The Environment

There are some 40 million Christmas trees growing in the U.K. and each tree absorbs no less than 27 lbs. of Carbon Dioxide each year. Therefore real Christmas trees convert nearly 5,000,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide in to Carbon and Oxygen each year. Christmas trees are grown in plantations which act as nature reserves to a wide variety of wildlife and are completely bio-degradable. 2-3 seedlings are planted for every harvested Christmas Tree.

On the other hand plastic Christmas Trees are made from by products of liquid fossil fuels. It takes a lot of energy resources to make them. They are using up the world's resources of fossil fuels. Nasty gasses are released while they are being manufactured. They contribute nothing to the atmosphere once they have been produced. They are not bio-degradable and if burned they produce a combination of noxious gasses. Artificial trees will last for 5 years in your home but for centuries in a landfill.

Christmas Traditions

The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honour of Sauternes, the god of agriculture.

An evergreen, the Paradise tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24th during the middle ages.

Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Some historians state that the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Martin Luther's death in 1546.

The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg, France (Germany in 1605). The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies.

In Austria & Germany during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper.

In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historians state that in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria's grandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in the Queen's lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800.