"Sprucing" Up the Holidays

With the arrival of the holiday season, I thought it would be appropriate to write about something that includes both nature and holiday traditions! So if you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the tradition or science behind Christmas trees, you’ve come to the right place.

Evergreen boughs have been used as a symbol of life and a ward against darkness and illness at least since ancient Egyptian times. However, the first written record of a dedicated Christmas tree dates back to 1441 in Tallinn, Estonia, where the men from a local merchants’ guild decorated and danced around an evergreen tree before setting it on fire. Households in Germany soon after adapted this custom, using small evergreen trees decorated with apples, citrus fruits, nuts, paper strips, and candles as table centerpieces as part of their Christmas celebrations. German immigrants introduced the tradition to America during the late 1700s/early 1800s, where the custom evolved into using ceiling-height trees. The tradition of harvesting and decorating a tree became so popular that there was serious concern that the continued harvest of coniferous trees would lead to their extirpation (local extinction). 

In an effort to protect American forests, Theodore Roosevelt was advised to eliminate the use of live Christmas trees. To reduce the risk of overharvesting, the first commercial Christmas tree farm was planted in New Jersey in 1901. Today, approximately 30 million live Christmas trees are sold every year in America. Over the past several decades, the use of artificial trees has become increasingly popular, accounting for nearly 60% of all Christmas trees in the U.S. 

https://www.thechrisfoxgroup.com/blog/what-is-your-favorite-type-of-live-christmas-tree/ 

So what trees do we typically use as Christmas trees? You may be surprised to learn that there are over 600 different evergreen tree species worldwide! The vast majority of Christmas trees used today belong to three different groups- fir trees, spruce trees, and pine trees. While these trees are similar in that they all bear needles year-round, there is an easy way to differentiate them. Pine trees are easily distinguished by having needles that grow in clusters. Each cluster grows from a ‘fascicle’, and the number of needles per fascicle can be used to help determine the actual pine species. Fir and spruce trees have needles that grow individually instead of in clusters, but the shape of the needle can be used to tell them apart. Spruce trees have squarish four-sided needles with sharp, brittle tips. In contrast, fir trees have flat two-sided needles with soft, rounded tips. Below is a helpful guide to identifying some of the most commonly used Christmas tree species in America!

Calvin Williams

1st Year Environmental Education Fellow