   Christmas Tree Traditions - December 19, 2007 Jeff Schalau, Associate Agent, Agriculture & Natural Resources, Arizona Cooperative Extension, Yavapai County People have glorified trees in deference to winter holidays for millennia. These decorated trees can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with shiny metal sun symbols, stars, and faces of the god Janus during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture. Originally, Saturnalia was celebrated to mark the winter solstice. It was an occasion for celebration, visits to friends, and the presentation of gifts, particularly wax candles, perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice. Home interiors were decorated with greenery – swathes, garlands, and wreathes. The indoor Christmas tree is a German tradition and they were first sold in Alsace in 1531. Alsace was at that time a part of Germany. Today it is part of France. The trees were sold at local markets and set up in homes undecorated. Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Of course, this is disputed by some historians which maintain that the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Martin Luther's death in 1546. The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg, France (Germany in 1605). The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies. In Austria & Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper. The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania. By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom. Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States. Today, while some trees are harvested from the wild, 98% of commercially sold Christmas trees are farmed in plantations. The average Christmas tree farm starts with about 2,000 trees per acre. On an average 1,000-1,500 of these trees will survive. Almost all trees require periodic shearing to attain the Christmas tree shape. At six to seven feet, trees are ready for harvest. It takes six to ten years before a mature Christmas tree can be harvested. In the U.S., there are over 21,000 Christmas tree growers and are grown in all 50 states. The best selling trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine. In 2002, 21% of United States households had a real tree, 48% had an artificial tree and 32% did not have a tree. Christmas tree growers are like other agricultural producers and nurseries that produce a crop for a group of consumers. The American Christmas Tree Association (www.christmastree.org) has created a list of fun facts between real and artificial Christmas trees. First, 85% of all artificial Christmas trees come from China and are constructed from non-biodegradable materials. Live Christmas trees come from Canada and the U.S. and are biodegradable. In fact, many communities have set up recycling programs specifically for Christmas trees where they are shredded and turned into mulch. The University of Arizona Cooperative Extension has publications and information on gardening and pest control. If you have other gardening questions, call the Master Gardener line in the Cottonwood office at 646-9113 ext. 14 or E-mail us at cottonwoodmg@yahoo.com and be sure to include your address and phone number. Find past Backyard Gardener columns or submit column ideas at the Backyard Gardener web site: http://cals.arizona.edu/yavapai/anr/hort/byg/. |