41 Fun Facts About Christmas Tree

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

Central Europe and the Baltics: German settlers later carried the custom across the Atlantic to North America.

A 1539 record puts a Christmas tree inside which cathedral, then led by the reformer Martin Bucer?

Strasbourg: the city had turned Protestant in the Reformation, and in 1681 Louis XIV of France seized it.

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

The Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild of unmarried merchants, set up trees in their guild houses in Tallinn from 1441 and in Riga by 1510; a 1584 chronicle describes 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?

Martin Luther is said to have added the candles, and electric Christmas lights later took their place.

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

The Illustrated London News printed an engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's decorated tree at Windsor Castle in December 1848, and the fashion spread quickly through the British middle classes and across the Atlantic.

Which ornament do some American families hide on the Christmas tree for someone to find?

A pickle: whoever finds it first wins an extra present or good luck for the coming year.

The first known electric Christmas tree was lit in 1882 by a vice-president of whose company?

Thomas Edison: electric tree lights stayed too costly for most families at first, and they replaced candles on most trees only around 1930.

Modern tinsel was invented around 1610 in which German city?

Nuremberg: traditional tinsel was cut from tin-lead foil, heavy enough to hang straight, until lighter plastic strands took over.

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

Lauscha: around 1880 the American retailer F. W. Woolworth began bringing its glass baubles to the United States for his stores.

What were the earliest German artificial Christmas trees made from?

Green-dyed goose feathers: as German forests dwindled, families made these wire-branched feather trees as a stand-in for real evergreens.

The 'Christmas Tree Ship' Rouse Simmons sank in a 1912 storm on which Great Lake?

Lake Michigan: everyone aboard was lost, but the captain's widow and daughters kept the family's Christmas tree business going for years.

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

Aluminium trees were first made in Chicago in 1958; most were later produced in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the Aluminum Specialty Company, and the Charlie Brown TV special helped kill the fad.

In 1979, why was only the National Christmas Tree's star lit?

For the hostages in Iran: 50 smaller trees were lit, one for each hostage, and President Carter promised to light the rest when they came home.

Which president lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in 1923?

Calvin Coolidge: that first tree was a cut balsam fir, but from the next year living trees were lit instead, until 1953.

Builders started Rockefeller Center's tree tradition during which crisis?

The Great Depression: the construction workers pooled their money to buy that first small tree.

Which author's tale follows an evergreen that longs for Christmas, then is chopped up?

Andersen: left in a dark loft after Christmas, the fir finally sighs, 'Had I but rejoiced when I had reason to do so!'

Oslo's annual Trafalgar Square tree thanks Britain for support during which war?

World War II: King Haakon VII spent the German occupation in exile in Britain, returning home in June 1945.

Which composer's ballet is set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree?

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker's first performance was a failure, and the ballet only became a favourite years later.

Medieval 'paradise plays' used a fir hung with apples to stand for which tree?

The tree of knowledge: the plays were given on 24 December, the feast day of Adam and Eve, with apples for the forbidden fruit and wafers for the Eucharist.

Which pope introduced the Christmas tree to St Peter's Square?

John Paul II: the Polish-born pope started the tradition in 1982, and each year since, a different country or region has donated the tree.

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

A star or angel topper stands for the Star of Bethlehem and the angel Gabriel respectively: the star guided the Magi to the stable, and Gabriel announced the birth, both in the Nativity story.

Around 723, Saint Boniface is said to have chopped down what, sacred to the god Donar?

A giant oak: its timber was reportedly used to build a church dedicated to Saint Peter on the spot.

Which 1965 special mocked aluminium Christmas trees?

A Charlie Brown Christmas: it cemented the shiny trees' reputation for bad taste, and by about 1967 their heyday was over.

Which fir, found in the wild only in the southern Appalachian Mountains, is widely grown as a Christmas tree?

Fraser fir: in the wild, an introduced insect, the balsam woolly adelgid, has killed large numbers of mature trees.

In Dr. Seuss's story, which little Who catches the Grinch taking her family's Christmas tree?

Cindy-Lou Who: the Grinch fobs her off with a crafty lie, then strips the other houses in Whoville of their trees too.

What is a chichilaki?

A chichilaki is a Georgian tree made of shaved hazelnut branches, dried and curled into strips; Georgians say it resembles 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?

Apples, nuts and sweets: early guild trees were hung with treats for apprentices and children to collect.

Which British Labour Party anthem is sung to the tune of 'O Tannenbaum'?

The Red Flag: its Irish writer, Jim Connell, had first set it to a different tune, a Jacobite anthem by Robert Burns.

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

Norway spruce: it is thought to have grown wild in the British Isles before the last Ice Age, and it was later reintroduced.

Firs became the most used Christmas tree genus mainly because of what?

They keep their needles: firs don't shed when they dry out, which is why the soft-needled Nordmann fir is now the most used Christmas tree.

What tiny stowaway was found inside the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in 2020?

An owl: rescuers nicknamed the little saw-whet owl Rocky, short for Rockefeller, and after a few days of care released her into the wild.

What are most modern artificial Christmas trees made from?

Most modern artificial trees are made from PVC plastic, polyvinyl chloride cut into needle-like strips and wound onto wire branches, largely in Chinese factories; PVC is neither recyclable in ordinary schemes nor biodegradable.

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

Canada: the province of Nova Scotia sends Boston the tree to thank the city for rushing help after the 1917 Halifax Explosion.

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

Mount Ingino: in 2014 Pope Francis switched the display on from the Vatican using a tablet, as Pope Benedict XVI had done in 2011.

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

Twelfth Night, 5 or 6 January, is the traditional deadline: taking the tree down earlier is said to bring bad luck, and some customs add that if you miss it you must leave the tree up until Candlemas in February.

Which native tree is known as New Zealand's Christmas tree?

Pōhutukawa: its crimson flowers peak around Christmas, but human activity and introduced pests such as possums have long threatened the tree.

Where in Quebec did Baroness von Riedesel put up a candlelit Christmas tree in 1781?

Sorel: Baron Riedesel was posted there with German troops whose services Britain had bought for the American War of Independence.

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

The Red Star: the tree had been condemned as a religious custom, until a Pravda letter by Pavel Postyshev in December 1935 called for its return.

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

The Immaculate Conception: families often set up the nativity scene that day too, in some traditions leaving the baby Jesus out until Christmas Eve.

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

Margherita of Savoy: from the royal palace, the German custom went on to spread into Italian homes during the 20th century.