Amazing Christmas Trees Facts

PowerPoint PresentationAmazing
Christmas
Trees
Facts
Overview
“O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree. How lovely are thy branches.” Christmas is the most wonderful
time of the year, and the Christmas tree is a huge part of that. What’s Christmas without a Christmas
tree? Let’s discover some amazing Christmas tree facts!
Christmas trees are one of the first signs that the festive season is upon us, along with its evergreen
smell. You may be surprised to hear that there’s a long history of Christmas trees which began well
before the birth of Christ.
Christmas trees used to hang like
chandeliers in Poland
Don't be alarmed if you see a tree hanging upside
down from the ceiling. This trend actually
originated in medieval times, according to The
Spruce. Legend goes that a Benedictine monk used
the triangle shape of the inverted tree to explain
the Holy Trinity to pagans. But the idea really took
off in the 1900s in Poland with podazniczek, a
custom where Polish people decorated the
branches with fruit, nuts, and ribbons, then hung
the tree from the ceiling!
Ukrainians decorate their Christmas
trees with spider webs
it, so on Christmas Eve, she went to bed crying.
That night, spiders heard her tears and
proceeded to cover the tree with delicate,
glistening webs. Some versions of the story say
the webs actually turned into silver and gold,
while others say they merely looked like precious
metals—either way, the widow felt rich come
Christmas morning.
first to put electric lights on a
Christmas tree
but let's not let Edison take more credit than he
deserves. It was actually his colleague and friend,
Edward Johnson, who first thought of putting
electric lights on a Christmas tree instead of the
traditional candles, according to the Library of
Congress. However, the first bulb-lit tree did stand
in Edison's power plant in Manhattan in 1882, set on
a rotating box so that passersby could see all 80
blinking red, white, and blue lights. No one had seen
anything like it.
fire
ceremonies involved adorning a fir tree with
paper flowers, singing and dancing around it, and
then—brace yourself—lighting the entire thing
on fire. According to The New York Times, that
all took place in the town square of Riga, the
capital city of Latvia, in 1510. (Although Tallinn,
the capital of Estonia, claims it was the first to
celebrate in 1441.)
Christmas trees
are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Fraser fir, balsam fir,
and white pine. However, in the early days
before everyone settled on firs and pines, some
Europeans used cherry or hawthorn trees as
their Christmas greenery, according to
Sandborn. The appeal of these trees was in their
flowers. If you cut off a branch, brought it inside,
and set it in a pot of water, it would flower just
in time for Christmas.
According to the National Christmas Tree
Association (NCTA), 25 to 30 million live
trees are harvested annually from a crop of
about 350 million trees in farms across the
United States. The total land needed for all
those farms comes to 547 square miles—
about twice the size of the greater Chicago
area. Fortunately, these farms help preserve
green space, and they also employ about
100,000 Americans each year. (Alternatively,
as the NCTA point outs, most artificial trees
are made in China.)
It's a commonly held myth that Christmas trees
are grown in all 50 states. According to a map
published by NBC, there are no tree farms in
New Mexico, South Dakota, or Wyoming. In fact,
the country gets most of its trees from Oregon
and North Carolina, the two states with the
largest production of Christmas trees.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree
idea came from construction workers
The huge holiday spectacle at Rockefeller Center in
New York City has humble beginnings. According to
The New York Times, the tradition started during
the Great Depression in 1931, when construction
workers put up a mere 20-foot tree in the plaza and
decorated it with paper garlands, strings of
cranberries, and tin cans. Today, a Norway spruce no
taller than 100 feet is chosen every year, trucked
into Manhattan, propped up in the plaza, and topped
with a Swarovski crystal star that weighs more than
9,000 pounds. Look how far she's come!
London's Trafalgar Square Christmas
Norway
Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. This tree is a
thank-you gift from Norway. Every year since 1947,
the people of Oslo have selected a 50- to 60-year-
old spruce tree to cut down and ship to London as
a way of showing gratitude to England for
supporting Norway in World War II. In turn,
Londoners decorate the tree in traditional
Norwegian style, with vertical strings of lights
descending from the star on top.
Australian Christmas trees are the
world's largest parasites
Christmas tree," you might imagine a fir tree on
the beach, or possibly one in the ocean Down
Under. However, the plant that Australians call a
"Christmas tree" is actually an aggressive,
hemiparasitic type of mistletoe. This parasite is
believed to be the largest in the world, with its
roots stabbing victims up to 360 feet away! It
looks nothing like a conifer, but its yellow-
orange flowers bloom around the holidays,
hence the name.
were made of dyed goose feathers
and wire
If you prefer an artificial tree, you're not alone. It's
a cheaper and lower maintenance option, giving
parents and pet owners one less thing to worry
about during the holidays. Artificial trees date back
to the 1880s, when Germans looking to offset
deforestation made the first ones from dyed goose
feathers held together with wire. Since then,
people around the world have made fake trees out
of aluminum, cardboard, and glass, although most
artificial Christmas trees sold today are made out
of PVC plastic.
cost $80,000 to construct
In Colombo, Sri Lanka, a 236-foot tall tree made of
scrap metal and wood broke the Guinness World
Record in 2016 for the world's tallest artificial
Christmas tree. The tree was surrounded by some
controversy during construction—the local Catholic
archbishop thought it was a waste of money (about
$80,000) that should have gone to charity—and it
ultimately didn't stay up for long. It was dismantled in
2017 when folks realized it looked more like a rocket
than a fir tree.
decorations
decorated with gingerbread, apples, wafers, and
sweets – long before the idea of selection boxes
existed.
tree, you might very well be unknowingly
toting along a number of unwanted
critters.
insects and microorganisms, so when
you bring one home, make sure you
shake it thoroughly before bringing it
inside.
Germany
developed in Germany and later became popular in
the U.S., according to the University of Illinois.
They were constructed using green-dyed goose
feathers that were attached to wire branches. Those
branches were then wrapped around a central dowel
rod that served as the tree’s trunk.
Many people recycle their real
Christmas trees
recycling programs, and the trees have been
used to make sand and soil erosion barriers
and placed in ponds to provide shelter for
fish.
years to reach typical height
The typical height of a Christmas tree is about 6 or
7 feet, according to the National Christmas Tree
Association.
It can take as little as four years to reach this
height, but the average growing time is seven years.
The Vatican didn't get a Christmas
tree until 1982
Catholic church snubbed for hundreds of years.
It wasn't until 1982 that Pope John Paul II,
already known as a bit of a reformer, brought a
Christmas tree into the Vatican to sit beside the
traditional Italian Nativity crib. Today, Catholic
liturgy includes a prayer for officially blessing
your tree.
every year
an average of 160 household fires each year,
according to the National Fire Protection
Association. Collectively, those four years of
Christmas tree fires resulted in $10 million in
property damage and three deaths. To avoid
becoming a statistic, firefighters recommend
watering your tree daily, and—whether your tree
is real or artificial—you should keep any heat
sources at least three feet away, throw away any
damaged lights or frayed wires, and unplug the
lights when you go to bed at night or leave the
house.
Conclusion
Considered a must-have decoration for many who celebrate Christmas and open gifts with loved ones
each year, the Christmas tree’s interesting history most likely dates back at least two millennia.
With the Christmas tree’s lengthy history comes a number of fascinating facts about this popular
holiday staple.