50 Fun Facts About Christmas Tree

In which region did the modern Christmas tree custom first develop?

Protestant Christians in Germany and Livonia, now Estonia and Latvia, were the first to bring decorated trees indoors.

The earliest record of a Christmas tree in a church is from 1539 in which cathedral?

It was put up under the Protestant reformer Martin Bucer.

Which guild in Tallinn and Riga put up holiday trees as early as 1441?

They set the trees up in their guild houses, and one 1584 account describes the young men dancing round the tree and setting it alight.

Which Protestant reformer is sometimes credited with first putting lighted candles on an evergreen tree?

Moravian Christians later made candlelit trees common, before electric lights took over.

An 1848 engraving of which royal family's tree made Christmas trees fashionable in Britain and America?

When an American magazine copied the picture two years later it removed the queen's tiara and Albert's moustache to make it look American.

What did Godey's Lady's Book remove from the royal Christmas tree picture when it reprinted it?

The trick turned a Windsor Castle scene into an all-American family Christmas.

Who created the first known electrically lit Christmas tree, at his New York home in 1882?

He was a vice president of Edison's electric company and had 80 walnut-sized red, white and blue bulbs made specially.

How many bulbs were on that first electric Christmas tree of 1882?

They were hand-wired and coloured red, white and blue.

Modern tinsel was invented around 1610 in which German city, and made from what?

Silver tarnished too fast, so cheaper shiny metals and later synthetic strands took its place.

The mould-blown glass bauble was invented in which small German town?

Hans Greiner started with garlands of glass beads and tin figures, and the town's artisans grew into a whole ornament industry.

What were the earliest German artificial Christmas trees made from?

They were a response to deforestation, with the feathers fixed to wire branches.

The first artificial tree made from brush bristles was created in 1930 by a British company known for making what?

Addis used the same animal-hair bristles as its brushes, only dyed green.

Where were aluminium Christmas trees first manufactured in the United States, in 1958?

Most were later made in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Charlie Brown's TV special helped kill the fad.

Which US president put up the first Christmas tree in the White House, in 1889?

The National Christmas Tree on the South Lawn has been lit every year since 1923.

The National Christmas Tree on the White House South Lawn has been lit every year since when?

It grew into one of the biggest annual events at the White House.

The famous Rockefeller Center tree in New York has been a tradition since which year?

It is usually a giant spruce between 69 and 100 feet tall.

Roughly how many lights are hung on the Rockefeller Center tree?

Workers on scaffolding string the multicoloured LEDs, and since 2018 the star on top has been made of Swarovski crystal.

The city of Oslo has given London a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square every year since when?

It thanks Britain for its support of Norway during World War II.

How old is the giant spruce that Oslo sends to Trafalgar Square, typically?

It is usually more than 20 metres tall and is cut in a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Westminster.

The tree of paradise in medieval mystery plays, a possible Christmas tree ancestor, was staged on which date?

That was the name day of Adam and Eve, and the tree was hung with apples.

The Vatican did not put up its first Christmas tree until which year?

The custom began among Lutherans, so the Catholic Church was a late adopter.

What does the traditional tree topper represent, according to the Nativity story?

Both come straight from the Nativity story.

A legend from the year 723 has Saint Boniface chopping down what to end a pagan sacrifice?

Later versions add that a fir grew in its place, its triangular shape standing for the Trinity.

The phrase 'Charlie Brown Christmas tree' comes from a TV special first shown in which year?

The special is also blamed for ending the aluminium-tree craze.

Which fir, grown in the mountains of North Carolina, has been called the Cadillac of Christmas Trees?

It is also called the most popular and most valuable of Christmas tree species in North America.

Roughly how many Christmas trees are harvested in Europe each year?

They are worth around 2.4 billion euros.

About how long does a Christmas tree grow on a farm before it is cut?

Almost all trees in the US now come from farms, and a new tree is planted for each one cut.

What is a chichilaki?

Georgians say it looks like the beard of Saint Basil, and it is burned before Epiphany to send off the old year's troubles.

What does Tannenbaum, as in the carol O Tannenbaum, mean in German?

The song began as a folk tune about the fir's faithfulness before it became a Christmas carol.

What were the earliest decorated German trees hung with?

Sweets for the apprentices came next, in the guild halls.

Which German immigrant to Wooster, Ohio, cut a blue spruce in 1847 and had a tinsmith make a star for it?

He decorated it with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and Kuchen, and locals still credit him with Ohio's first tree.

Which is generally the cheapest, original Christmas tree species used in northern Europe?

Firs are now more popular because they hold their needles when they dry out.

Why did firs become the most commonly used Christmas tree genus in the 21st century?

They also keep good colour and scent indoors.

What can a real Christmas tree be recycled into after the holidays?

Artificial trees, mostly PVC, are usually neither recyclable nor biodegradable.

What are most modern artificial Christmas trees made from?

Much of it is plastic recycled from used packaging.

Which country's tree stands in Boston every Christmas as a thank-you gift?

Nova Scotia sends it in gratitude for Boston's help after the Halifax Explosion of 1917.

Which mountain light display in Italy is sometimes called the tallest Christmas tree in the world?

It is drawn in lights on the mountainside above the town of Gubbio.

What restriction in 1933 turned Christmas tree growing into a real industry in Britain?

Within eighty years, millions of trees a year were being grown in Britain for Christmas.

According to tradition, it is unlucky to take the Christmas tree down before when?

Some customs say if you miss that deadline you should leave it up until Candlemas in February.

Since the 20th century, where have most Christmas trees in Britain come from?

Wild forests once supplied them; farmed trees took over during the 20th century.

Soldiers from where brought the Christmas tree to North America in 1781, while garrisoning Québec?

General Riedesel and his wife threw a Christmas party for officers at Sorel, Quebec, with a fir decorated with candles and fruit.

The earliest firmly dated image of a Christmas tree, from 1576, is carved where?

The sculpture sits on a private home in Turckheim, then part of the Holy Roman Empire and now in France.

On the Soviet 'New Year spruce', introduced in 1935, what was the topper said to represent?

Secular ornaments such as cosmonauts, rockets and bicycles followed, and the New Year holiday still outweighs Christmas for most Russians.

Newcastle upon Tyne's civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from which Norwegian city?

It thanks the Newcastle soldiers who helped liberate the city from Nazi occupation; Norway sends a separate tree to Washington, D.C. each year too.

On which feast day do Italians traditionally put up their Christmas tree?

That is 8 December, though Milan waits for Saint Ambrose on the 7th and Bari goes early on the 6th; trees stay up until Epiphany.

Roughly how many Christmas trees are produced in the United States each year?

Americans spent about $2 billion on real trees in 2016 and nearly as much again on artificial ones.

Which species is by far the most common Christmas tree in Australia?

Pinus radiata is a Californian native grown widely in plantations; some Australians instead pot up a native Albany woolly bush.

The Macy's Great Tree has been lit every year since 1948 in which US city?

Big outdoor civic trees became common only in the early 20th century, from New York to Victoria Square in Adelaide.

Which queen put up Italy's first Christmas tree, at the Quirinal Palace in Rome?

Ordinary Italian families only adopted the custom in the 1960s, often using branches of cypress, oak or cork.

Why were upside-down artificial Christmas trees originally introduced?

Hanging them from the ceiling let shoppers get closer to the baubles for sale and freed floor space for more stock.