The writer’s eight-metre-high Romanian pine tree.
DECEMBER 25 marks the birth of the Christ child Jesus in many of the Christian churches and, as the shepherds and the Magi brought gifts to the child born in a lowly stable, so we give gifts to our family and dear friends, either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
For younger children, they are delivered by Santa Claus as he makes his remarkable worldwide journey, regardless of time zones, around our planet, calling at each household and leaving the presents under the Christmas tree. How he remembers where each of us lives seems like a miracle to me!
Today, most people of whatever faith treasure their Christmas tree brightly illuminated and whatever our beliefs, Christmas time provides a well-earned break from the working day. Indeed, it is a holiday and Holy Day! Worldwide real Christmas trees or artificial ones decorate homes.
My childhood was spent in the far depths of Southwest Cornwall in England where we had a traditional ‘Cornish’ holly tree decorated with unlit candles and post war baubles for we could never afford a real spruce tree. My mother took it upon herself every Christmastide to climb nearby hedges to choose a suitable holly tree and my sister and I would carry it home. It was a few years later that an aunt gave us, as a Christmas present, a set of electric lights depicting nursery rhymes on their little shades. The following year we thought that our Christmas tree was the bees’ knees.
Origins of the Cornish Christmas holly tree
Evergreen holly trees are native to the Mediterranean countries and particularly on the island of Sicily. It was on Dec 13 in 303 AD that Santa (Saint) Lucia (Lucy) was martyred for bringing food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs in Syracuse in southern Sicily, whilst lighting her way there with a candlelit wreath on her head. Santa Lucia Day on Dec 13 each year is celebrated in Swedish churches with a candlelit wreath adorning a young girl’s head and a procession of youngsters behind her welcoming in Christmastide.
I can only surmise that it was a host of Christian missionaries that brought the faith to Cornwall and converted the pagan people and druids to Christianity. With a semi-tropical climate, holly trees grow well in the far southwest of that county.
The writer’s Cornish five-metre-high Holly tree.
Today, I have a five-metre-high Cornish holly tree and an eight-metre-high Romanian pine tree growing in my back garden in Somerset. The holly tree came from a sapling in my late mother’s garden in Cornwall and the pine tree my late wife brought back as a 2.5cm sapling after our visit to the Transylvanian Alps in Romania one year after the communist dictator, Ceausescu was deposed.
Brief history of the modern Christmas tree
Long before the arrival of Christianity, pagan Europeans used to decorate evergreen trees as an appeasement to their gods during midwinter festivals. Ancient Egyptians brought green palm rush leaves to their temples to worship the god Ra and the Romans decorated their temples during the festival of Saturnalia with holly, ivy, and mistletoe.
It is thought that the evergreen fir tree became a symbol of Christianity through the actions of the English Benedictine monk St Boniface. Whilst spreading the Gospel amongst the Germanic tribes in the eighth century, he witnessed the sacrifice of goats and children before a ‘sacred’ oak tree in honour of their god Thor. He immediately took an axe to the sacred oak and felled it. Whilst the pagans waited for St Boniface to be struck by lightning for desecrating the oak tree, he set about converting them.
Legend has it that behind the fallen oak a young small fir tree was growing, and St Boniface saw its triangular shape as a symbol of the Holy Trinity and the start of a new life for those he converted with the tree’s apex pointing towards heaven.
It was not until the 16th century that German Lutheran Christians brought fir or pine trees into their homes at Christmastime and decorated them with apples, nuts, and gingerbread. The German protestant reformer Martin Luther is accredited with this. He added lighted candles to his family’s Christmas tree with a replica of the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem affixed to the top of the trunk.
The first indoor Christmas tree in the UK appeared at a party for children given by Queen Charlotte in 1800. Of German descent, one of her children was Queen Victoria who, married to her German Prince Consort Albert, celebrated their family Christmas with a decorated pine tree. From then the tradition took off.
Photo shows the writer’s indoors Norwegian spruce decorated Christmas tree.
Christmas trees today
There are over 30 species of so-called Christmas trees used in homes at Christmastide but in Europe the Norway spruce (Picea abies) and the Nordmann fir (Abies nordmanniana) are preferred for the latter does not drop its needles but is more expensive particularly with its roots attached. It can be transplanted and used from year to year. The resinous scent of both types of trees makes my Christmas.
It is estimated that in the UK, 66 per cent of households display artificial trees, which can be used from year to year. Artificial Christmas trees are nothing new for they were first manufactured in Germany during the 19th century consisting of dyed green goose feathers. Today, of course, they are often made of optical fibres.
Atmospheric pollution issues
Debates abound worldwide as to whether in purchasing a cut down tree we are depriving our atmosphere from a natural carbon dioxide storer or using an artificial tree creates problems with that tree’s disposal. My local council ‘bin men’ take away cut trees and they are converted into animal fodder. I trim off the branches for the waste disposal people to take away and leave the trunk to dry off for a year before using it as kindling wood to light my wood burning stove.
It has always been a source of joy for my family to buy, erect, and decorate our Christmas tree to last for the twelve days of Christmas and with some sadness to take it down. However, vacuuming up the fallen needles has always been a real chore lasting until Eastertime!
Many local town councils in the UK have a large Christmas tree in their market squares or outside municipal buildings with the official turning on the lights as a splendid event supported by carol singing with the music played by the local brass or silver band or the Salvation Army. Many of the huge trees in some British cities have been donated by Norwegian cities as a tribute to the efforts of British soldiers in Norway and the hospitality accorded to Norwegian refugees during World War 2.
May you, whatever your religious persuasion, and whether you see the birth of Jesus Christ in the Holy Trinity or as a prophet of God, enjoy your Christmas Holiday. I wish all readers and my dear friends in Malaysia, my former teaching colleagues, and all students in Sarawak, and especially to the editors and all staff of the celebrated The Borneo Post, ‘All Good Seasons Blessings and a Very Happy Christmas’.