When my irrigation system comes on there is no pressure. What should I do?

Find the reticulation connection to the water mains. You will find a solenoid valve that has isolated the system from the mains. The valve has failed internally and is not opening fully. We recommend hiring an expert to replace it. If you have a bore, the pump or bore needs to be fixed by an expert.

What is better for a retaining wall, timber sleepers or blocks?

Treated timber is approved for in ground use and has a reasonable service life, however block retaining walls and concrete sleeper retaining walls are more durable having a greater life expectancy. This is based on suitable footings & good drainage. Both Blocks and concrete sleepers come in a wide range of colours, sizes and styles to create a more aesthetic landscape. Common styles of retainers walls to consider are timber sleep retaining walls, link wall or link block retaining walls and concrete sleeper walls

Should I pave or concrete?

While concrete certainly has its benefits, pavers give a more aesthetic finish to a landscape area. Pavers area available in range of colours, texture, styles and sizes. Larger format, 400mm and 500mm pavers have become increasingly popular with modern and contemporary landscape designs. Pavers are also commonly used for garden borders and edges for their straight line finish which is widely desired in modern landscape construction.

How do I maintain artificial grass?

Very little maintenance is required. Just sweep off any leaves or gently use a leaf blower. You can hose off any spills or pet messes. For pet solids, you just scoop up in the traditional way. You can hose or wipe down with cold water if required. To lift the fibres just use a broom to sweep in the opposite direction to your view point.

Do I need landscape design plans before I get a construction quote?

Yes. A landscape design will allow us to discuss the project with enough detail to allow for an accurate price estimate. This design process will also determine whether council approvals are required, which can impact cost and timing.

Gardener Windsor Downs

Looking for a proficient gardener in Windsor Downs? All Green Gardening and Landscaping offers expert gardening and landscaping services. We offer mulching, weeding, lawn care, turfing, and rubbish removal. In your local vicinity, our top-rated services make us one of the premier gardening contractors nearby.

We ensure lawn care by experienced gardeners. Our dedication to details has always led to top-tier gardening outcomes.

Call 0410 196 069

Image describes garderner Sydney and gardener near you

Best Gardening Services Windsor Downs Wide

Know your Windsor Downs gardening expenses upfront with our no-obligation written quote. An initial garden check helps us quote the price accurately. This will give us an opportunity to assess your garden and what it needs, provide you with our advice and suggestions, and provide you with a gardening service estimate.

When you’re unsure or your garden’s gone rogue, we’ll restore order with a precise execution plan. You’re spared from call-out fees, and we await your payment once our service meets your expectations. You’ll be invoiced only for actual work hours, no unnecessary time added to meet the quote.

Looking for garden care insights? Rely on our Windsor Downs team, trained and knowledgeable, for expert advice. With All Green Gardening and Landscaping, you’ve got experts who understand these factors and are ready for any extra assistance or advice.

Looking for a Gardener Near Me in Windsor Downs?

Seeking expert gardeners in your area? Dive into top-tier local solutions for landscaping and maintenance. Our garden care stands out for service diversity and handling all garden sizes. Turn to us for minor garden fixes or major lawn transformations. For unkempt gardens or fading lawns, trust our expertise.

If garden upkeep drains your time and energy, consider calling All Green Gardening and Landscaping. Garden maintenance for businesses and homes is our specialty. It’s our passion to ensure gardens are green, neat, and spotless!

Professional Gardener Services in Windsor Downs

When designing a garden, it’s useful to know what plants will enjoy the soil and climate conditions, what width and height they will grow to, what water and nutrient needs they have, how much sun they will need, what pests will show up and how to deal with them if/when they do, bird and insect attraction, etc.

Our team can curate a garden personalised to your needs. Subsequently, we’ll present a design showcasing mature plant forms. From designs to other services, our attention to detail ensures your trust. We’re a favoured choice, backed by years of experience and repeat clients. For all garden care needs in Windsor Downs, give us a ring or drop a message.

Garden Care Windsor Downs

Endless dedication crafts the most vibrant and beautiful gardens. Consistent upkeep is crucial for achieving that ideal appearance. Regular tasks like mowing and soil enrichment ensure the best garden performance. For a bulk of today’s homeowners, this is a pressing problem. The dream is a perfect lawn, but time dedication becomes the barrier.

What starts out as a labor of love turns into an obligation that you just don’t have time to fill. And the longer you postpone taking care of a garden or lawn, the more time you will have to spend fixing it up. This is a situation where people fail to make the most of their outdoor space. Our Windsor Downs gardening brigade, with its extensive experience, understands the trade. From creating splendid gardens to pest combat, All Green Gardening and Landscaping approaches with a smile. We’re experienced in landscape garden design, soil and plant health, weed control, pruning, and lawn care, so you can rest assured we’ll take care of your garden.

Garden Maintenance Windsor Downs

Retaining garden beauty isn’t a simple feat. It’s an ongoing task demanding time and care, which some might not afford. Every garden is unique, so we provide bespoke gardening services. Enhancing your garden’s qualities, our charges stay reasonable. The technicians we partner with are well-equipped for any task at hand.

Our experienced hands know grass care intricacies for Windsor Downs, NSW 2756. Our blend of expertise and superior mowing gear addresses all commercial and acreage lawn challenges.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find the connection to the mains for reticulation. An internal fault in the solenoid valve prevents it from opening completely. If you own a bore, ensure an expert addresses its issues.

Timber’s durability is fine, yet concrete walls offer a longer service life. Blocks and concrete sleepers enhance landscapes with their myriad styles and colours. Popular retaining wall styles include timber sleep, link block, and concrete sleeper walls.

While concrete holds merits, pavers shine in aesthetic appeal.

Keeping it simple, maintenance only requires a sweep or using a leaf blower. You can hose off any spills or pet messes. For pet solids, you just scoop up in the traditional way. Enhance the fiber appearance by simply sweeping against your perspective with a broom.

Absolutely. A landscape design facilitates in-depth project talks, resulting in a precise cost estimate. In the design phase, we also examine whether council approvals are obligatory, with potential cost and time consequences.

Current Job Postings

Considering a role with the All Green Gardening & Landscaping Team? Email us your Job Interest. We’re in need of local landscapers and gardeners in Sydney, and these positions are open immediately.

jobs@allgreen-gardening-landscaping.com.au

The Christmas House - Langley
iPhone 13PRO This festively decorated house is just down the road from where I live. It used to be a Doctors surgery but has since been sold off. Parents take a detour down that particular road just to go and see it with their children. It did have two cars parked in the drive when me and my friend Jerry decided to go and have a look on our way to the photowalk around Windsor & Eton with our photography club on Monday night. I decide to take the cars out in Photoshop as they were a bit of a distraction.

Windsor Castle at Cape Town
By Maritime Quest - www.maritimequest.com/liners/windsor_castle_1922_page_2.htm, Public Domain, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11046586

Guernsey - Petit Port Bay
The Postcard A postcard that was published by Valentine and Sons of Dundee and London. The image is a glossy real photograph. The card was posted in Guernsey using a 2d. stamp on Wednesday the 12th. June 1946. It was sent to: Miss A. K. Butt, 89, Marchmont Road, Wallington, Surrey. The message on the divided back of the card was as follows: "Tuesday. We are sitting on the left-hand side of the beach facing the sea. The tide is coming in and we are toying with the idea of bathing, only there have only been children in so far - I'd rather have the company of some adults! The food is definitely good here, and eggs are plentiful. We like White Gables very much. Laura & Prue." The Creation of a Jewish State So what else happened on the day that the card was posted? Well, on the 12th. June 1946, after the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry had unanimously recommended that up to 100,000 European Jews be allowed to immigrate to Palestine, British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin declared that the United Kingdom would reject the plan. Speaking at the annual conference of Britain's Labour Party, Bevin commented that: "The motive for American support for a Jewish state is because they do not want too many of them in New York." Following the rejection of the proposal, Zionist leaders began a campaign of violence against the British government in the future state of Israel. Count Hisaichi Terauchi The day also marked the death of Count Hisaichi Terauchi. Count Hisaichi, who was born on the 8th. August 1879, was a Gensui (or field marshal) in the Imperial Japanese Army. Terauchi was given command of Southern Expeditionary Army, responsible for the opening Japanese offensive of the Pacific War in WWII. He was critical of Masaharu Homma for being too "soft" on Filipinos, and of Hitoshi Imamura for being too lenient to the Indonesian independence movement. As the war in the Pacific drew to a close, Terauchi surrendered his family heirloom wakizashi short sword to Lord Louis Mountbatten in Saigon in 1945. The sword dates from 1413, and is now kept at Windsor Castle. The sword was almost the subject of a diplomatic incident in the mid-1980's, when Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother wanted to place it on prominent display during a dinner held for Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan. However, her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, vetoed the idea. When told that Terauchi was in too poor health to attend the surrender ceremony in Singapore, Mountbatten sent his own doctor to examine Terauchi. The doctor confirmed his fragile health, and Mountbatten had him transferred to a bungalow in Malaya in March 1946. On the 11th. June 1946, Terauchi became angered by a report of a Kempeitai lieutenant colonel who had threatened to disclose Japanese war crimes to the Allies. In consequence he suffered a massive stroke and died early the next morning at the age of 66. He therefore never stood trial for war crimes, such as his responsibility for the mistreatment of laborers on the Burma-Siam Railroad and his order that all Allied prisoners of war in his command area were to be massacred if Japan was invaded. He was buried at the Japanese cemetery in Singapore.

Eton Bridge
The pedestrian bridge over the River Thames that joins Eton with Windsor. The flood lit Round Tower stands out in the distance and some ghosts of a couple crossing the bridge slowly as a result of the 5 second long exposure. This was taken on Windsor Photographic Society photo walk on 16th December 2024. Nikon D750 with Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 @ f/8.0 , ISO 80, focal length 24mm, manual shutter and focus, all on a tripod. Processed in LightRoom Classic.

1966 Meteor
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada - August 8, 2004 : local car show.

1930s Brooklyn NY Pilgrim Laundry Truck & Driver
Vintage professional advertising image of a truck and delivery driver from the Pilgrim Laundry that was located on Prospect Avenue in the Windsor Terrace Section of Brooklyn, New York. In the 1960s I lived down the street from their factory which occupied a full city block. They went out of business in the 1970s and the building was razed and replaced by private homes. This found photograph is from the private collection of an unknown and/or unknowing art collector. It’s always a thrill when it’s from Vinnie DeVille!

Vintage Hanover Transistor Radio, Model TH-602, AM Band, 6 Transistors, Distributed By The Shriro Trading Corporation, Made in Japan, Circa 1962
The Hanover radio is small measuring 2-3/16" W x 3-3/8" H. This radio was also sold as a Gold Coast model (no model number) and as a Windsor model 15040. This radio has a small chip in the upper left of the back cover.

Vintage Hanover Transistor Radio (Chassis View), Model TH-602, AM Band, 6 Transistors, Distributed By Shriro Trading Corporation, Made in Japan, Circa 1962
The Hanover radio is small measuring 2-3/16" W x 3-3/8" H. This radio was also sold as a Gold Coast model (no model number) and as a Windsor model 15040. This radio has a small chip in the upper left of the back cover.

Stanley. Christ Church Cathedral & Whalebon Arch
The cathedral is in possession of the Garter banner of Lord Shackleton, which hung in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, during his lifetime. On the south wall of the cathedral is a White Ensign flown during the Battle of the River Plate by HMS Achilles. A wooden plaque below the flag has the inscription: "One of the ensigns worn by HMS Achilles at the Battle of the River Plate 13th December 1939". In the front of the building is a whalebone arch monument, made from the jaws of two blue whales, erected in 1933 to commemorate the centenary of British rule in the Falkland Islands.

Sunny December Morning
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Last set
VIA's last active set of Renaissance cars in the Quebec-Windsor corridor roll eastward over the immaculate roadbed of former Canadian National Alexandria subdivisionon on a hot and sunny morning. The set was scheduled to be retired the day after and it actually was but issues with some of the new Charger trainset put it back in service for a few days a week after. VIA 22 6440 Milepost 25.6 Alexandria subdivision Alexandria,ON May 31st 2024

Lincs signed armchair BRAND no 240
Many thanks to Mr Julian Parker for allowing me to borrow and record this excellent example of a Yew wood, spindled back Lincolnshire Windsor armchair. One other signed Brand chair already exists on this site, see no 199, as well as a signed BRAND & MARSH, see no 164. However this one is slightly unusual as it has turned underarm supports. The pattern of which is replicated by many other makers, see nos 208, 198,174 and 126. As to why so many Lincolnshire makers used this pattern, I don't know; but it appears that AMOS and CAMM never did.

Quiet, Please! I’m Shopping Here. Windsor, On.
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Linfield 1 Coleraine 0.
Windsor Park

Eton High Street.
Z6III Windsor Photographic Society Photowalk - Night Time in Windsor & Eton.

Windsor Mailing Ltd, High St, Colliers Wood, Merton, 1996, 96-9f-34

Christmas tree....History of Christmas Trees
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas.[1] The custom was further developed in medieval Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), and in early modern Germany where German Protestant Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.[2][3] It acquired popularity beyond the Lutheran areas of Germany[2][4] and the Baltic governorates during the second half of the 19th century, at first among the upper classes.The tree was traditionally decorated with "roses made of colored paper, apples, wafers, tinsel, [and] sweetmeats".[2] Moravian Christians . began to illuminate Christmas trees with candles,[5] which were often replaced by Christmas lights after the advent of electrification. Today, there is a wide variety of traditional and modern ornaments, such as garlands, baubles, tinsel, and candy canes. An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the Angel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem, respectively, from the Nativity.[6][7] Edible items such as gingerbread, chocolate, and other sweets are also popular and are tied to or hung from the tree's branches with ribbons. The Catholic Church had long resisted this custom of the Lutheran Church and the Vatican Christmas tree stood for the first time in Vatican City in 1982.[8] In the Western Christian tradition, Christmas trees are variously erected on days such as the first day of Advent or even as late as Christmas Eve depending on the country;[9] customs of the same faith hold that the two traditional days when Christmas decorations, such as the Christmas tree, are removed are Twelfth Night and, if they are not taken down on that day, Candlemas, the latter of which ends the Christmas-Epiphany season in some denominations.[9][10] The Christmas tree is sometimes compared with the "Yule-tree", especially in discussions of its folkloric origins.[11][12][13]The history of Christmas trees goes back to the symbolic use of evergreens in ancient Egypt and Rome and continues with the German tradition of candlelit Christmas trees first brought to America in the 1800s. Discover the history of the Christmas tree, from the earliest winter solstice celebrations to Queen Victoria’s decorating habits and the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree in New York City.Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return. The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from his illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes, which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death. Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon, farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs. In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder. Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles. Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans. It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy. History Origin of the modern Christmas tree Martin Luther is depicted with his family and friends in front of a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve Modern Christmas trees originated during the Renaissance in early modern Germany. Its 16th-century origins are sometimes associated with Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther, who is said to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree.[14][15][16] The Christmas tree was first recorded to be used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer.[17][18] The Moravian Christians put lighted candles on those trees."[5][19] The earliest known firmly dated representation of a Christmas tree is on the keystone sculpture of a private home in Turckheim, Alsace (then part of Germany, today France), with the date 1576.[20] Possible predecessors Modern Christmas trees have been related to the "tree of paradise" of medieval mystery plays that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (to represent the forbidden fruit) and wafers (to represent the Eucharist and redemption) was used as a setting for the play. Like the Christmas crib, the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red balls.[12][13][21][22][23][24] At the end of the Middle Ages, an early predecessor appears referred in the 15th century Regiment of the Cistercian Alcobaça Monastery in Portugal. The Regiment of the local high-Sacristans of the Cistercian Order refers to what may be considered the oldest references to the Christmas tree: "Note on how to put the Christmas branch, scilicet: On the Christmas eve, you will look for a large Branch of green laurel, and you shall reap many red oranges, and place them on the branches that come of the laurel, specifically as you have seen, and in every orange you shall put a candle, and hang the Branch by a rope in the pole, which shall be by the candle of the high altar."[25] Yggdrasil, in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Other sources have offered a connection between the symbolism of the first documented Christmas trees in Germany around 1600 and the trees of pre-Christian traditions, though this claim has been disputed.[26] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time."[27] During the Roman mid-winter festival of Saturnalia, houses were decorated with wreaths of evergreen plants, along with other antecedent customs now associated with Christmas.[28] The Vikings and Saxons worshiped trees.[28] The story of Saint Boniface cutting down Donar's Oak illustrates the pagan practices in 8th century among the Germans. A later folk version of the story adds the detail that an evergreen tree grew in place of the felled oak, telling them about how its triangular shape reminds humanity of the Trinity and how it points to heaven.[29][30] Historical practices by region Estonia, Latvia, and Germany Christmas tree and menorah with Brandenburg Gate in background Left: Tallinn Christmas Market in Estonia; Right: Christmas tree with Hanukkah Menorah next to it in Pariser Platz Customs of erecting decorated trees in winter time can be traced to Christmas celebrations in Renaissance-era guilds in Northern Germany and Livonia. The first evidence of decorated trees associated with Christmas Day are trees in guildhalls decorated with sweets to be enjoyed by the apprentices and children. In Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), in 1441, 1442, 1510, and 1514, the Brotherhood of Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their guild houses in Reval (now Tallinn) and Riga. On the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square, where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.[31] A Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 reports that a small tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels, and paper flowers" was erected in the guild-house for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.[32] In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow in his Chronica der Provinz Lyfflandt (1584) wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square, where the young men "went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame". After the Protestant Reformation, such trees are seen in the houses of upper-class Protestant families as a counterpart to the Catholic Christmas cribs. This transition from the guild hall to the bourgeois family homes in the Protestant parts of Germany ultimately gives rise to the modern tradition as it developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the present-day, the churches and homes of Protestants and Catholics feature both Christmas cribs and Christmas trees.[33] Poland Main article: Podłaźniczka The hanging of a podłaźniczka is an old Polish folk custom dating back to pagan traditions. In Poland, there is a folk tradition dating back to an old Slavic pre-Christian custom of suspending a branch of fir, spruce, or pine from the ceiling rafters, called podłaźniczka, during the time of the Koliada winter festival.[34] The branches were decorated with apples, nuts, acorns, and stars made of straw. In more recent times, the decorations also included colored paper cutouts (wycinanki), wafers, cookies, and Christmas baubles. According to old pagan beliefs, the branch's powers were linked to good harvest and prosperity.[35] The custom was practiced by the peasants until the early 20th century, particularly in the regions of Lesser Poland and Upper Silesia.[36] Most often the branches were hung above the wigilia dinner table on Christmas Eve. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the tradition over time was almost completely replaced by the later German practice of decorating a standing Christmas tree.[37] 18th to early 20th centuries Adoption by European nobility German Christmas tree, book illustration 1888 In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Introduced by Fanny von Arnstein and popularized by Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg the Christmas tree reached Vienna in 1814 during the Congress of Vienna, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years.[38] In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d'Orléans. In Denmark a Danish newspaper claims that the first attested Christmas tree was lit in 1808 by countess Wilhemine of Holsteinborg. It was the aging countess who told the story of the first Danish Christmas tree to the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen in 1865. He had published a fairy tale called The Fir-Tree in 1844, recounting the fate of a fir tree being used as a Christmas tree.[39] Adoption by country or region Germany A German Christmas tree in a room at Versailles turned into a military hospital By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles, expensive items at the time, are found in attestations from the late 18th century. Along the lower Rhine, an area of Roman Catholic majority, the Christmas tree was largely regarded as a Protestant custom. As a result, it remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long period of time. The custom did eventually gain wider acceptance beginning around 1815 by way of Prussian officials who emigrated there following the Congress of Vienna. In the 19th century, the Christmas tree was taken to be an expression of German culture and of Gemütlichkeit, especially among emigrants overseas.[40] A decisive factor in winning general popularity was the German army's decision to place Christmas trees in its barracks and military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. Only at the start of the 20th century did Christmas trees appear inside churches, this time in a new brightly lit form.[41] Slovenia Early Slovenian custom dating back to around the 17th century was to suspend the tree either upright or upside-down above the well, a corner of the dinner table, in the backyard, or from the fences, modestly decorated with fruits or not decorated at all. German brewer Peter Luelsdorf brought the first Christmas tree of the current tradition to Slovenia in 1845. He set it up in his small brewery inn in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. German officials, craftsmen and merchants quickly spread the tradition among the bourgeois population. The trees were typically decorated with walnuts, golden apples, carobs, and candles. At first the Catholic majority rejected this custom because they considered it a typical Protestant tradition. The first decorated Christmas Market was organized in Ljubljana already in 1859. However, this tradition was almost unknown to the rural population until World War I, after which everyone started decorating trees. Spruce trees have a centuries-long tradition in Slovenia. After World War II during Yugoslavia period, trees set in the public places (towns, squares, and markets) were politically replaced with fir trees, a symbol of socialism and Slavic mythology strongly associated with loyalty, courage, and dignity. However, spruce retained its popularity in Slovenian homes during those years and came back to public places after independence.[42][43][44][45] Britain An engraving published in the 1840s of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert created a craze for Christmas trees.[46] Although the tradition of decorating churches and homes with evergreens at Christmas was long established,[47] the custom of decorating an entire small tree was unknown in Britain until some two centuries ago. The German-born Queen Charlotte introduced a Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800.[48] The custom did not at first spread much beyond the royal family.[49] Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with it and a tree was placed in her room every Christmas. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote:[50] After dinner ... we then went into the drawing room near the dining room ... There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees ... After Victoria's marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became even more widespread[51] as wealthier middle-class families followed the fashion. In 1842 a newspaper advert for Christmas trees makes clear their smart cachet, German origins and association with children and gift-giving.[52] An illustrated book, The Christmas Tree, describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844.[53] On 2 January 1846 Elizabeth Fielding (née Fox Strangways) wrote from Lacock Abbey to William Henry Fox-Talbot: "Constance is extremely busy preparing the Bohemian Xmas Tree. It is made from Caroline's[54] description of those she saw in Germany".[55] In 1847 Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas trees is not less than ours used to be".[56] A boost to the trend was given in 1848[57] when The Illustrated London News,[58] in a report picked up by other papers,[59] described the trees in Windsor Castle in detail and showed the main tree, surrounded by the royal family, on its cover. In fewer than ten years their use in better-off homes was widespread. By 1856 a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to them,[60] as well as reporting the accidental death of a woman whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on a Christmas tree.[61] They had not yet spread down the social scale though, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy or the "romantic".[62] Their use at public entertainments, charity bazaars and in hospitals made them increasingly familiar however, and in 1906 a charity was set up specifically to ensure even poor children in London slums "who had never seen a Christmas tree" would enjoy one that year.[63] Anti-German sentiment after World War I briefly reduced their popularity[64] but the effect was short-lived,[65] and by the mid-1920s the use of Christmas trees had spread to all classes.[66] In 1933 a restriction on the importation of foreign trees led to the "rapid growth of a new industry" as the growing of Christmas trees within Britain became commercially viable due to the size of demand.[67] By 2013 the number of trees grown in Britain for the Christmas market was approximately eight million[68] and their display in homes, shops and public spaces a normal part of the Christmas season. Georgia Decorated Chichilaki at the Orbeliani Palace Georgians have their own traditional Christmas tree called Chichilaki, made from dried up hazelnut or walnut branches that are shaped to form a small coniferous tree.[69] These pale-colored ornaments differ in height from 20 cm (7.9 in) to 3 meters (9.8 feet). Chichilakis are most common in the Guria and Samegrelo regions of Georgia near the Black Sea, but they can also be found in some stores around the capital of Tbilisi.[70] Georgians believe that Chichilaki resembles the famous beard of St. Basil the Great, because Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates St. Basil on 1 January. The Bahamas The earliest reference of Christmas trees being used in The Bahamas dates to January 1864 and is associated with the Anglican Sunday Schools in Nassau, New Providence: "After prayers and a sermon from the Rev. R. Swann, the teachers and children of St. Agnes', accompanied by those of St. Mary's, marched to the Parsonage of Rev. J. H. Fisher, in front of which a large Christmas tree had been planted for their gratification. The delighted little ones formed a circle around it singing "Come follow me to the Christmas tree"."[71] The gifts decorated the trees as ornaments and the children were given tickets with numbers that matched the gifts. This appears to be the typical way of decorating the trees in the 1860s Bahamas. In the Christmas of 1864, there was a Christmas tree put up in the Ladies Saloon in the Royal Victoria Hotel for the respectable children of the neighbourhood. The tree was ornamented with gifts for the children who formed a circle about it and sung the song "Oats and Beans". The gifts were later given to the children in the name of Santa Claus.[72] In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable—not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The Christmas tree had arrived. By the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise around the U.S. It was noted that Europeans used small trees about four feet in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling. The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition. The tradition was introduced to North America in the winter of 1781 by Hessian soldiers stationed in the Province of Québec (1763–1791) to garrison the colony against American attack. General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and his wife, the Baroness von Riedesel, held a Christmas party for the officers at Sorel, Quebec, delighting their guests with a fir tree decorated with candles and fruits.[73] The Christmas tree became very common in the United States of America in the early nineteenth century. Dating from late 1812 or early 1813, the watercolor sketchbooks of John Lewis Krimmel contain perhaps the earliest depictions of a Christmas tree in American art, representing a family celebrating Christmas Eve in the Moravian tradition.[74] The first published image of a Christmas tree appeared in 1836 as the frontispiece to The Stranger's Gift by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature was in a story in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, titled "New Year's Day", by Catherine Maria Sedgwick, where she tells the story of a German maid decorating her mistress's tree. Also, a woodcut of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in The Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in Godey's Lady's Book. Godey's copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.[75] The republished Godey's image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree".[76] Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become even more common in America.[75] Drawing depicting family with their Christmas tree in 1809. Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree: Windsor Locks, Connecticut, claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House,[77] while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821, leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America.[78] Other accounts credit Charles Follen, a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce to America the custom of decorating a Christmas tree.[79] August Imgard, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, is said to be the first to popularize the practice of decorating a tree with candy canes.[citation needed] In 1847, Imgard cut a blue spruce tree from a woods outside town, had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and Kuchen.[80] German immigrant Charles Minnigerode accepted a position as a professor of humanities at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1842, where he taught Latin and Greek. Entering into the social life of the Virginia Tidewater, Minnigerode introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time.[81] An 1853 article on Christmas customs in Pennsylvania defines them as mostly "German in origin", including the Christmas tree, which is "planted in a flower pot filled with earth, and its branches are covered with presents, chiefly of confectionary, for the younger members of the family." The article distinguishes between customs in different states however, claiming that in New England generally "Christmas is not much celebrated", whereas in Pennsylvania and New York it is.[82] When Edward H. Johnson was vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, a predecessor of Con Edison, he created the first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree at his home in New York City in 1882. Johnson became the "Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights".[83] The lyrics sung in the United States to the German tune O Tannenbaum begin "O Christmas tree ...", giving rise to the mistaken idea that the German word Tannenbaum (fir tree) means "Christmas tree", the German word for which is instead Weihnachtsbaum. Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, the Christmas tree along with the entire celebration of the Christian holiday, was banned in that country after the October Revolution but then the government introduced a New-year spruce (Новогодняя ёлка, Novogodnyaya yolka) in 1935 for the New Year holiday.[84][85][86] It became a fully secular icon of the New Year holiday, for example, the crowning star was regarded not as a symbol of Bethlehem Star, but as the Red star. Decorations, such as figurines of airplanes, bicycles, space rockets, cosmonauts, and characters of Russian fairy tales, were produced. This tradition persists after the fall of the USSR, with the New Year holiday outweighing the Christmas (7 January) for a wide majority of Russian people.[87] The Peanuts TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) was influential on the pop culture surrounding the Christmas tree. Aluminum Christmas trees were popular during the early 1960s in the US. They were satirized in the TV special and came to be seen as symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree, describing any poor-looking or malformed little tree, also derives from the 1965 TV special, based on the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.[88]. Since the early 20th century, it has become common in many cities, towns, and department stores to put up public Christmas trees outdoors, such as the Macy's Great Tree in Atlanta (since 1948), the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City, and the large Christmas tree at Victoria Square in Adelaide. The use of fire retardant allows many indoor public areas to place real trees and be compliant with code. Licensed applicants of fire retardant solution spray the tree, tag the tree, and provide a certificate for inspection. The United States' National Christmas Tree has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the White House, becoming part of what evolved into a major holiday event at the White House. President Jimmy Carter lit only the crowning star atop the tree in 1979 in honor of the Americans being held hostage in Iran.[89] The same was true in 1980, except the tree was fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been in captivity.[89] During most of the 1970s and 1980s, the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world was put up every year on the property of the National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. This tradition grew into one of the most spectacular and celebrated events in the history of southern Florida, but was discontinued on the death of the paper's founder in the late 1980s.[90] In some cities, a charity event called the Festival of Trees is organized, in which multiple trees are decorated and displayed. The giving of Christmas trees has also often been associated with the end of hostilities. After the signing of the Armistice in 1918 the city of Manchester sent a tree, and £500 to buy chocolate and cakes, for the children of the much-bombarded town of Lille in northern France.[91] In some cases the trees represent special commemorative gifts, such as in Trafalgar Square in London, where the City of Oslo, Norway presents a tree to the people of London as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during the Second World War; in Boston, where the tree is a gift from the province of Nova Scotia, in thanks for rapid deployment of supplies and rescuers to the 1917 ammunition ship explosion that leveled the city of Halifax; and in Newcastle upon Tyne, where the main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of Bergen, in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from Nazi occupation.[92] Norway also annually gifts a Christmas tree to Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship between Norway and the US and as an expression of gratitude from Norway for the help received from the US during World War II.[93] Customs and traditions Setting up and taking down Adding decorations to tree Both setting up and taking down a Christmas tree are associated with specific dates; liturgically, this is done through the hanging of the greens ceremony.[94] In many areas, it has become customary to set up one's Christmas tree on Advent Sunday, the first day of the Advent season.[95][96] Traditionally, however, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until the evening of Christmas Eve (24 December), the end of the Advent season and the start of the twelve days of Christmastide.[97] It is customary for Christians in many localities to remove their Christmas decorations on the last day of the twelve days of Christmastide that falls on 5 January—Epiphany Eve (Twelfth Night),[98] although those in other Christian countries remove them on Candlemas, the conclusion of the extended Christmas-Epiphany season (Epiphanytide).[99][100] According to the first tradition, those who fail to remember to remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve must leave them untouched until Candlemas, the second opportunity to remove them; failure to observe this custom is considered inauspicious.[101][102] Decorations Main article: Christmas ornament This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Christmas ornaments at the Christmas market, Strasbourg Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood, or ceramics) that are used to decorate a Christmas tree. The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, and also garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations fueled the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds. Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used as Christmas tree decorations. Silvered saran-based tinsel was introduced later. Delicate mold-blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of the glass factories in the Thuringian Forest, especially in Lauscha in the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous-name designers. Baubles are another common decoration, consisting of small hollow glass or plastic spheres coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide coloration. Lighting with electric lights (Christmas lights or, in the United Kingdom, fairy lights) is commonly done. A tree-topper, sometimes an angel but more frequently a star, completes the decoration. In the late 1800s, home-made white Christmas trees were made by wrapping strips of cotton batting around leafless branches creating the appearance of a snow-laden tree. In the 1940s and 1950s, popularized by Hollywood films in the late 1930s, flocking was very popular on the West Coast of the United States. There were home flocking kits that could be used with vacuum cleaners. In the 1980s some trees were sprayed with fluffy white flocking to simulate snow. Religious issues The earliest legend of the origin of a fir tree becoming a Christian symbol dates back to 723 AD, involving Saint Boniface as he was evangelizing Germany.[138] It is said that at a pagan gathering in Geismar where a group of people dancing under a decorated oak tree were about to sacrifice a baby in the name of Thor, Saint Boniface took an axe and called on the name of Jesus.[138] In one swipe, he managed to take down the entire oak tree, to the crowd's astonishment.[138] Behind the fallen tree was a baby fir tree.[138] Boniface said, "let this tree be the symbol of the true God, its leaves are ever green and will not die." The tree's needles pointed to heaven and it was shaped triangularly to represent the Holy Trinity.[138] The Christmas tree was first recorded to be used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer.[17][139] In the United States, these "German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees."[5][19] When decorating the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, a fact recorded by The School Journal in 1897.[6][140] Professor David Albert Jones of the University of Oxford writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus.[7] Under the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other religious holidays—were prohibited as a result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign.[141][142][84] The League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, among them being the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an anti-religious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.[143] With the Christmas tree being prohibited in accordance with Soviet anti-religious legislation, people supplanted the former Christmas custom with New Year's trees.[84][144] In 1935, the tree was brought back as New Year tree and became a secular, not a religious holiday. Pope John Paul II introduced the Christmas tree custom to the Vatican in 1982. Although at first disapproved of by some as out of place at the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican Christmas Tree has become an integral part of the Vatican Christmas celebrations,[145] and in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it as part of the normal Christmas decorations in Catholic homes.[146] In 2004, Pope John Paul called the Christmas tree a symbol of Christ. This very ancient custom, he said, exalts the value of life, as in winter what is evergreen becomes a sign of undying life, and it reminds Christians of the "tree of life",[147] an image of Christ, the supreme gift of God to humanity.[148] In the previous year he said: "Beside the crib, the Christmas tree, with its twinkling lights, reminds us that with the birth of Jesus the tree of life has blossomed anew in the desert of humanity. The crib and the tree: precious symbols, which hand down in time the true meaning of Christmas."[149] The Catholic Church's official Book of Blessings has a service for the blessing of the Christmas tree in a home.[150] The Episcopal Church in The Anglican Family Prayer Book, which has the imprimatur of The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam of the Anglican Communion, has long had a ritual titled Blessing of a Christmas Tree, as well as Blessing of a Crèche, for use in the church and the home.[151] Chrismon trees, which find their origin in the Lutheran Christian tradition though now used in many Christian denominations such as the Catholic Church and Methodist Church, are used to decorate churches during the liturgical season of Advent; during the period of Christmastide, Christian churches display the traditional Christmas tree in their sanctuaries.[152] In 2005, the city of Boston renamed the spruce tree used to decorate the Boston Common a "Holiday Tree" rather than a "Christmas Tree".[153] The name change was reversed after the city was threatened with several lawsuits.[154] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees

Jacaranda. Windsor, NSW.
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The History of Christmas Trees
How Christmas Trees Started Evergreen trees (and other evergreen plants) have traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals (pre-Christian/pagan and Christian) for thousands of years. Pre-Christian/Pagans used branches of evergreen trees to decorate their homes during the winter solstice, as it made them think of the spring to come. The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia. However, they were quite different to what we now think of as Christmas Trees. Nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees. It probably began about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe. Christmas Trees might well have started out as 'Paradise Trees' (branches or wooden frames decorated with apples). These were used in medieval German Mystery or Miracle Plays that were acted out in front of Churches during Advent and on Christmas Eve. In early church calendars of saints, 24th December was Adam and Eve's day. The Paradise Tree represented the Garden of Eden. It was often paraded around the town before the play started, as a way of advertising the play. The plays told Bible stories to people who could not read. Christmas Trees as they came to be now started around the late 1400s into the 1500s. In what's now Germany (was the Holy Roman Empire then), the Paradise Tree had more decorations on it (sometimes communion wafers, cherries and later pastry decorations of stars, bells, angels, etc. were added) and it even got a new nickname the 'Christbaum' or 'Christ Tree'. Some early Christmas Trees, across many parts of northern Europe, were cherry or hawthorn plants (or a branch of the plant) that were put into pots and brought inside so they would hopefully flower at Christmas time. If you couldn't afford a real plant, people made pyramids of woods and they were decorated to look like a tree with paper, apples and candles. It's possible that the wooden pyramid trees were meant to be like Paradise Trees. Sometimes they were carried around from house to house, rather than being displayed in a home. Some trees (or at least small tops of them or branches of fir trees) were hung from the ceiling, mainly in some parts of Germany, some Slavic countries and parts of Poland. This might have been to save space or they just looked nice hanging from the rafters! (If you have lighting hooks on the ceiling, they would also be an obvious place to hang things from.) The First Recorded Christmas Trees The first documented use of a tree at Christmas and New Year celebrations is argued between the cities of Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia! Both claim that they had the first trees; Tallinn in 1441 and Riga in 1510. Both trees were put up by the 'Brotherhood of Blackheads' which was an association of local unmarried merchants, ship owners, and foreigners in Livonia (what is now Estonia and Latvia). Little is known about either tree apart from that they were put in the town square, were danced around by the Brotherhood of Blackheads and were then set on fire. This is like the custom of the Yule Log. The word used for the 'tree' could also mean a mast or pole, tree might have been like a 'Paradise Tree' or a tree-shaped wooden candelabra rather than a 'real' tree. In the town square of Riga, the capital of Latvia, there is a plaque which is engraved with "The First New Year's Tree in Riga in 1510", in eight languages. A picture from Germany in 1521 which shows a tree being paraded through the streets with a man riding a horse behind it. The man is dressed a bishop, possibly representing St. Nicholas. Also in 1521, on December 21st, records in the town of Sélestat, in the Alsace region in north east France, show that 4 shillings were paid to a forest ranger to "watch over a tree from St Thomas". But this might not have been a 'Christmas Tree' as December 21st is also the feast day of St Thomas the Apostle. Also in the town of Turckheim in Alsace, from 1576 there's a record of a sculpture/decoration of a Christmas Tree on a keystone. In nearby Strasbourg, also in Alsace, a Christmas Tree was set-up in the Cathedral in 1539. In 1584, the historian Balthasar Russow wrote about a tradition, in Riga, of a decorated fir tree in the market square where the young men “went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame”. There's a record of a small tree in Breman, Germany from 1570. It is described as a tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers". It was displayed in a 'guild-house' (the meeting place for a society of business men in the city). Cones on a Fir Tree The first person to bring a Christmas Tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th century German preacher Martin Luther. A story is told that, one night before Christmas, he was walking through the forest and looked up to see the stars shining through the tree branches. It was so beautiful, that he went home and told his children that it reminded him of Jesus, who left the stars of heaven to come to earth at Christmas. So he brought a tree into his house and decorated it with candles to represent the stars. Some people say this is the same tree as the 'Riga' tree, but it isn't! The story about Martin Luther seems to date to about 1536 and Riga tree originally took place a couple of decades earlier. The custom of having Christmas trees could well have travelled along the Baltic sea, from Latvia to Germany. In the 1400s and 1500s, the countries which are now Germany and Latvia were them part of two larger empires which were neighbors. Fir, or other evergreen trees like conifers, were common throughout northern Europe at this time, so that's why firs and conifers became the 'standard' Christmas Tree. Another story says that St. Boniface of Crediton (a village in Devon, UK) left England in the 8th century and traveled to Germany to preach to the pre-Christian/pagan German tribes and convert them to Christianity. He is said to have come across a group of pre-Christian/pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree in honour of Thor. In anger, and to stop the sacrifice, St. Boniface cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith and his followers decorated the tree with candles so that St. Boniface could preach to the pre-Christian/pagans at night. St Boniface was certainly involved in spreading Christianity in parts of Germany, although the legends of the tree seems to have started several centuries later and they're not mentioned in the early writings about St Boniface. Hanging Trees upside down has also been connected with St. Boniface. One story/theory says that he used the 'triangle' shape of an upside down fir tree to help explain the trinity in the Christian faith (God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit). Being upside down it that looked a bit like a cross and so also helped to explain the crucifixion. There is another legend, from Germany, about how the Christmas Tree came into being, it goes: Once on a cold Christmas Eve night, a forester and his family were in their cottage gathered round the fire to keep warm. Suddenly there was a knock on the door. When the forester opened the door, he found a poor little boy standing on the door step, lost and alone. The forester welcomed him into his house and the family fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest son's own bed (he had to share with his brother that night!). The next morning, Christmas Morning, the family were woken up by a choir of angels, and the poor little boy had turned into Jesus, the Christ Child. The Christ Child went into the front garden of the cottage and broke a branch off a Fir tree and gave it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. So ever since them, people have remembered that night by bringing a Christmas Tree into their homes! The First Christmas Tree Decorations In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. In 1605 an unknown German wrote: "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlours of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc.". Some other trees were used in different parts of Germany, such as box or Yew. In the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz it was common to decorate just a branch of a yew tree. At first, a figure of the Baby Jesus was put on the top of the tree. Over time it changed into a star like the Wise Men saw or an angel/fairy that told the shepherds about Jesus. The 'angel' might also might have started as a version of the 'Christkind' which translates as 'The Christ Child' but is normally shown as a little angel figure with blond hair! The first Christmas Tree in the UK was probably set-up by Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III. Queen Charlotte grew up in Mecklenburg-Strelitz and in the 1790s there are records of her having a yew branch in Kew Palace or Windsor Castle. She helped to decorate it herself and it became a popular event for the royal court. In 1800 she had a full yew tree set-up at the Queen’s Lodge in Windsor for a children's party for rich and noble families. Dr John Watkins, who went to the party described the tree like this: "...from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged; the whole illuminated by small wax candles.". And "...after the company had walked round and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets it bore, together with a toy, and then all returned home quite delighted.". Soon having a tree had become popular amongst some rich families. Queen Charlotte died in 1818 and by then, having a Christmas Tree was a tradition among much of the upper classes. There's no mention of a Christmas Tree in 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens, which was published in 1843. A drawing of the famous Royal Christmas Tree from 1848 They became very popular throughout the country from the mid 1840s, when reports of 'the Royal tree' were printed in newspapers. In 1848, a drawing of "The Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle" was published in the Illustrated London News. It showed Queen Victoria, her German Husband Prince Albert and their young children around a tree which was set-up on a table. The drawing was republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850 (but they removed the Queen's crown and Prince Albert's moustache to make it look 'American'!). The publication of the drawing helped Christmas Trees become popular in the UK and USA. The custom of Christmas Trees had been taken to the USA by settlers from Germany and other European countries. However, they were seen as a rather strange decoration until the publication of the drawing of the British Royal family's Christmas Tree! In Victorian times, the tree would have been decorated with candles to represent stars. In many parts of Europe, candles are still used to decorate Christmas trees. Christmas Tree 'skirts' started as Christmas Tree 'carpets'. They were made from heavy fabric, often decorated and with fancy frills around the edges, and were used either on the floor, or on tables, and went under the trees and their stands - rather than 'around' them. They were used to catch the needles from the trees and also protect the floor or table tops from dripping wax coming from the candles on the trees. In Germany in the early/mid 1800s it was also 'fashionable' to have a forest scene and/or a nativity scene under trees (especially if the trees were placed on tables) and so these scenes also stood on the Tree carpets. At this point trees were either normally put in pots (if they still had roots on them) or they were attached to a larger piece of wood or other heavy support (if they'd been cut) and so the scenes help to hide these. In the 1860s proper metal tree holders, for cut trees, started being made. If you were rich, you could get them in very fancy shapes - and some even had music boxes in them, so they 'plinked' Christmas tunes! Less expensive tree holders also became available and were made out of cheaper metals (and they also didn't look so good), so the 'carpets' became smaller and were also put 'around' the tree holders and became the Christmas tree skirts that we have today. Lead and glass decorations started being made in the 1860s and 1870s. Some of the first glass decorations were apples - and that's probably where round, red, baubles on Christmas Trees comes from! Frank Woolworth started selling glass ornaments in his stores in the USA in 1880. There's also the legend of The Christmas Pickle ornament! Candles were the main way of having lights on Christmas Trees for hundreds of years. However, they could easily cause a fire. The first electric Christmas Lights were invented in the late 1800s and changed how Christmas Trees (and many other things) were lighted forever. The most lights lit at the same time on a Christmas tree is 194,672 and was done by Kiwanis Malmedy / Haute Fagnes Belgium in Malmedy, Belgium, on 10 December 2010! In 1895 the President of the USA, Grover Cleveland, had the tree in the White House decorated with lights as his young daughters liked them! The tradition of the National Christmas Tree on the White House lawn started in 1923 with President Calvin Coolidge. Many towns and villages have their own Christmas Trees. One of the most famous is the tree in Trafalgar Square in London, England, which is given to the UK by Norway every year as a 'thank you' present for the help the UK gave Norway in World War II. The White House in the USA has had a big tree on the front lawn since the 1920s. The record for the most Christmas trees chopped down in two minutes is 27 and belongs to Erin Lavoie from the USA. She set the record on 19th December 2008 on the set of Guinness World Records: Die GroBten Weltrekorde in Germany. Tinsel and The Legend of the Christmas Spider Tinsel was first created in Nuremberg, Germany in the 1878 when thin strips of silver foil were sold as 'Icicles'. In 1880 'angel hair, made from spun glass was sold. The first 'tinsel' garlands were sold in the 1890s from silver plated copper wire. But when plastic/man made tinsel was invented, it became very popular as it was much cheaper than metal tinsel and also lighter to go on the tree! There are also folk stories about how tinsel was created - by The Christmas Spider! These tales seem to have started in Eastern Germany, Poland or Ukraine but are also told in parts of Finland and Scandinavia. The stories are now also popular in other countries such as the USA; although I live in the UK and most people in my country have never heard of the story/legend! All the versions of the story involve a poor family who can't afford to decorate a Tree for Christmas (in some versions the tree grew from a pine cone in their house, in others the family have bought a tree into the house). When the children go to sleep on Christmas Eve a spider covers the tree in cobwebs. Then on Christmas morning the cobwebs are magically turned into silver and gold strands which decorate the tree! Some versions of the story say that it's the light of the sun which changed the cobwebs into silver and gold but other versions say it's St Nicholas / Santa Claus / Father Christmas / das Christkind which made the magic happen. In parts of Germany, Poland, and Ukraine it's meant to be good luck to find a spider or a spider's web on your Christmas Tree. Spider's web Christmas Tree decorations are also popular in Ukraine. They're called 'pavuchky' (which means 'little spider') and the decorations are normally made of paper and silver wire. You might even put an artificial spider's web on your tree! Artificial Christmas Trees Artificial Christmas Trees really started becoming popular in the early 20th century. In the Edwardian period Christmas Trees made from colored ostrich feathers were popular at 'fashionable' parties. Around 1900 there was even a short fashion for white trees - so if you thought colored trees are a new invention they're not! Over the years artificial trees have been made from feathers, papier mâché, metal, glass, and many different types of plastic. According to The Guinness World Records, the tallest cut Christmas tree was a 67.36m (221 ft) Douglas fir setup at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington, USA, in December 1950. The tallest artificial Christmas tree was 72.1m (236.5ft) tall and was made by the Arjuna Ranatunga Social Services (Sri Lanka), in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 24 December 2016. In many countries, different trees are used as Christmas trees. In New Zealand a tree called the 'Pōhutakawa' that has red flowers is sometimes used and in India, Banana or Mango trees are sometimes decorated. In Puerto Rico you might use a palm leaf to decorate your home. In the Dominican Republic there's a decoration called 'Charamicos' (a slang word for a dry tree branch) which are made from straw of flexible wood and painted white. They were originally made to look like small Christmas Trees but are now in lots of shapes like stars and animals. You can decorate an online Christmas Tree in the fun section of the site! www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmas-trees