From Pagan Tradition To Seasonal Landmark Of Consumer-Capitalism: The Origins Of The Christmas Tree

While walking along some residential streets in Istanbul in December, it’s not unusual to spot Christmas trees shining from the living rooms of apartment buildings. Even in this supposedly secularized country, where the religious connotations of the Christmas holiday have no meaning to the Muslim-majority population, the tradition of putting up an evergreen tree with an expiration date of approximately two months has persisted over the years. Globally, the evergreen tree adorned with colorful ornaments, tinsels and lights is ubiquitous every December. One, therefore, wonders: at what point did accessorizing trees, as if embellishing a cake with sprinkles, become a universal tradition?

Nowadays, the Christmas tree is detached from its religious symbolism parallel to the growth of mass-consumerism. In the twenty-first century, market forces have shrouded the ancient roots of the evergreen and replaced them with the politics of wanting and materialism. After all, to complete the image of the modern Christmas tree, one needs the boxes of gifts underneath it. So, the question is: how exactly did the meaning of the Christmas tree evolve over the years? How did the modern Christmas tree, the beacon of the holiday season, emerge? And what does it represent in our contemporary world?

The roots of decorating the home with the evergreen during wintertime originate long before the advent of Christianity. In the pagan world, plants that survived the harsh, long winters were placed as boughs before doors and windows to keep Satan, evil spirits and diseases at bay. These symbols of the winter solstice reminded the residents of the imminent return of spring and the resilience of life over death and decay. The solstice marks the point of “rebirth of the sun,” at which the shortening of days ends, and each passing day progressively encounters more sunlight and warmth— a cause of celebration since Greco-Roman times.

For the Romans, the festival of Saturnalia was the occasion in which temples were decorated with tree branches and homes with wreaths around the time of the winter solstice. Many historians now trace other Christmas traditions, such as gift-giving, feasting and merrymaking back to this pagan festival dedicated to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and time. For Druids and Vikings alike, the evergreen also meant light and life, and the essence of this was integrated into Christian belief.

Despite the difficulty in tracing the true origins of this tradition and the contrasting claims made by some northern European countries to be its birthplace, many historians concur that Germans around the 16th century can be accredited with the birthing of modern Christmas traditions in the Christian context. Many now believe that Martin Luther was the first to domesticate and illuminate the Christmas tree; as the story goes, while walking in the forest, he was inspired by the twinkling of the stars he saw through the tree branches and decided to recreate the scene for his family by covering an evergreen he brought home with candles. These would come to signify the birth and resurrection of Christ and the light he is said to bring to the world. German influence in engendering the Christmas tree cannot be overlooked. It was the German tradition of decorating wooden Christmas pyramids with ornaments and treats that merged with the concept of the Paradise tree—decorating fir trees with apples to mimic the tree of life in the Garden of Eden that developed into the modern Christmas tree we know today. Its popularization outside of Germany was also notably German-led; it was German-born Queen Charlotte who introduced the Christmas tree to the upper classes of the United Kingdom in 1800, and it was the originally Bavarian Prince Albert and Queen Victoria’s illustrated family portrait around the Christmas tree that popularized it among the masses of English society.

In the United States, the first records of Christmas trees include the wooden pyramids of the Moravian Germans in 1747 Pennsylvania. Initially rejected by Puritans for their pagan heritage during the colonial period, the customs of Christmas became popular only after mass immigration from Germany and their prevalence in Europe in the 19th century. The Christmas tree is thereby a product of the intertwining history of religions, including Paganism and Christianity, as well as nationalities. It might be one of the best examples we have of a successful transplant of a custom across borders. As such, it is the continuation of a joint human heritage that nurtures unity.

As we have seen for centuries, the essence of the Christmas tree and the many other festivities associated with it have remained the same – the importance of light in times of spiritual and seasonal darkness. Yet, with industrialization in the 19th century and consumer-capitalism's rise, this meaning has slowly been sapped away. The commodified character of the Christmas tree can best be encapsulated by its plastification; the artificial Christmas tree sold in most supermarkets from November onwards each year is manufactured with a large carbon footprint, thus rendering it not eco-friendly nor durable in most cases. Like most gifts awarded at Christmas-time by distant family relatives, they are discarded as soon as the holiday period is over. What is left behind is piles of waste, driving the climate crisis that is slowly but surely dismantling the future of upcoming generations. According to Lisa Joyner, writing for the home decor blog HouseBeautiful, “an artificial Christmas tree will need to be used for at least 10 years before its carbon footprint comes close to the total carbon footprint of buying than burning a real tree every year for a decade.” Thus, it is undeniable that capitalism’s embracement of Christmas traditions has had a detrimental impact on the planet.

For many devout Christians, capitalism has also desecrated the Christmas tree, eradicating its moral core. They lament that the modern celebration of Christmas, which encourages and espouses the exchange of gifts in a consumerist frenzy, completely contradicts the humble, ascetic and anti-materialist way of life embraced by Jesus Christ. As is now seen in the December days building up to Christmas Eve, the spiritual element of Christmas has been taken over by the frantic search for gifts in jam-packed shopping malls and streets. With this, it is easy to forget why people practice such traditions or decorate their trees in the first place. 

The celebration of Christmas, as represented by its special evergreen tree, is the culmination of humanity's multicultural and multi-religious history. From the ancient Egyptians and the Romans to the Luthers, the evergreen tree has always held optimistic hopes for togetherness. It has been a promise to cast away the darkness of our daily world. Yet, it is now the poster child for the most pervasive religion of the twenty-first century: capitalism. It evokes the expectation of gifts even more so than the unison of family and friends for a merry celebration of the return of spring. The fault here lies in the spirit of consumerism that permeates social life. The prevalence and secularization of Christmas trees in the twenty-first century that came along with these developments are not inherently bad.

The spread of light, hope and merriment to all those who need it in their lives can become universal, especially in our contemporary world of ever-deepening darkness and anomie. However, it is still our job to ensure that the commercialization of tradition does not erase the collective memory of the past and promote wasteful consumption. The sight of a Christmas tree illuminating a dark living room should continue to conjure up thoughts of peace, comfort and family, not expectations of extravagant gifts. As our Christmas trees become artificial, let us not turn artificial in our celebrations as well.