All over social media today, there are a plethora of posts claiming that the Christmas tradition of decorating an evergreen tree has pre-Christian “pagan” origins. But how truthful is this claim?
The most common claims about the pagan origins of the Christmas tree lie in either the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which also fell in late December or the polytheistic ancient Germanic festival of Yule, also celebrated during winter. However, according to Dr. Laszlo Lukacs, the earliest evidence of Christmas trees appears much later in history. Forest management records (I know, captivating) from Southwest Germany in the 1300s detail rules allowing citizens to collect a certain amount of wood around Christmastime. One record from the town of Saint-Hippolyte even documents a judge banning entry to the forest for nine days because people were stealing trees. While this is not direct evidence of the Christmas trees we know today, it does suggest an increasing association of conifer trees with the holiday season.
It was not until 1419, in the German city of Freiburg, that a guild of bakers documented seeing a tree decorated with apples, wafers, gingerbread, and tinsel in the local hospital. It was during the 15th century that the practice of decorating a tree for Christmas exploded in popularity across Central Europe. Records indicate the presence of Christmas trees as far as the Baltic Sea. In 1431, the city of Adelsheim issued an edict limiting the cutting of Christmas trees to a height of seven feet. The mass cultivation of Christmas trees was heavily sponsored by merchant guilds, from which the tradition spread to families and private households.
Some scholars, such as Bernd Brunner, suggest inspiration from the Maypoles of popular May Day celebrations around Europe. Indeed, the Early New High German word for tree, bom, could also be used to mean “pole.” The popularity of the tree in the Early Modern Period caused controversy, enduring attacks from the German Protestant theologian Johann Conrad Dannhauer, who claimed it distracted from the true meaning of Christmas. Some claims suggest inspiration from popular creation myth plays, which depicted the famous biblical story of the Garden of Eden, highlighting the presence of apples on Christmas trees.
But how did the tree make its way to the English-speaking world? During the reign of King George III (yes, the one from Hamilton), his German wife, Charlotte, began decorating the palace with Christmas trees, quickly becoming popular among the British. German migrants to the Americas also brought their Christmas tree traditions with them, and the holiday evergreen eventually took its place in the pantheon of American culture.
