The Legend of the Christmas Tree
(Author Unknown)


Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition
of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas.

One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500,
he was walking through snow-covered woods
and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens.
Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight.

When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could
share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles,
which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth.

The Christmas tree tradition most likely came to the United States
with Hessian troops during the American Revolution,
or with German immigrants to Pennsylvania and Ohio.

But the custom spread slowly. The Puritans banned
Christmas in New England.  Even as late as 1851,
a Cleveland minister nearly lost his job
because he allowed a tree in his church.

Schools in Boston stayed open on Christmas Day
through 1870, and sometimes expelled students
who stayed home.

The Christmas tree market was born in 1851
when Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds
of evergreens into New York City and sold them all.
By 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree,
and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.

Christmas tree farms sprang up during the depression.
Nurserymen couldn't sell their evergreens for landscaping,
so they cut them for Christmas trees. Cultivated trees
were preferred because they have a more symmetrical
shape then wild ones.

Six species account for about 90 percent of the nation's
Christmas tree trade. Scotch pine ranks first,
comprising about 40 percent of the market,
followed by Douglas fir which accounts for about 35 percent.
The other big sellers are noble fir, white pine,
balsam fir and white spruce.
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