50 Fun Facts About Christmas Tree

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

Protestant Christians in Germany and Livonia, now Estonia and Latvia, were the first to bring decorated trees indoors.

The earliest record of a Christmas tree in a church is from 1539 in which cathedral?

The 1539 tree stood in Strasbourg Cathedral, then in Protestant hands under the reformer Martin Bucer; a 1605 Strasbourg account is also the earliest description of decorated indoor Christmas trees.

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?

A popular legend credits Martin Luther with adding lighted candles to an evergreen after seeing stars through fir branches; Moravian Christians later made candlelit trees common, before electric lights took over.

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.

What did Godey's Lady's Book remove from the royal Christmas tree picture when it reprinted it?

Godey's Lady's Book reprinted the Windsor engraving in 1850 with the queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache removed, turning a royal scene into an all-American family Christmas.

Who created the first known electrically lit Christmas tree, at his New York home in 1882?

Edward Hibberd Johnson, a vice-president of Edison's electric company, lit the first electric Christmas tree at his New York home in December 1882, with hand-blown red, white and blue bulbs made specially for it.

How many bulbs were on that first electric Christmas tree of 1882?

Edward Johnson's 1882 tree carried 80 hand-wired bulbs, coloured red, white and blue and about the size of walnuts, on a stand that revolved.

Modern tinsel was invented around 1610 in which German city, and made from what?

Tinsel was invented around 1610 in Nuremberg, from shredded silver; because silver tarnished too quickly, cheaper shiny metals and later synthetic strands took its place.

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

Lauscha, a glassmaking town in Thuringia, produced the first glass baubles: Hans Greiner started with garlands of glass beads and tin figures, and the town's artisans, using clay moulds, grew into a whole ornament industry.

What were the earliest German artificial Christmas trees made from?

Germany's first artificial trees, from the 1880s, were made of green-dyed goose feathers fixed to wire branches, a response to deforestation caused by Christmas tree cutting.

The first artificial tree made from brush bristles was created in 1930 by a British company known for making what?

The Addis Brush Company, a British maker of toilet brushes, built the first brush-bristle artificial tree in 1930 using the same animal-hair bristles and machinery as its brushes, only dyed green.

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.

Which US president put up the first Christmas tree in the White House, in 1889?

Benjamin Harrison put up a candlelit tree for his grandchildren in 1889, the first documented White House Christmas tree; Grover Cleveland's 1895 tree was the first there with electric lights.

The National Christmas Tree near the White House has been a tradition since which year?

President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in 1923, and the December lighting grew into one of the biggest annual events at the White House.

The famous Rockefeller Center tree in New York has been a tradition since which year?

Rockefeller Center's tree became an official annual tradition in 1933, two years after construction workers put up a small unofficial tree in 1931; it is usually a giant spruce between 69 and 100 feet tall.

Roughly how many lights are hung on the Rockefeller Center tree?

About 50,000 multicoloured LED lights on some five miles of wire cover the Rockefeller Center tree, strung by workers on scaffolding; the star on top, redesigned in 2018 by Daniel Libeskind, is covered in Swarovski crystals.

The city of Oslo has given London a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square every year since when?

Oslo has sent London a spruce for Trafalgar Square every year since 1947, as thanks for Britain's support of Norway during World War II, when the exiled King Haakon VII lived in London.

How old is the giant spruce that Oslo sends to Trafalgar Square, typically?

The Trafalgar Square spruce is typically 50 to 60 years old and more than 20 metres tall, chosen from Oslo's forests years in advance and felled in a November ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Westminster.

The tree of paradise in medieval mystery plays, a possible Christmas tree ancestor, was staged on which date?

Paradise plays were staged on 24 December, the feast day of Adam and Eve in the medieval calendar, with a fir standing in for the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.

The Vatican did not put up its first Christmas tree until which year?

Pope John Paul II introduced the first Vatican Christmas tree in St Peter's Square in 1982; because the custom had grown up among Lutherans, the Catholic Church was a late adopter.

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.

A legend from the year 723 has Saint Boniface chopping down what to end a pagan sacrifice?

Saint Boniface felled Donar's Oak, a giant oak sacred to pagan Germanic tribes near Fritzlar, in 723; later versions of the legend add that a fir grew in its place, its triangular shape standing for the Trinity.

The phrase 'Charlie Brown Christmas tree' comes from a TV special first shown in which year?

A Charlie Brown Christmas first aired on CBS on 9 December 1965; its scrawny real tree is also blamed for ending the aluminium-tree craze.

Which fir, grown in the mountains of North Carolina, has been called the Cadillac of Christmas Trees?

The Fraser fir, grown in North Carolina's high mountains, is nicknamed the Cadillac of Christmas Trees for its sturdy upturned branches and pleasant scent, and is among the most popular and valuable Christmas tree species in North America.

Which US state grows more Christmas trees than any other?

Oregon grows more Christmas trees than any other US state, several million a year, mostly Douglas and noble firs from the Willamette Valley; North Carolina, with its Fraser firs, ranks second.

About how long does a Christmas tree grow on a farm before it is cut?

A farmed Christmas tree takes about ten years to reach a six- to seven-foot height, though fast-growing species manage it in seven; almost all US trees now come from farms, with a new tree planted for each one cut.

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?

The earliest German trees carried homemade ornaments such as apples, nuts and straw stars; a 1570 Bremen guild chronicle lists apples, nuts, dates and pretzels, with sweets for the apprentices coming next in the guild halls.

Which German immigrant to Wooster, Ohio, cut a blue spruce in 1847 and had a tinsmith make a star for it?

August Imgard, a German immigrant to Wooster, Ohio, decorated his 1847 blue spruce with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and Kuchen beneath a tinsmith's star, and Wooster credits him with Ohio's first Christmas tree.

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

Norway spruce, Picea abies, is the original and cheapest Christmas tree species in northern Europe; it has since lost ground to the pricier Nordmann fir, the bestseller in Britain and Denmark.

Why did firs become the most commonly used Christmas tree genus in the 21st century?

Firs such as the Nordmann and Fraser became the most used genus because they do not shed their needles when they dry out, and they also keep good colour and scent indoors.

What do most council and city tree-recycling programmes turn real Christmas trees into?

Most tree-recycling schemes chip collected Christmas trees into mulch and wood chips for parks and gardens; whole trees are also sunk in lakes as fish habitat or staked on beaches to hold dunes against erosion.

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's province of Nova Scotia sends Boston a tree every year, a tradition made annual in 1971, in gratitude for the city's help after the Halifax Explosion of December 1917.

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

The Gubbio tree is drawn in hundreds of lights across the slope of Mount Ingino above the Umbrian town, stretching more than half a kilometre up the mountainside; Guinness listed it in 1991 as the world's largest Christmas tree.

What restriction in 1933 turned Christmas tree growing into a real industry in Britain?

A limit on importing foreign trees, imposed in 1933, forced Britain to grow its own and turned Christmas tree farming into an industry; within eighty years around eight million trees a year were being grown in Britain.

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.

Since the 20th century, where have most Christmas trees in Britain come from?

Most British Christmas trees come from commercial tree farms, which took over from wild forest cutting during the 20th century; Nordmann fir and Norway spruce are the main farmed species.

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

Baroness von Riedesel, wife of the general commanding the German garrison troops, decorated a fir with candles and fruit for a Christmas party for officers at Sorel, Quebec, in 1781, often cited as North America's first Christmas tree.

The earliest firmly dated image of a Christmas tree, from 1576, is carved where?

The 1576 carving is a house keystone in Alsace, above the door of a private home in Turckheim, then in the Holy Roman Empire and now in France, and shows a decorated fir.

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

On the 1935 New Year spruce the Red Star, five-pointed and Soviet, replaced the Star of Bethlehem as topper; secular ornaments such as cosmonauts, rockets and bicycles followed, and New Year became the bigger winter holiday for Russians.

Newcastle upon Tyne's civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from which Norwegian city?

Bergen, twinned with Newcastle since 1968, sends the civic tree each year in gratitude for the city's support during the Second World War; Norway also sends a separate tree to Washington, D.C. each year.

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

Italians traditionally put up the tree on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December, though Milan starts a day early on Saint Ambrose's day, the 7th, and Bari on Saint Nicholas's day, the 6th; trees stay up until Epiphany.

What nickname is given to the Christmas tree placed outside the US Capitol each year?

The US Capitol Christmas Tree, nicknamed The People's Tree, has been cut from a different national forest each year since 1970 and stands on the Capitol's West Lawn, separate from the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse.

Which species is by far the most common Christmas tree in Australia?

The Monterey pine, Pinus radiata, a Californian native grown widely in Australian timber plantations, is by far the most common Christmas tree there; some Australians instead pot up a native Albany woolly bush.

The Macy's Great Tree has been lit every year since 1948 in which US city?

The Great Tree has been lit in Atlanta every Thanksgiving night since 1948, first atop the Rich's department store downtown and later at Macy's Lenox Square.

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

Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of Umberto I, put up Italy's first Christmas tree at the Quirinal Palace in the late 19th century; ordinary Italian families adopted the custom only in the 1960s, often using cypress, oak or cork branches.

Why were upside-down artificial Christmas trees originally introduced?

Upside-down artificial trees were introduced as a retail gimmick to show ornaments: hanging them from the ceiling let shoppers get closer to the baubles for sale and freed floor space for more stock.