O Christmas Tree

We have our tree! I have to say, it is gorgeous! For several years now we have bought it through the baseball team at Tesoro High School. You sign up for what kind you want, what heighth, pre-pay for it, and then on the first Friday night or Saturday of December you go to the back parking lot and pick it out and either take it home or they deliver. It really is a pretty good price for what you get. They are some of the most beautiful real trees I've ever seen. Other than probably cutting one down yourself.

Our preference is a 9 foot Noble Fir. (We have a 10' ceiling in our living room.) It is full, dark green, and lush. Christine will put the lights on (she loves to do it and does a GREAT job) and then we will decorate it.

I've learned some facts about the Christmas Tree. Evergreens were used long ago as a symbol of triumph over death, of eternal life, and to guard against evil spirits. Germans used to put an evergreen tree outside their doors to show their hope of the forthcoming Spring. They stay green even in the depths of winter signifying everlasting life--which assurance Christ gives us.

Legend has it that in the 1500's Martin Luther was walking through a forest and noticed a beautiful evergreen tree with a dusting of snow on it. He was so touched by the feelings it evoked in him that he cut it down and brought it home for his children, put it inside his house and decorated it with candles which he lit one by one in honor of Christ's birth as he would tell the Christmas Story.

When Prince Albert (of Germany) married Queen Victoria, he brought this tradition to England. Everyone wanted to copy what the Queen did, and so the Christmas tree tradition began. It didn't catch on so quickly in America at first. It wasn't until 1851 that a Catskill farmer brought two carts of trees into New York City and sold everyone that it took off. By 1900 it caught on more and by 1920 was practically a universal tradition. That was interesting to me because all of my grandparents were born by this time, so I realized that what I take for granted each year now is something that they were teenagers when it started.

I had a memory come to mind: in the 1960's, it was fashionable to have an aluminum tree with all the same shape and color ornaments with a color wheel behind it to shine on it. So when this color wheel was on, the tree could be blue, pink, green, red, yellow, at any given time! My Grandma Myrna and Grandpa Floyd had this kind of tree. I remember at the time thinking that was so odd--just a thing that maybe 'old' people did. Now I see that they were 'cool' and part of the fashionable trend! hahahaha! Does anyone else remember this?

So tonight we will light up and decorate the stately evergreen with it's unchanging color representing the hope of eternal life and it's needles pointing heavenward as a reminder that our thoughts should turn heavenward as well.

Other Facts About Christmas Trees:

3--Number of seedlings planted for every tree harvested

8--Number of years it takes for a Christmas Tree to mature

50--Number of states in the U.S. that grow Christmas Trees (yep! all 50, including Alaska and Hawaii)

98--Percentage of Christmas Trees grown on Christmas Tree farms

2000--number of trees grown per acre

We like Noble Firs, but that is what both Duff and I grew up with. What trees do you like?