  | Christmas Trees | |||
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Victorian and Medieval... right up to the present day | ||||
The question of when you put up your tree and when you put it down is really up to you. It's something that a lot of people have an opinion on - and we're no different!
The
first
is the
story that St Boniface
while converting the heathens cut down Thor's oak and a small The second also concerns St Boniface, who is said to have taught the concept of the Trinity to those he was trying to convert (in modern-day Bavaria), using the triangular shape of the tree. This is also a late addition to the Boniface legend, but it has a plausible ring to it in terms of down-to-earth theological teaching and may very well be a later custom given added authority by associating it with the original apostle to Bavaria.
The
fourth piece of the jigsaw from the medieval period can be found in
brief twelfth century accounts, again from Germany, of fir trees being
hung upside down in houses as Christmas decorations. Finally, In
reality what we are looking at
during this
phase of development is a number of possibly unconnected traditions
surrounding the evergreen tree, of which to me the most convincing are
the Paradise Tree plays and the homely explanation of the Trinity,
which then converged towards the end of the middle ages, when something
resembling a Christmas Tree tradition seems likely to have begun. At
some point,
this popular tradition of the fir tree was added back into the legend
of
St Boniface, who enjoyed a high status as the missionary to the
Germans. Boniface's renowned missionary activities may be the cause of
extravagant claims of pagan origins for the Christmas Tree. The
later history of the Christmas tree is more straightforward. The city
of Riga in
Latvia claims to have erected the first Christmas tree in
1510, some forty years before the supposed date of the less reliable
legend of Martin Luther
decorating a Christmas tree with candles. By
the 1600s there are accounts of Towards the end of this time those same German Lutherans brought the tradition with them to the United States which, along with Prince Albert's introduction of the tradition to England in 1846, led to its vast popularity in the English-speaking world as well as in central Europe. Now most people I suspect follow the custom as an essential part of their Christmas traditions. And the options for decorating the tree seem more diverse than ever, with all previous traditions available to us to choose from. There's also a pretty free choice about when to put up the tree - and of course, when to take it and the other decorations down.
There's no need for you to follow any rules over this, unless you're the sort of person who finds rules fun. There are two main factors which need to be kept in mind. The first is the perennial choice between an artificial tree and a real tree. The second is whether you see the 25th of December as the end of Christmas or the first day of the festival, even the full twelve days to the 6th of January. Speaking personally, there's nothing quite like a real tree. Just the fragrance of a pine tree in your front room helps us make the decision. The needle issue puts some people off, but there's no need for that. A good tip for a real tree is to order it a week or so before you plan to put it up inside. Keep it in your back garden with the base in a bucket of water for this time. If you do this and then remember to water it once it's in the house, it should last for a good two weeks or twelve days. There are three particularly good choices in late December for putting up your tree: 21st December - Midwinter; or the weekend before Christmas, when hopefully the whole family can be there; or maybe even Christmas Eve for those who really like to wait!
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What
is known for certain about the Christmas Tree in Britain is that it was
introduced by Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert. We can also say
that he didn't invent the tradition but rather drew upon older
continental customs, which is where things get a bit less clear. How
far these customs go back is anyone's guess. The stories below are
those that have grown up around the customs of putting up and
decorating a tree at Christmas. The Christmas Tree is of course just
one of the 
pine tree was found growing from the remains of the sacred tree. This
was seen as a symbolic reference to rebirth as well as to the infant
Christ. From this newborn tree came the connection with Christmas. This
appears
to have been a later addition to the legend. The tree-cutting is
described in the earliest account, Willibald's Life of Boniface
(754-768), but this source has no reference to the fir tree, stating
that the oak fell into four pieces in the shape of the cross and the
saint went on to build a chapel to St Peter from the wood.
although
it's a bit spurious saying that the story is medieval, there is the
traditional tale of the woodcutter's family and the Christ child, which
I got to know in 
Christmas markets in Germany
including trees festooned with sweets and coloured paper,
symbolising the
Paradise Tree mentioned above. Still in Germany, the popularity of the
now well-established custom continued amongst 17th and 18th century
Lutherans, which may explain the growth of the myth of
Luther's
tree. 
Both
of these are contentious questions and this is where individuals,
families and wider communities begin to accept and adapt the traditions
which have come down to us, moulding them for particular reasons and
setting up traditions within homes and communities.
If
you've read other sections of the Traditions part of this site, you'll
know that in our house,