Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the traditional Christmas Tree and now there are literally 1000’s of tree styles to choose from. Of course, nothing beats a real tree but nowadays artificial trees have become much more popular. Not only are they more convenient and easier to deal with but now there are many imaginative and wonderful Christmas Tree ideas available from ‘Upside-Down’ Christmas trees, Fibre-Optic trees, realistic trees or even cheap and convenient trees.
Artificial Christmas Trees
The great benefit of an artificial tree is that you can use it year after year, they don’t make a terrible mess and some have the lights already fitted, which can save a lot of fuss and bother. Opting for an artificial tree no longer means that style and aesthetics are compromised – quite the contrary. Here is just a small selection of artificial trees available for Christmas.
A great value 4 foot tree from John Lewis – just £25 an even in stock during June?
Real Christmas Trees
Although the quality of artificial trees has improved considerably of late, for some, there is no substitute for a real Christmas tree.
Ten Facts about Christmas Trees
- Each year there are an estimated 36 million Christmas trees produced in the US alone and up to 60 million in Europe.
- The average Christmas tree takes 7-10 years to fully mature.
- The first known instance of a Christmas tree being used was in Alsace, Germany in 1521
- Christmas trees first appeared in Britain in the early 19th Century and were very much the preserve of Royalty – one of the first mentions appears in Queen Victoria’s childhood diary when she was just 13 years old.
- Christmas trees did not become popular amongst the masses until much later.
- The first Christmas Tree in America is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816.
- Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought into the house and decorated until Christmas Eve and were then removed the day after twelfth night (6 January).
- As Christmas has become more commercial then tress have started to appear earlier and earlier with department store Selfridge’s famously starting as early as September.
- The most popular kind of tree in Europe is the Silver Fir. In the US, the Douglas-fir is more commonly used.
- Artificial trees first appeared in Germany in the early 19th Century and were made from goose feathers which were dyed green.
