 5 or 6 January, is the traditional deadline: taking the tree down earlier is said to bring bad luck, and some customs add that if you miss it you must leave the tree up until Candlemas in February.

Which native tree is known as New Zealand's Christmas tree?

Pōhutukawa: its crimson flowers peak around Christmas, but human activity and introduced pests such as possums have long threatened the tree.

Where in Quebec did Baroness von Riedesel put up a candlelit Christmas tree in 1781?

Sorel: Baron Riedesel was posted there with German troops whose services Britain had bought for the American War of Independence.

On the Soviet 'New Year spruce', introduced in 1935, what was the topper said to represent?

The Red Star: the tree had been condemned as a religious custom, until a Pravda letter by Pavel Postyshev in December 1935 called for its return.

On which feast day do Italians traditionally put up their Christmas tree?

The Immaculate Conception: families often set up the nativity scene that day too, in some traditions leaving the baby Jesus out until Christmas Eve.

Which queen is said to have put up Italy's first Christmas tree, at the Quirinal Palace in Rome?

Margherita of Savoy: from the royal palace, the German custom went on to spread into Italian homes during the 20th century.

The first brush-style artificial Christmas tree, made by Addis in 1930, used the same bristles as which bathroom item?

Toilet brushes lent the tree both their animal-hair bristles and their production method, with the hair simply dyed green. The bottle-brush look became a hit once post-war plastics arrived.

Which future spy novelist, then in naval intelligence, helped raise Trafalgar Square's first Norwegian Christmas tree?

Ian Fleming was among the officers who set up a tree that a Norwegian commando had brought back from a raid. The yearly gift from Oslo began five years later.

Which British prime minister joined the US president at the National Christmas Tree lighting of December 1941?

Winston Churchill had secretly crossed the Atlantic days earlier. He and his host stayed on the White House portico for the whole hour-long ceremony despite warnings that it was a security risk.

After the holidays, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree is milled into lumber and donated to which charity?

Habitat for Humanity has received the wood since 2007 and uses it in house building. The 1971 tree was the first to be recycled, ending up as mulch for Manhattan's nature trails.

In 1998 the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree made its journey from Ohio to Manhattan by which unusual means?

By cargo plane: the tree flew in aboard an Antonov An-124, then the world's second-largest transport aircraft. In most years it simply rides on a truck bed.

In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, which animal bursts out of the Griswolds' Christmas tree and wrecks the house?

A squirrel leaps out of the replacement tree Clark sets up after the first one burns. The trained animal hired for the scene died just before filming, so an untrained one was brought in at the last minute.

In which motorsport is the column of starting lights that counts drivers down known as the Christmas tree?

Drag racing starts every run with one. Each lane gets its own column of seven lights, stepping down through amber bulbs to a green one and a red one.

In Ukraine, Christmas trees traditionally carry small paper-and-wire ornaments shaped like which lucky creature?

Spiders earn their place through a folk tale in which they cover a poor widow's bare tree in webs overnight. Finding a real web on the tree counts as good luck in Ukraine, Germany and Poland.

Which singer recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree aged 13 and saw it reach US number one 65 years later?

Brenda Lee cut the song in 1958, and it finally topped the Hot 100 in December 2023. She was 78 by then, older than any artist who had led the chart before her.

In which Christmas film does a mother finally find her lost son beside the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree?

Home Alone 2 ends its search there because Kevin's mother remembers how much he loves Christmas trees. The production filmed on location at Rockefeller Center itself.

Which pop star raised on a Pennsylvania Christmas tree farm released the 2019 single Christmas Tree Farm?

Taylor Swift spent her early years on the farm and says she helped her father run it. Her family's home movies fill the music video, which she directed herself.

Which crystal maker's star, rebuilt in 2018 with three million crystals, tops the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree?

Swarovski's star weighs 900 pounds and carries 70 spikes. It was designed by the architect Daniel Libeskind.

Where in the White House does the official Christmas tree usually stand, with a chandelier removed to fit it?

The Blue Room gives the tree its other name, the Blue Room Christmas Tree. It stands nearly 20 feet tall and is donated each year by a grower who has won a national contest.

Which official, rather than the president, traditionally lights the Capitol Christmas Tree in Washington each December?

The Speaker of the House does the honours, joined by the winner of an essay contest. A Speaker also began the custom: John McCormack suggested a yearly tree in 1963.

In which sport is the 4–3–2–1 line-up, with one striker at the tip, nicknamed the Christmas tree formation?

Soccer coaches use it to crowd the middle of the pitch: two forwards sit just behind the striker, and the full-backs have to supply the width. AC Milan adopted the shape after 2006.

Before cheaper substitutes took over, Christmas tree tinsel was originally made from strands of which metal?

Silver gave the first tinsel its sparkle but tarnished quickly, so other shiny metals replaced it. Tinsel was added to trees to multiply the flicker of the candles.

Which American store chain made a fortune from the 1880s selling German glass Christmas tree ornaments?

Woolworth's founder discovered the baubles on a visit to Germany. The chain's sales of Christmas decorations alone went on to top $25 million.

From 1948 to 1951, which president lit the National Christmas Tree by remote control from his home in Missouri?

Harry Truman spent those Christmases in Independence, and attendance at the ceremony fell so far that organisers pleaded with him to come back. He lit the 1952 tree in person.

What is the name for spraying a Christmas tree with fluffy white fibres so that it looks dusted with snow?

Flocking took off on America's West Coast in the 1940s and 1950s after Hollywood films made white trees fashionable. Kits even let families apply it themselves with a vacuum cleaner.

Which German-born queen, wife of George III, decorated a Christmas tree for a children's party at Windsor in 1800?

Queen Charlotte set up the first known English Christmas tree at Queen's Lodge, Windsor. In her native Mecklenburg-Strelitz the custom had been to decorate a single yew branch.

Which US president grew Christmas trees on his Hyde Park estate and gave his occupation as tree farmer when voting?

Franklin Roosevelt called himself a tree farmer for 34 years and went on writing it on the voting register while he was in the White House. Christmas trees were one of several crops he raised.

Which greeting card maker began selling dated Keepsake Ornaments for the Christmas tree in 1973?

Hallmark Cards launched with just 18 ornaments, each design sold for one year only. By 1998 some 11 million American households were collecting them.

Why did American makers stop producing the heavy foil tinsel used on Christmas trees at the start of 1972?

It contained lead, which regulators judged an unnecessary risk to children. The foil had been prized because it never tarnished and draped better than the plastic that replaced it.

Since string lights could short-circuit on aluminium Christmas trees, what was placed on the floor to light them?

A color wheel turned in front of a lamp, so that shifting colours played across the foil branches. Some owners added a revolving tree stand to heighten the effect.

Which tree, widely grown on American Christmas tree plantations, is not a true fir despite its name?

Douglas fir sits in a separate genus, Pseudotsuga, and its hanging cones keep their scales, unlike those of true firs. It has been a common Christmas tree since the 1920s.

In Denmark, what does the family traditionally do at the Christmas tree after dinner on Christmas Eve?

Dance around it singing: the whole family circles the tree through a run of carols and hymns. Only when the singing ends are the presents under the tree handed out.

In Russia, which bearded gift-bringer leaves presents under the New Year tree, helped by his granddaughter Snegurochka?

Ded Moroz, literally Grandfather Frost, slips the gifts under the tree overnight on New Year's Eve rather than at Christmas. Costumed stand-ins also hand out presents at children's parties.

Which American women's magazine spread the Christmas tree in the 1850s with an engraving of a family around one?

Godey's Lady's Book had copied a European picture but removed a tiara and a moustache so the family would pass as American. It became the first widely circulated image of a decorated tree in America.

Which first lady began the tradition of giving the White House Christmas tree a decorative theme in 1961?

Jackie Kennedy's themed tree built on an earlier step: Lou Hoover had begun the custom of first ladies decorating the official tree in 1929. The theme has been the first lady's choice ever since.

By tradition, anyone who misses the first date for taking down the Christmas tree must wait for which February feast?

Candlemas falls on 2 February, the fortieth day of the Christmas season and its close in some churches. Custom treats it as the second and last chance to clear the decorations away.

In which industry is a 'Christmas tree' a stack of valves, spools and fittings that regulates flow through pipes?

Oil and gas crews fit one to the head of a well. A crude early version, three valves on a T-shaped pipe, was used to bring the Spindletop well under control.

The Christmas tree worm, named for its two spiral crowns, spends its adult life embedded in what?

Living coral grows over the worm's chalky tube and shields it. The colourful spirals that divers notice are organs for feeding and breathing.

Which Brazilian city is known for a giant Christmas tree built on a platform that floats around a lagoon?

Rio de Janeiro floats its tree on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, a stretch of water ringed by Ipanema, Leblon and Copacabana. The platform moves around the lagoon instead of staying moored.

In 1851 Catskills farmer Mark Carr hauled Christmas trees by ox sled to open America's first tree market in which city?

New York bought every tree he had brought down on his two sleds. Most American families still went on cutting their trees in the wild well into the twentieth century.

Which US state dropped its official song in 2021, an 1861 poem sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum?

Maryland gave up Maryland, My Maryland after more than ten attempts in 40 years to change it, and named no replacement. The melody is that of an old student song, Lauriger Horatius.

During the 1870s, which national flag became a fashionable Christmas tree topper as an empire grew in power?

The Union Jack crowned some trees as the British Empire expanded. Lit toppers came much later, when electrified versions went on sale in the mid-twentieth century.

Since 1970 the Capitol Christmas Tree has been cut each year from land managed by which federal agency?

The US Forest Service supplies the tree from one of the national forests. An earlier Capitol tree was a live one, which died after being battered by a wind storm in 1967.

Which Hungarian composer wrote Christmas Tree, a suite of twelve piano pieces dedicated to his granddaughter Daniela?

Franz Liszt wrote the suite in the 1870s and based several of its pieces on carols. It was first played on Christmas Day 1881 in his granddaughter's hotel room in Rome.

Christmas trees won wide popularity in Germany after the army placed them in barracks and hospitals during which war?

The Franco-Prussian War turned what had long been seen as a Protestant custom of the upper Rhineland into a national one, as soldiers met the tree in barracks and military hospitals.

Western Australia's Christmas tree, Nuytsia floribunda, gets most of its water by doing what to neighbouring plants?

Tapping their roots makes it a parasite and a relative of the mistletoes, though it grows as a full-sized tree. The festive name comes from its blaze of flowers at Christmas time.

On which saint's day, 13 January, do Swedes strip the Christmas tree of its sweets and take it down?

St. Knut's Day falls twenty days after Christmas, and Swedes mark it with a party whose name means Christmas tree plundering. The saint was a Danish duke murdered in 1131.

Fanny von Arnstein introduced the Christmas tree to which city in 1814, as diplomats there redrew the map of Europe?

Vienna took up the tree during its famous Congress, and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg made it fashionable. The custom spread across Austria in the years that followed.

In the old Polish custom called podłaźniczka, where was a decorated evergreen branch placed at Christmas time?

Suspended from the ceiling rafters, usually above the Christmas Eve dinner table, the branch was thought to bring a good harvest. German-style standing trees replaced it from the mid-1800s.

An 1820 version of the song O Tannenbaum was a complaint contrasting the tree's constancy with what?

A fickle maiden was the target: August Zarnack's text is a lover's complaint. Four years later Ernst Anschütz kept its first verse and added new ones that made it a Christmas song.

Which fir, native to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, is the favourite Christmas tree in most of Europe?

Nordmann fir is by far the most grown species in Denmark, a major exporter, where the growers' association has called its version the Rolls-Royce of trees.

The first National Christmas Tree, a balsam fir lit in Washington in 1923, was the gift of a college in which state?

Vermont's Middlebury College donated the 48-foot tree, and its alumni paid to send it by express. The lower branches were damaged on the way and had to be patched with cut boughs.

Which president, with his wife Caroline, is most credibly said to have put up the first White House Christmas tree?

Benjamin Harrison's tree stood in the upstairs oval parlour in about 1889. A rival claim for a president of the 1850s is thought weaker, and some later presidents had no tree at all.

Which German city builds its Christmas market 'tree', over 45 metres tall, from about 1,700 separate small trees?

Dortmund assembles trees from the Sauerland over about four weeks, then adds 48,000 lights and a four-metre figure on top.

Which US television network has broadcast the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree lighting live nationwide since 1997?

NBC first televised the lighting in 1951 on The Kate Smith Hour, but for decades only local viewers could watch. The Rockettes traditionally perform during the show.

What keeps the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree to about 100 feet, though its trailer can carry taller trees?

The narrow streets nearby cap the height, even though the custom telescoping trailer can carry a 125-foot tree. A 100-foot tree from Connecticut reached that height in 1999.