It's that time of year again, time to get into the cobweb filled attic and drag down the spider filled boxes of Christmas decorations. Then we set up our Charlie Brown Christmas tree and put on the lights, ornaments and finishing touches. It has become a family tradition on Thanksgiving weekend to put up the Christmas tree and decorate it. Lately the kids have been taking on the majority of the responsibility of decorating. Seems like they have more time and energy than mom and dad these days. So what it is it about the Christmas tree that we all seem to have one in our homes each year for a short 1 month or so. From what I can gather the Christmas tree predates the 1500's and was first decorated by the Romans as far back as the year 390. The first modern Christmas trees were from the 1500's these trees were set up in homes but were not decorated. The oldest record of a decorated tree is from 1605 in Strasburg, the tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies. The first recorded use of Christmas trees in the U.S. were used in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1747. These were not actual trees but wooden pyramids with evergreen branches attached and decorated with candles. Real trees were later introduced but were never really widely accepted as part of the Christmas ritual. It took a while for the tree to take hold in America but by 1850 the Christmas tree had become quite fashionable in the eastern states. In 1923 President Calvin Coolidge lit the first National Christmas Tree on the White House lawn. This is a brief history of the Christmas tree, if you want to find out more you can visit http://pickyourownchristmastree.org/traditions.php which is where I found the information for this article. I don't know about you but I am glad that this is a part of the Christmas tradition still today. When I see our Charlie Brown looking tree all decorated up I realize what the tree does for me. It reminds me of all the wonderful years as a child decorating the tree with my mom and dad.
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