It’s that time of year again. You know, when time can’t be decided. HOT COLD HOT COLD. You dress up to do a frontal attack on your local mall. Good grievance, look at those lines and those are just for entering the front doors. By now, sweat is running down your face in rivers. Do you want to face bodily injury trying to get through the crowds at the toy store? Special in braces? Oh look! Polka dot scarves made in 17 colors, none of which begin to complement the others.
To blink! A light goes on above your head, pulsing within the proverbial cartoon cloud. That’s how it is! If we can ever find our car again, we can go buy Christmas trees on the corner lot. The smell of pine… the sticky sap on your fingers. An authentic symphony of scents and textures. This looks so good I think I could have my snack right here. Try some crispy pine needles.
- Tinsel to decorate your Christmas tree was invented in Germany around 1610. Genuine silver was used; the machines had to be designed to extract the silver in extremely narrow strips. Despite being strong, tinsel strips were impractical due to the rapid rate of tarnishing. Surprisingly though, real silver was depleted until the middle of the 20th century. Can you imagine being the poor servant in Victorian times whose job it was to polish the strips until there was no trace of tarnish left?
- Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their children were adored by their subjects. Due to a photograph of the royal family standing lovingly around their Christmas tree, having your own tree became the height of fashion. These decorated trees were clamored for by British and American East Coast high society.
- The Addis Brush Company of America made the original brush Christmas tree. This type of artificial tree was much stronger than the feather tree and could hold heavier ornaments and decorations. However, it was somewhat objectionable in its way of manufacture, at least to the pickiest and most squeamish among us, since it was made with the same equipment used in the manufacture of the company’s regular toilet brushes!
- Animal Crackers, beloved by generations of children, were imported in the late 19th century from Great Britain to the United States. The boxes containing the biscuits were in the shape of the carriages of Barnum’s circus train and, with their rope handles, were intended to be hung as decorations on the family Christmas tree.
- Next time you’re in the mood for a snack, try nibbling on your Christmas tree. Various parts of pine, spruce, and fir trees are edible. Vitamin C is abundant in needles and pine nuts, or pineapples, which are very nutritious.
- Two to three Christmas seedlings must be planted in order to harvest a viable adult tree.
- Traditionally an American Christmas flower, the poinsettia is native to Mexico. Called the “Flower of the Holy Night,” it was brought to the United States by Joel Poinsettia in 1829.
- US President Theodore Roosevelt was a fervent conservationist and environmentalist who banned Christmas trees wherever he lived, including the White House. His children managed to put their own Christmas trees in their bedrooms.
- With the dawn of the millennium came the sturdy white metal Christmas tree. Designed for strictly outdoor use, it had hundreds of built-in miniature lights that didn’t have to be untangled every holiday season, making housewives happy.
- The first known Christmas tree dealer was Mark Car. In 1851, he dragged two overloaded sleighs, filled with freshly cut trees, from Cat Skills in upstate New York to New York City, opening the first retail lot of Christmas trees. Christmas trees in the United States.
- One acre of Christmas trees covers the daily oxygen requirements for 18 people.
- Bad news for the environment: An artificial Christmas tree can last six years in storage and on display, but no matter how hard you try to break it down for recycling, it will last centuries in a landfill. Let’s hear it for living trees!!