Interior, The Church of St Peter and St Paul

Image: © Maigheach-gheal Taken: 12 Dec 2010

Looking down the nave with its decorated Christmas Tree, towards the chancel and sanctuary. Today we chop down or buy a tree, carry it home, set it up in a stand, decorate it and place our presents underneath it. It wouldn't seem like Christmas without a tree. How did trees become so important in our celebrations of Christmas? Trees were originally given as New Year's gifts. And, like other New Year's gifts, trees had symbolic significance. Originally, hawthorn, blackthorn and other trees with bright, small blossoms were kept indoors and their blossoms forced, in hopes that they would appear by the New Year. If they did, it was regarded as a good omen for the crops in the coming year. But forcing blossoms was a chancy business, and rather than tempt fate, many turned to evergreen trees, especially those that bore fruit at the New Year. The evergreen was a great mystery. Why should it remain green and, as in the case of the holly, even bear fruit, in a season when all other types of trees seemed to die? People thought evergreens had magical powers and would ward off evil spirits. The oak was sacred to the Celtic Druids. At the winter solstice, they decorated oaks with candles and apples painted gold. In one legend, on any eighth-century Christmas Eve/solstice night, St Boniface chopped down a huge oak that had been used for human sacrifice and, pointing to a young fir that had survived the crash of the oak, told the assembled barbarians that this "young child in the forest" should be their holy tree. Trees, like oaks which outlive man by hundreds of years, or evergreens which never seem to wither, were believed to contain a mysterious life force. They became central features of the rites celebrated on the darkest day of winter, when the life force seemed most vulnerable. A tree designated as a 'Christmas' tree made its appearance in the late 16th century. It was merely the latest in a long line of mystical or sacred trees that held special significance in popular folklore. In the earliest description of a 'Christmas' tree, that heritage is clear. In a fragment from a travel diary dated 1605, an unidentified visitor to Strasbourg, Germany, describes tree decorations that included apples (from the Tree of Life?), paper roses (from solstice celebrations?), sweets, wafer-like biscuits (to wish for good times in the coming year?) and golden spangles (to wish for riches). When Queen Victoria married Germany's Prince Albert, the Christmas tree became quite central to the holiday in the British Isles. It was a time of Victorian commercialism, and of a growing middle class eager for ways to display their new wealth. The tree provided an opportunity to sell more goods to the public and was vigorously promoted. British trees were only two feet high and sat on tabletops. Tall trees were too precious to be cut down as adornments. Christmas trees had not been officially sanctioned by the church and many regarded them as frivolous. I expect many people who attend church at Christmas do not realise that the pretty decorated tree has its 'roots' in pagan mythology.

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