Let’s talk about Christmas decorations

We do this every year: we put up the tree, decorate the house with lights and bring out the Christmas fabrics.

One of the most fun aspects of the season is decorating your home with a tree, copious amounts of lights, decorations, and an assortment of reindeer.

But decorations aside, perhaps a true appreciation of Christmas decorations is only possible if we consider the strange and wonderful reasons why they evolved into what they are today.

Tinsel originated in Germany in the early 1600s, but it was very different from the shiny plastic tinsel we use today: back then it was crushed silver. Real silver.

Tinsmiths of old hammered silver until it was thin, then cut it into strips. No one seems to have recorded the name of the clever person who invented the tin, but it was so popular that machines began producing as much of it as possible to keep up with demand.

Eventually, people realized that smoke from Christmas candles caused lamé to turn black, so later versions were made with tin and lead. That version proved too heavy for a Christmas tree, so the English took over and invented the shiny silver tinsel we enjoy today.

Once again the Germans came forward in the field of decorative inventions. Globes were first invented in Lauscha, by a local Hans Greiner, who built them first in the late 1840s. The first globes were made of glass in the shape of fruits and nuts, later evolving into a more spherical shape.

It is said that Queen Victoria of Great Britain was quite attracted to the tradition of globes and brought them from Germany to Europe in the mid to late 1800s.

American retailer F.W. Woolworth made a fortune importing globes into the country in the 1880s. By 1890 it was said to sell $25 million a year.

At first globes were only for the rich as they were handmade and made of glass. But it wasn’t long before a plastic version was made, allowing for cheaper production and accessibility for all.

In Britain, Queen Victoria declared it bad luck to keep Christmas decorations up after the twelfth day of Christmas, January 5th. Many people continue this tradition and it’s a clever way to get family members to start packing up decorations and putting them away for next year.

Green fir was originally used by pagans and Christians to celebrate winter. Pagans used fir branches to decorate their homes during the winter solstice because it was said to make them believe that spring was near.

The Romans used fir trees to decorate their temples during the Saturnalia festival, and Christians began to use the fir tree as a sign of eternal life with God.

No one seems to know exactly when fir trees were first used as Christmas trees, but the generally accepted idea is that it started about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe. It appears that many early Christmas trees were hung from the ceiling upside down using chains (hung from chandeliers or light hooks).

In some parts of Northern Europe, other Christmas trees included cherry or hawthorn plants. They were repotted in the hope that they would flower at Christmas time. For those who couldn’t afford a plant, the substitute was a wooden pyramid, which was then decorated to look like a tree with paper, apples and candles. The modern version is the artificial Christmas tree.

Read here what the advantages of having an artificial Christmas tree are: Oh, beautiful tree!

In Victorian times the tree was decorated with candles to represent the stars. In many parts of Europe candles are still used to decorate the Christmas tree.

American insurance companies in the United States tried to pass a law to ban the use of candles on Christmas trees due to the numerous fires they caused.

Later, in 1882, Edward Johnson, Thomas Edison’s partner (inventor of the light bulb), lit a Christmas tree electrically for the first time. The tree was in the living room of his home in New York, located in the first area of ​​that city to be connected to electricity. The spectacle caused quite a stir and was recorded by a visiting reporter named Croffut in the Detroit Post and Tribune:

In 1895, an American, Ralph Morris, created other versions of electric Christmas lights, similar to those used today.

Various decorations:

Over the years, plastic variations of reindeer, stars, fruit, butterflies, birds and gingerbread men have evolved; from cheap plastic types to more expensive glass. Which leads to the debate of whether a star or an angel has the “right” to grace the top of the tree.

Another popular home decoration was holly branches. With their bright red fruits, they created a sweet contrast with the white mistletoe. The two elements were woven together to create Sacred Branches to hang on the entrance door.