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Surprising Stories Behind Popular Christmas Decorations (Part 1)

_Elsa_
_Elsa_ Posts: 37,080
edited December 2021 in Discussions

Like clockwork, holiday-happy decorators annually pull their Christmas decor from storage and deck the halls at the end of November and early December. But have you ever stopped to wonder why you trim that tree, or go crazy for Christmas crackers? Read on to learn the fascinating origins—and longstanding legends—behind classic Christmastime decorations.

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A medieval play inspired the characteristic colors of Christmas - Why do we go gaga for green and red on everything from ribbons to wrapping paper at Christmastime? The colors are thought to be inspired by the Paradise tree, a fir tree with apples that was used as a prop in “The Paradise Play,” an eleventh-century play about the Christian view of Creation. The tree represented the Garden of Eden, its red apples were a symbol of the knowledge that led to Adam’s fall, and the green fir represented eternal life. As for the white wafers that adorned the tree, they represented innocence. The play became associated with Christmas because of its religious themes.

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Egyptians were early adopters of Christmas trees - First bringing decorated trees into their homes in the 16th century, German Christians are credited with inaugurating the tradition of displaying Christmas trees indoors. But did you know that Egyptians embraced evergreens even earlier? Ancient Egyptians decked out their homes in green palm rushes on the winter solstice to celebrate the sun god Ra’s recovery from the ills of winter, which they believed symbolized life conquering death.

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Luther lit them up - Legend has it that while walking home from the woods one winter’s night in the 16th century, Martin Luther was so moved by the sight of the stars shining above the evergreens that he recreated the shimmering spectacle at home by adding small lit candles to the branches of a fir tree he personally cut down. And so the tradition of adding lighted candles to Christmas trees began.

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Tinsel was a status symbol - In 1610, when silver was a precious commodity, Germans in Nuremberg displayed strands of silver, which came to be known as tinsel, on their Christmas trees. Not only did the tinsel display their wealth, but it also helped reflect the light of candles that were placed on trees. Cheaper materials, including copper and tin, were swapped for silver to make the decor more accessible to the less well-heeled, but these materials became scarce during World War I, leading to their replacement with aluminum (which they learned was a fire hazard) and lead (which turned out to be poisonous). Today’s tinsel is largely made of polyvinyl chloride and shaped it into its characteristic bands with the help of modern-day machinery.

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Edible ornaments Christmas - The tradition of adding ornaments to trees kicked off in Germany in the 1600s, when fruits and nuts were laid on evergreens. Manufactured ornaments became all the rage when an image of Queen Victoria and the German Prince Albert’s Christmas tree, decked in baubles, was published in 1848 in “The Illustrated London News.” Wealthy consumers in America followed suit, and by the turn of the 20th century, Woolworths was selling $25 million in German-imported ornaments to consumers who were eager to dress their trees in royal fashion.

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History electric Christmas lights - The successor to candles, electric lights, didn’t arrive until 1880, when Thomas Edison created the first strand of lights and wrapped them around his lab in Menlo Park, California. But it was Edison’s partner, Edward H. Johnson, who put the first string of electric Christmas tree lights together and strung them around his tree in 1882. Although the string was hard-wired with 80 red, white, and blue bulbs, it was eclipsed by the 3,000 electric lights used to light the National Christmas Tree on the White House lawn in Christmas of 1923.

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History of Christmas wreaths - While wreaths occupy a central place on our doors and in our homes during the holidays, they were invented by accident. Rather than discard the clippings from freshly cut and pruned Christmas trees, resourceful revelers of the 16th century salvaged the excess boughs and fashioned them into wreaths. These wreaths were originally placed not on doors but on the tree itself as an ornament symbolizing eternity—a nod to their resemblance to an infinite loop.

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History Christmas star - The earliest tree topper was none other than the baby Jesus, a figure that was later swapped for other biblical symbols, namely angels and stars. While the latter is thought to be inspired by the Star of Bethlehem, also known as the Christmas Star, science has never proven the existence of such a star. According to Phys.org, the phenomenon probably wasn’t a comet or a supernova, because such events would have been well documented; it was more likely a “planetary conjunction” in which two planets appeared close together for long enough to be observed in the sky.

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History of Christmas stocking - The humble tradition of hanging a stocking from the mantle is said to have been inspired by a man of equally humble origins. Upon learning from villagers that a proud but penurious local widower could not pull together dowry for his three daughters to wed, and was unwilling to accept money from others, an oft-repeated story says that St. Nicholas slid down the man’s chimney and slipped gold coins into his daughters’ newly laundered stockings, which happened to hang by the fire. When the family came upon the gold the next day, their problems were solved, and a new Christmas tradition was born.

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History of Christmas mistletoe - While merrymakers may hang sprigs of mistletoe during the holidays and pucker up when underneath it, the earliest use of the herb was decidedly less romantic. The Greeks used it as a panacea for ailments ranging from cramps to spleen problems, while the Romans viewed it as a salve for ulcers and poisons. It was not until the first century A.D. when it earned secondary connotations. Because the herb had the capacity to grow even in winter, the Celtics Druids saw it as a symbol of fertility and vitality. The kissing tradition is thought to have been started by English servants, and the masses followed suit. (Source)

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