8 Facts About Christmas Trees You Did Not Know About

Whether you get a real Christmas tree this year or an artificial Christmas tree, the meaning behind celebrating the occasion with a tree is still the same. What we consider the Christmas tree to be, the values it brings to us all stays the same. As celebrating with a Christmas tree has become such a significant part of our end of the year holiday celebrations, it is not only informative but also appreciative for us to learn about the hidden facts behind Christmas trees we did not know.

We have gathered 8 of such facts for your good read for this Christmas to be more educative than usual!

1) Misnomer with the term – Christmas tree

Christmas trees were used in celebrations during winter even before the birth of Christ, which means it is being used even before Christmas day was even brought forth! The Evergreen trees were used during winter times to remind people of the fertility of nature and how things will soon again look all green and bright for summer. When Christmas day was established, the using of the tree started to be more focused around the occasion itself. Decorations and things associated with the tree were with regards to Christmas day, so eventually everyone started calling it the Christmas tree! From having a tree as part of winter in the town center, soon people started associating the tree with Christmas day itself and started having one in their houses and shops too.

2)  Tree of Paradise

In old time mystery plays during the holiday season, a Christmas tree called Tree of Paradise was used to signify the Garden of Eden of Adam and Eve. On this tree they hung apples to symbolise the story that was believed to have happened at the start of mankind. Many people believe that the hanging of apples on the Tree of Paradise was how the whole concept of Christmas tree decorations came about. Maybe that is why we still see many Christmas trees taking on the traditional decorations with apples along with other edibles like candy canes and gingerbread men!

3) The tallest Christmas tree

The tallest Christmas tree is in the Trafalgar Square in London and each and every year, this is gifted to the United Kingdom by Oslo in Norway. We are not even kidding, this has been given as a gift to London each and every year since the year of 1947. This is a popular, huge and really tall tree right in the middle of the popular Trafalgar Square and each year so many locals and tourists gather around to see this Christmas tree being lit to everyone’s joy. How sweet is it that a country is giving another a Christmas present every single year!

4) Scent Survey

In the United Kingdom in 2004, there was a survey conducted to understand what the country’s favourite smells were. So out of a list of plenty of smells, the Christmas tree’s scent ranked number 8. This was surprisingly better than perfumes which did worse, but the smell of sea was ranked number 7. Check out this interesting survey and its results if you want to know more about it!

The smell of Christmas is closely associated to what we smell in winter and what we smell from the Christmas trees which line our towns, streets and homes. If we didn’t enjoy the smell that much, we wouldn’t even be having Christmas trees around every year would we?

5) Ornaments for the tree

The manufacturing, production and sales of the first ever Christmas tree ornaments were by a Cyprus company called Woolworths. But the interesting fact here is that this was done way back in the 1880. That was long before our time now and it shows how far the trend and culture of using ornaments on our Christmas trees have come. It is also pleasant to know how we still embrace the basic unsaid rules of decorating up our Christmas tree – with Christmas balls, bells and Christmas foil. It is endearing that we have kept to the basic traditions that way for such a long time and have not modified Christmas trees and its decorations vastly.

6) Real Christmas trees

In actual Christmas trees, did you know each tree on average carries up to 30,000 bugs and insects? You read that right, thirty thousand of those creatures! Wow, if not for modern cleaning techniques which preserves the tree yet keeps them clean before selling them to us, we would be bringing in thousands of new members along with the tree for Christmas!

It’s been said that although Christmas trees tend to contain to many bugs, it is an auspicious sign that they do and it is a good deed because these bugs which are hiding away for winter under the meagre warm of the Christmas tree’s needles find a home and get to sit by the fireplace for their Christmas as well. Giving so many creatures warmth and prolonging their life is seen as a good deed done during Christmas.

7) Christmas tree lights

Although the idea of Christmas tree lights came up way before in the 16th Century using candles, this was always a safety issue. The needles can be flammable for some species of Christmas trees and placing candles near or on them was a big hazard and caused plenty of fire accidents in the past. But the idea of using candles or lights for Christmas trees was to embrace the trees looking like a night sky full of stars.

Martin Luthur then translated the idea of using candles to using electric lights later on because of the safety issues around using candles. Well his idea worked well because look at how many types and varieties of Christmas lights we have now and how we even hang them around our house and not just on our Christmas trees! They make us really happy too don’t they?

8) Christmas tree and the term

The term Christmas tree was first coined out in 1835 although the tree has been in use as mentioned all the way from before the birth of Christ. Everyone had different names for the Evergreen tree used for the winter occasion, referring to it as the Tree of Life, the Tree of Fertility or even the Tree of Paradise adopted from how they mention it in the old time mystery plays. Eventually, since its use became so closely associated with the event of Christmas itself, people started fixing on the name Christmas tree. It was simple, applied well for the purpose and was also a pleasant feature of the festive season.

Don’t you feel like you know so much more about Christmas trees already? If you are still thirsty for knowledge, you can have an internet search about more of such interesting facts related to Christmas tree and even Christmas day itself. Now we have given you 8 fun facts to share with your family and friends during your Christm + Add New Category as gathering this year!