O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

The first appearance of a Christmas tree, also known as Tannenbaum, was recorded in 1605 in Strasburg. As the story goes, "...people set up Christmas trees in their rooms...". Another recounting of that tale states "... no burgher shall have a Christmas tree more than one bush of more than eight shoes' length...". The decorations hung on a tree of that time were "roses cut of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gilt, sugar". Typically, though, the tree was not decorated until Christmas Eve in most German homes.

The Christmas tree tradition dates back to the middle of the 16th century when the first of "Tannenbaum" ballads appeared in printing. By the 19th century, the tradition spread across Germany and abroad. It was those ever-so-trendy royal Germans who devised the custom of decorating a tree for Christmas; the custom soon spread across German borders, and reached into the United States.

So, as US folks who are living in Germany, we recently installed our Tannenbaum, although quite a bit early (actually on the first Sunday of Advent). We decided to go “all EMEA”…using only European ornaments in our decoration. Correction: That is a Thai tablecloth serving as a tree skirt...sorry...