{"id":40,"date":"2007-11-19T13:47:42","date_gmt":"2007-11-19T17:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T22:13:31","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T03:13:31","slug":"short-history-of-christmas-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"A Short History of Christmas Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Mommy, why is there a tree in our living room?&#8221; Some children think to ask this question and some don\u2019t. But why is there a tree in the living room?<\/p>\n<p>Like many traditional symbols of Christmas, it is often explained as a reinvented old pagan symbol. Evergreens were a symbol of life and in the darkest time of year, right before the winter solstice, were used to symbolize the rebirth that would come with springtime.<\/p>\n<p>There are many different explanations as to why trees became a symbol of Christmas. Another explanation, the one I remember hearing as a child when I asked the question, claims that a minister was walking home one <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/christmas-cards\/merry-christmas-cards.htm\">Merry Christmas<\/a><\/strong> eve and was so struck by how beautiful the stars looked shining down on the trees that he wanted to share it with his children. He cut down a small tree, brought it home, and decorated it with candles. The modern Christmas tree dates back to Queen Victoria, who posed for a drawing with her family around a decorated tree for her own royal <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/christmas-cards.htm\">personalized Christmas card<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I do like to think about how it all started, especially when I find myself digging through boxes of Christmas tree ornaments, some of which have been around since 1924 when my uncle was born! In the end, I&#8217;m just glad of three things: that there IS a seasonal tree in my living room, that we no longer use lit candles to decorate it, and that my tree isn\u2019t as big as the tree at Rockefeller Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Decorating the Christmas tree is a wonderful holiday tradition. But have you ever thought about why trees are an enduring symbol of Christmas?","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1292,1301,28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-40","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-occasions-and-celebrations","7":"category-holiday-traditions","8":"category-holiday-cards-and-tidbits","9":"cs-entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>A Short History of Christmas Trees - Gallery Connection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Short History of Christmas Trees - Gallery Connection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Decorating the Christmas tree is a wonderful holiday tradition. But have you ever thought about why trees are an enduring symbol of Christmas?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gallery Connection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-19T17:47:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-27T03:13:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Henry L.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Henry L.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Henry L.\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/354a198a194eb6492cbacff6edb7440b\"},\"headline\":\"A Short History of Christmas Trees\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-19T17:47:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-27T03:13:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\"},\"wordCount\":266,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"Occasions &amp; Celebrations\",\"Holiday Traditions\",\"Holiday Cards and Tidbits\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\",\"name\":\"A Short History of Christmas Trees - Gallery Connection\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-11-19T17:47:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-27T03:13:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/354a198a194eb6492cbacff6edb7440b\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Gallery Connection\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/354a198a194eb6492cbacff6edb7440b\",\"name\":\"Henry L.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d36563ef39f0e81ca59f4c1228c7d5472aa91c609af32dd9faf249a82d21dbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d36563ef39f0e81ca59f4c1228c7d5472aa91c609af32dd9faf249a82d21dbce?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Henry L.\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Short History of Christmas Trees - Gallery Connection","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gallerycollection.com\/blog\/holiday-cards-and-tidbits\/short-history-of-christmas-trees\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Short History of Christmas Trees - Gallery Connection","og_description":"Decorating the Christmas tree is a wonderful holiday tradition. 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