Origin of Christmas tree traced to Germany’s Martin Luther

Many myths surround its origin of the Christmas tree. Protestant tradition credits Martin Luther, a German theologian and scholar, as the first person to decorate a Christmas tree.

Martin Luther was born in 1483 in Eisleben, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, about 125 miles southwest of Berlin. 

He became disenchanted with the Roman Catholic Church and broke away. He is credited with igniting the Protestant Revolution.

 

Walking home from church one cold, snowy winter evening, Martin Luther noticed how bright and plentiful the stars were. 

He brought an evergreen into his home. The tree represented the eternal love of God and the steadfastness of the Luther family’s faith. The Luthers decorated their tree with candles to symbolize the stars in the sky.

The “new tradition” spread quickly throughout the German countryside. German settlers would later bring the Christmas tree tradition to the American colonies, but the pious Puritans refused to join in, because they thought the whole notion of celebrating Christmas was a pagan custom, not a religious one.

Writing for History.com, author Christopher Klein said the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony “had contempt for Christmas and kept their shops and schools open and churches closed on Christmas, a holiday that some disparaged as ‘Foolstide.’”

In 1659, the Massachusetts general court “made it a criminal offense to publicly celebrate the Christmas holiday and declared that ‘whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting or any other way’ was subject to a 5-shilling fine.”

 

Klein said: “The prohibition of public Christmas celebrations was unique to Massachusetts, and under the reign of King Charles II, political pressure from the motherland steadily increased for the colony’s Puritan leaders to relax their intolerant laws or risk losing their royal charter

In 1681, the Massachusetts Bay Colony reluctantly repealed its most odious laws, including the ban on Christmas.”

“Not until 1856 did Christmas become a public holiday in Massachusetts,” Klein said.

They may have been influenced by acceptance of the Christmas tree in England in 1848, thanks to Prince Albert, who had been born and raised in the Bavarian section of Germany. 

He placed a decorated tree at Windsor Castle in Berkshire County, about 25 miles west of London.

 

Chloe Foussianes (shown below), a writer for Town & Country Magazine, based in New York City, said: “Unlike today’s royals, who aren’t particularly hands-on with Christmas decor, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were very much into the tradition. They brought a tree into Windsor Castle on Christmas Eve and would decorate it themselves.”

“They would light the candles and put gingerbread on the tree, and their nine children would be brought in.”

Foussianes said that Prince Albert sent decorated trees to schools and army barracks around Windsor, but an artist’s sketch published in 1848 in the Illustrated London News is likely what caused British citizens to become “tree crazy.”

 

The engraving published featured the Queen, the Prince and their children decorating a tree.

“Given the family-focused culture of the era, it wasn’t long before Christmas trees became a key component of a middle-class families’ holiday celebrations,” Foussianes wrote.

By the end of the 1840s, Christmas had become a festival celebration of the Victorian calendar.

 

Prince Albert married Queen Victoria in 1840. 

They were first cousins, and their union had been pre-arranged by family elders. She had ascended to the throne in 1837, at age 18, when her uncle, King William IV, died. Victoria was the only living heir.

 

 

 

After suffering from bouts of illness throughout his life, Albert died on in 1861, at age 42. 

Overwhelmed with grief, Queen Victoria withdrew from public duties, became reclusive and wore black mourning clothes for the rest of her life.

 

 

In modern times, members of the Royal Collection Trust decorate the 20-foot-tall Nordmann Fir located in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle. (Photo by Andrew Matthews for Getty Images.)