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"The fir tree was
put into a great tub filled with sand... The servants, and the young ladies also decked it
out. On one branch they hung little nets, cut out of colored paper; every net was filled
with sweetmeats; golden apples and walnuts hung down as if they grew there, and more than
a hundred little candles, red, white and blue, were fastened to the different boughs.
Dolls that looked exactly like real people-- the Tree had never seen such before-- swung
among the foliage, and high on the summit of the Tree was fixed a tinsel star. It was
splendid, particularly splendid. "This evening," said all, "this evening it
will shine."
-- HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
The Christmas tree was introduced into England in the early
19th century. In
1841 the German Prince
Albert, husband of Queen
Victoria, decorated a large Christmas tree
at Windsor
Castle, reminiscent of his childhood celebrations in Germany (the Christmas
tree had been a deep-rooted German tradition since the 18th century). Soon after, it
became very fashionable in Victorian England to set up a large tree at Christmas and
decorate it with lighted candles, candies, and fancy cakes hung from the branches by
ribbon and by paper chains. German settlers had brought this tradition to North America as
early as the 17th century and decorated Christmas trees were also the height of fashion in
America by the 19th century.
Homemade paper cornucopias, filled with sweets, fruit, nuts and popcorn hung on many
Victorian Christmas trees. Glass Christmas tree balls, hand crafted in
Lauscha, made their
first appearance on American trees in the 1860s, primarily in the homes of German
immigrants. Other early ornaments were made of lead and formed into flat geometric shapes,
such as stars and crosses. "Store bought" Christmas tree ornaments were
introduced around 1870 and quickly began to replace the homemade (usually edible)
decorations. Most were crafted in Germany, from Dresden and tiny villages in the
Thuringian Mountains. From the 1870s to 1890s, many Victorian Christmas trees were trimmed
with ornaments formed with wax in the shape of angels and children. Also cotton-wool
ornaments were used, crafted with embossed paper faces, trimmed with buttons, powered
glass and gold paper wings. |
