Christmas in American was a formal celebration lacking a festive atmosphere until the middle of the 19th century. That's when Christmas trees changed the tone of the season.
Europeans used evergreen branches to decorate inside and outside their houses during cold winter months to celebrate the upcoming spring and warmer weather. This practice goes back thousands of years before the Christian Era. People decorated the branches, and putting an entire tree into their homes was a natural progression.
The tradition of decorating trees for Christmas evolved into a popular tradition in Germany long before it started in America. Well into the 1800s, the strict Puritan belief that Christmas was a time for worship and not a time for celebration dominated the way the holiday was observed in America.
During the early 1900s, Irish and German immigrants brought their traditions of fun during Christmas, and people started to change their view of Christmas from strictly religious to joyful.
The biggest influence in using Christmas trees and making the holiday fun was Queen Victoria. She was queen of Great Britain from 1837 to 1901. During her reign, literacy in our country grew. The invention of the telegraph and the growth of popular newspapers made mass communication a major impact on society.
People started admiring the popular queen, and American society looked to copy all things British. Much like today, the royals were popular and admired by Americans.
Queen Victoria married Price Albert, a German. He brought his country's tradition of Christmas trees to England, and the idea spread to America.
In 1846, the queen and Price Albert were sketched in the "Illustrated London News" newspaper with their children around a Christmas tree. The sketch was accompanied with a detailed description of the decorated tree. It was about eight feet high with six tiers of branches. Each branch held up to 12 candles. An angel was placed on top of the tree.
American society embraced the idea of decorating trees in their homes. By the 1890s, the popularity of Christmas trees spread around the U.S. Early 20th Century Americans decorated their trees with homemade ornaments. The German-American crowd used apples, nuts, and cookies. Electricity replaced candles with Christmas lights. The lights were created by members of Thomas Edison's group of inventors.
Cities began placing Christmas trees in town squares, and communities accepted the trees as a sign of the season's celebration.
Top producing Christmas tree states are California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The best selling trees are Scotch Pine, Douglas Fir, Fraser Fir, Balsam Fir, and White Pine. The growing and selling of Christmas trees employs approximately 100,000 people in the U.S.
The American fascination with British royalty was responsible for the tradition of placing decorative trees in our living rooms this time of year.
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