Tree Decorating - A Christmas Tradition

The decorated Christmas tree, originated in western Germany. As part of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve, there was a “paradise tree” hung with apples, representing the Garden of Eden.
Later, becoming a feature in individual homes,  wafers were also hung on it (symbolizing the eucharistic host, the Christian sign of redemption); and later cookies of various shapes.

Candles, symbolic of Christ as the light of the world, were often added too. At the same time a “Christmas pyramid,” a triangular construction of wood that had shelves to hold Christmas figurines would be decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star.
By the 16th century the Christmas pyramid and the paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree.

Introduced into England in the early 19th century, the Christmas tree was popularized in the mid-19th century by German-born Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, and was decorated with toys and small gifts, candles, candies, popcorn strings, and fancy cakes hung from the branches by ribbons and by paper chains.

In China and Japan, Christmas trees, introduced by Western missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries, were decorated with intricate paper designs.

Blown-glass ornaments were offered for sale in Britain and the United States as early as the 1870s, many produced in small workshops in Germany and Bohemia, which also created decorations made from tinsel, cast lead, beads, pressed paper, and cotton batting.

By 1890, strings of electric tree lights were also available and in the 1930s, artificial trees made of brush bristles were developed in the United States. Artificial trees gained significant popularity, particularly in countries where fresh trees were hard to get hold of.