Christmas trees

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 56. Chapters: Artificial Christmas trees, Christmas tree farming, Individual Christmas trees, Saint Boniface, Christmas tree cultivation, White House Christmas tree, Christmas tree production, Capitol Christmas Tree, Christmas tree pests and weeds, Singing Christmas Tree, Rouse Simmons, Vatican Christmas Tree, National Christmas Tree, Balsam Hill, Macy's Great Tree, Christmas tree production in Canada, Aluminum Christmas tree, Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, Pre-lit tree, Christmas tree cultivation in the United States, Christmas tree stand, Christmas ornament, Daley Plaza Christmas tree, Trafalgar Square Christmas tree, Feather Christmas tree, Attack of the Mutant Artificial Christmas Trees, Tinsel, Canadian Christmas Tree Growers Association, National Christmas Tree Association, British Christmas Tree Growers Association, American Christmas Tree Association, Mount Ingino Christmas Tree, Lisbon Christmas Tree, Chrismon tree, Grove Christmas Tree, Milwaukee City Christmas Tree, California Capitol Christmas Tree, Tree tyer. Excerpt: The Christmas tree, also known as a Yule tree, is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century. The Christmas tree is traditionally brought into the home and decorated with Christmas lights (originally candles), ornaments, garlands, tinsel, and candy canes during the days around Christmas. An angel or star is placed at the top of the tree, representing the host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity. Legend associates the first Christmas tree with St. Boniface and the German town of Geismar. Sometime in Boniface's lifetime (c. 672-754) he is said to have cut down the sacred tree of Thor in Geismar, replacing it with a fir tree which has been said to have been the first Christmas tree. The custom of erecting a Christmas tree can be historically traced to 15th century Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia) and 16th century Northern Germany. According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Brotherhood of Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Reval (now Tallinn). At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced around it. In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men "went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame". In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small tree was decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and erected in the