Christmas Trees Decorations help brighten the holiday season!
Christmas is the happiest time of the year for young and old alike. It is at Christmas when people make it a point to “go home” and reconnect with family and old friends. People get together to enjoy good food and each other’s company. Kids, of course, love Christmas time because it means Santa Claus comes and they receive new toys.
Christmas also brings to mind many symbols–the Nativity, the Christ child, gifts, wrapping paper, Santa Claus and, of course, the Christmas tree. What would Christmas be without a Christmas tree? It has become one of the great traditions of the Christmas season.
The Christmas tree is, by tradition, an evergreen coniferous tree. However, in the last 40-50 years, many Christmas trees have been made of plastic, aluminum or other artificial substances. A Christmas tree is usually brought into the home, but can be displayed outside as well. Whether the tree is real or artificial, the Christmas tradition for many, many years now has been to decorate the tree. Decorations have evolved over the years, but the most common Christmas tree decorations are lights, ornaments, tree toppers and tree skirts. The Christmas tree and its related decorations are the subject matter for this website. We hope that you find the website informative as well as entertaining.
Back in the late 18th century, people began lighting up their Christmas trees with wax candles, which of course was very dangerous. Electric lights were first introduced in 1882 by Edward Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison. Johnson hand wired 80 red, white and blue lights and wound the string of lights around an evergreen light. Over the years, there have been a variety of lights developed for use in lighting Christmas trees, i.e. traditional bulb lights, bubble lights (popular in the 1950′s), miniature lights, rope lights, berry lights, globe-style lights, micro lights and LED lights.
In the beginning, the earliest ornaments used on Christmas trees were fruits and nuts. This was followed by the use of tin foil, candy canes, cookies and sugar ornaments. In the mid 1800s, German glassmakers began making molded glass ornaments. Over the years, Christmas ornaments have been made of metal, tin, wood, paper and even dough. Some ornaments are handed down through the years within a family and become a treasured heirloom. In recent years, Christmas tree ornaments have become collectibles, prompting some artisans such as Christopher Radko to produce very unique and collectible ornaments.
No Christmas tree can be complete without a Christmas Tree Topper. Over the years, two popular selections for tree toppers have been a Christmas Angel Tree Topper or a Christmas Star Tree Topper–both of which are symbols of the real reason for the Christmas season, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Other popular choices for tree toppers include snowflakes as well as finials.
Christmas tree skirts were used back in the days when candles were used to light Christmas trees. The tree skirt protected the floor beneath the tree from the dripping wax. These days, Christmas tree skirts are used to hide the tree stand as well as to add another decorative feature to the Christmas tree. Today’s Christmas tree skirts are often very decorative, showing a Christmas village, the Nativity scene, or some other Christmas scene.