This tree is seen in its natural beauty before being cut to become a centrepiece for Christmas festivities – unlike the chicken laying an egg, the Christmas Tree is more akin to a pig sacrificing everything for the bacon! Every year, many households across the nations like to bring in a conifer like this to decorate as part of celebrations for this season, although Russians were forbidden to do this during Marxist times so used it to celebrate the New Year. The origins of adopting a fir tree for Christmas are disputed although it seems that celebrations in pagan times involved the worship of trees, sometimes with them being decorated and then burnt. Perhaps it is not so different these days! However, there is strong evidence of that Christians in Germany developed the early practice of decorating various species of conifer with candles, candies and baubles. It was Lutheran Pastor Martin Luther who first added candles in the Sixteenth Century to represent stars. The Medieval Mystery Plays featured rosy red apples to signify apples lost from paradise – these became red baubles. Candies were added as sweet gifts for children. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert perpetuated this and the practice caught on.
- ‘He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree’ – Roy L Smith
- ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year’ – Charles Dickens
- ‘Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas’ – Dale Evans
- ‘Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection’ – Winston Churchill
Linking a Christmas Tree to the theme of sacrifice is a pointer to the genuine background for Christmas. The baby Jesus coming as the prophet Isaiah foretold, born of a virgin to be Immanuel – ‘God with us’, so that through his sacrifice on a barren cross for our wrong-doing it could be ‘us with God’. Isaiah had spoken of the mission of this one born of a virgin, for he would become the suffering servant of chapter 53 to put ‘us’ right with God. Hostilities ended, job done.
The giving of Christmas trees has also often been associated with the end of hostilities. After the signing of the Armistice in 1918 the city of Manchester sent a tree and other gifts to the much-bombarded town of Lille in northern France. Norway gives a tree to Britain and America each year as symbols of appreciation for help in the Second World War. The Apostle Paul provides us with another thought on this profound aspect of Christ-Mass (‘Cristes Maesse’), so named in the Eleventh Century:
- ‘Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross’ – Philippians 2:6-8
Back to those night time stars which so inspired Pastor Martin Luther. Paul encourages those for whom hostilities with God are ended to ‘shine like stars’ and end our hostilities with our fellow humans. Instead of lobbing words like stray missiles that bring destruction to the landscape of our relationships, we should now look to find actions of kindness and humility to repair the craters. If we can find the humility to do that, then the lost years can be restored and a work of healing will shine out.
- ‘Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others’ – Philippians 2:1-4
- ‘So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust and the chewing locust’ – Joel 2:24
Each year, 33 to 36 million Christmas trees are produced in America, and 50 to 60 million are produced in Europe. In 1998, there were about 15,000 growers in the USA with Americans spending $1.5 billion on the trees. By 2016 that had climbed to $2.04 billion for natural trees and a further $1.86 billion for artificial trees. In Europe, 75 million trees worth €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) are harvested annually. How many people who ‘consume’ these trees sacrificed on the ‘altar of pleasure’ spare a moment to think of the sacrifice of the tree or the original reason for celebrating Christ-Mass? As Churchill suggested, perhaps give it some quiet reflection for the tree itself carries a message that might help you shine like a star and find ways to heal relationships around you too.