document_title: Sisters of Mercy

question_text: when did the sisters of mercy arrive in australia

text: Sisters of Mercy

text: History[edit]

text: Founding[edit]

text: The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy began when Catherine McAuley used an inheritance to build a large house on Baggot Street, Dublin, as a school for poor girls and a shelter for homeless servant girls and women. She was assisted in the works of the house by local women. As the number of lay co-workers at Baggot Street increased, so did severe lay and clerical criticism of the House: Why did these women look like a religious order, yet not abide by the normal regulations of religious orders? Who was this "upstart" Miss McAuley? Why was the "unlearned sex" doing the work of the clergy?

text: By 1830 Catherine and her co-workers realized that the stability of the works of mercy they performed, including visiting the sick poor in their homes and in hospitals, and their continued appeal to co-workers, called for revision of their lay community. So, on 8 September, Catherine McAuley, Anna Maria Doyle, and Elizabeth Harley entered the Presentation Convent in Dublin to begin formal preparation for founding the Sisters of Mercy.

text: On 12 December 1831, Catherine McAuley, Mary Ann Doyle, and Mary Elizabeth Harley professed their religious vows as the first Sisters of Mercy, thereby founding the congregation. The rule and constitutions of the congregation were not completed until 1834, nor approved until 1835, yet they contained in substance only that which had been observed from the year 1827.

text: Expansion[edit]

text: The rapid expansion of the Sisters of Mercy in the six years 1835-1841 flowed from Catherine McAuley's ever generous response to human need. She founded nine additional autonomous Convents of Mercy in Tullamore (1836), Charleville (1836), Carlow (1837), Cork (1837), Limerick (1838), Bermondsey, London (1839), Galway (1840), Birr (1840), and Birmingham (1841), and branch houses of the Dublin community in Kingstown (1835) and Booterstown (1838).

text: Catherine McAuley died on 11 November 1841.

text: In May 1842, at the request of Bishop Fleming, a small colony of Sisters of Mercy crossed the Atlantic to found the congregation at St. John's, Newfoundland. In December 1843 Sr Frances Warde led the first group of Sisters to The United States, beginning in Pittsburgh. The sisters arrived in Perth, Australia in 1846, and in 18t0, a band from Carlow arrived in New Zealand. Sisters from Limerick opened a house in Glasgow in 1849, and in 1868 the English community established a house in Guernsey.[1]

text: In 1992 the leaders of the various congregations created the Mercy International Association to foster collaboration and cooperation. The purpose of the association is to provide support and foster collaboration, organisation and inspiration for the ministries of the Sisters of Mercy and their associates.[2]

text: Historical events[edit]

text: The sisters were the first nurses to respond to the British Government request for nurses in the Crimea in 1853. They ran several hospitals during the war and provided nurses who were not under the control of Florence Nightingale. However their involvement was overshadowed by hers for political reasons.[3]

text: Vows and activities[edit]

text: Sisters of Mercy is an international community of Roman Catholic women religious vowed to serve people who suffer from poverty, sickness and lack of education with a special concern for women and children. Members take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the evangelical counsels commonly vowed in religious life, and, in addition, vows of service. They continue to participate in the life of the surrounding community. In keeping with their mission of serving the poor and needy, many sisters engage in teaching, medical care, and community programs. The organization is active in lobbying and politics.

text: Constitution[edit]

text: The Sisters of Mercy are constituted as religious and charitable organizations in a number of countries. Mercy International Association is a registered charity in the Republic of Ireland.[4]

text: Controversies[edit]

text: On 20 May 2009, the institute was condemned in an Irish government report known as the Ryan Report, the work of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. The Sisters of Mercy were named as the chief among the institutes under whose care girls "endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless ... personal and family denigration was widespread".[5]

text: In 2011, a monument was erected in Ennis at the site of the former industrial school 'in appreciation' of the Sisters of Mercy.[citation needed]

text: Schools founded or run by Sisters of Mercy[edit]

text: Australia[edit]

text:
Academy of Mary Immaculate, Fitzroy, Victoria
All Hallows' School, Brisbane, Queensland
St Saviour's College, Toowoomba, Queensland
St Saviour's Primary School, Toowoomba, Queensland
St Patrick's College, Townsville, QLD
Aranmore Catholic College, Leederville, Western Australia
Bunbury Catholic College, Bunbury, Western Australia
Catherine McAuley School, Westmead, New South Wales
Damascus College Ballarat
Holy Spirit Primary School, North Ryde, New South Wales
Marian Catholic College, Griffith, New South Wales
Marist College Eastwood, Eastwood, New South Wales
Mercedes College, Adelaide, South Australia
Mercedes College, Perth, Western Australia
Mercy College, Koondoola, Western Australia
Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College, North Sydney, New South Wales
Mount Lilydale Mercy College, Lilydale, Victoria
Our Lady of Lourdes, Dardanup, Western Australia
Our Lady of Lourdes, Earlwood, New South Wales
Our Lady of Mercy College, Heidelberg, Victoria
Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta, Parramatta, New South Wales
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Springsure, Queensland
Padua College, Mornington, Victoria
St Aloysius' College, Melbourne
St Augustine's Catholic Primary School, Mossman, Queensland
St Brigid's College, Lesmurdie, Western Australia
St Mary's College, Gunnedah, New South Wales
St Mary's, Erskineville, Sydney, New South Wales
St. Patricks, Primary School, Wallsend, New South Wales.
Sacred Heart College, Kyneton, Victoria
Sacred Heart College, Geelong, Victoria
Santa Maria College, Attadale, Western Australia
Star of the Sea School, Adelaide, South Australia
St Anthony's Girraween, Girraween

text: Belize[edit]

text: St. Catherine Academy, Belize City

text: Canada[edit]

text:
Academy of Our Lady of Mercy, St. John's, Newfoundland
St. Augustine’s Elementary School, St. John's, Newfoundland
St. Bride's College, St. John's, Newfoundland

text: Ireland[edit]

text:
Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty, County Cork
Carysfort College, Dublin
Convent of Mercy, Ballymahon, County Longford
Convent of Mercy, Navan, County Meath
Convent of Mercy, Templemore, County Tipperary
Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
Mercy Secondary School, Mounthawk, Tralee, County Kerry
Mount Mercy College, Cork City, Cork
Mount Saint Michael's Secondary school, County Mayo
Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School, Longford
Our Lady of Mercy Secondary School, Waterford
Sacred Heart Secondary School, Tullamore, County Offaly
Sancta Maria College, Ballyroan, Dublin
St Anne's Technical School, Kilcormac (1932–1965), County Offaly
Our Lady's Secondary School, Castleblayney, Monaghan
St. Joseph's National School, Tullamore, County Offaly
St Joseph's Secondary School, Tulla, County Clare
St Joseph's Secondary School, Rochfortbridge, County Westmeath
St Leo's College, Carlow
St Mary's College, Arklow, County Wicklow
St Mary's College Naas, County Kildare
St Mary's Secondary School, Macroom, County Cork
St. Mary's Secondary School, Charleville, County Cork
St Mary's Secondary School, Macroom County Cork
St Vincent's Secondary School, Dundalk, County Louth
Scoil an Spioraid Naoimh, County Cork
Coláiste Íosagáin, County Dublin

text: Jamaica[edit]

text:
Convent of Mercy "Alpha" Academy, Kingston
St. John Bosco Boys Home, Mandeville
Mount Saint Joseph Preparatory School, Mandeville

text: New Zealand[edit]

text: In 1849 Bishop Pompallier visited St Leo's Convent in Carlow, Ireland, seeking sisters to emigrate; eight left from St Leo's, led by Mother Mary Cecilia. They travelled to New Zealand, learning Māori along the way, establishing the Sisters of Mercy in Auckland as the first female religious community in New Zealand in 1850.[6][7]

text:
Carmel College, Milford, Auckland
Holy Cross School, Papatoetoe, Auckland[8]
Moreau College, Dunedin
McAuley High School, Otahuhu, Auckland
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School, Epsom, Auckland
Pompallier Catholic School, Kaitaia
Sacred Heart Cathedral School, Thorndon, Wellington
St Bernard's School, Wellington
St Catherine's College, Wellington
St Josephs School, Takapuna, Auckland
St Mary's College, Auckland
St Mary's College, Christchurch
St Mary's College, Wellington
St Mary's School, Avondale, Auckland
St Mary's in the City Primary School, Christchurch
St Mary's Primary School, Gore
St Peter's College, Gore
St Philomena's College, Dunedin
Villa Maria College, Christchurch

text: United Kingdom[edit]

text:
Broughton Hall High School, Liverpool
Maricourt Catholic High School, Maghull
Mount Lourdes Grammar School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh
Our Lady's Abingdon, Abingdon-on-Thames
Our Lady's Grammar School, Newry, Co. Down, Northern Ireland
Star of the Sea Primary School, Warrenpoint, Co. Down, Northern Ireland
St Anthony's Girls' Catholic Academy, Sunderland
St. Catherine's School, Twickenham
St Edward's, Lisson Grove, Marylebone, London[9]
St Eugene's Senior School, Francis St., Derry, Northern Ireland
St Eugene's Infant School, Francis St., Derry, Northern Ireland
Thornhill College, Culmore, Derry
St Fanchea's College, Enniskillen, Fermangah, Northern Ireland
St. Joseph's Convent Preparatory School, Gravesend
St. Joseph's Primary School, Newry, Co. Down, Northern Ireland
St Joseph's Convent School, Crackley, Kenilworth, Warwickshire
St. Joseph's Convent School, Wanstead, East London
St Joseph's In The Park, Hertingfordbury Park, Hertford
St Joseph's Park Hill School, Burnley
St. Patrick's School (Wolverhampton),[10] Wolverhampton
St. Philip Howard Catholic Primary School, Hatfield
St Ursula's School, Bristol
The McAuley Catholic High School, Doncaster
Holy Family Catholic Primary School

text: United States of America[edit]

text:
Christ the Teacher Catholic School, Newark, Delaware
Mount Saint Mary High School, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Mercymount Country Day School, Cumberland, Rhode Island
Our Lady of Mercy, Hicksville, New York
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Regional School, Berlin, New Jersey
Saint Helena School, pre-kindergarten to eight grade, Center Square, Pennsylvania
Saint John The Baptist elementary school, kindergarten to eighth grade, New Bedford, Massachusetts
Saint Johns Catholic School, kindergarten to eighth grade, Collingswood, NJ
St. Vincent De Paul elementary school, kindergarten to eighth grade, San Diego, California
Saint John The Apostle elementary school, kindergarten to eighth grade, Hialeah, Florida
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, Chicago, Illinois
Waldron Mercy Academy Merion Station, Pennsylvania

text: Secondary schools[edit]

text:
Academy of Our Lady of Mercy:Lauralton Hall, Milford, Connecticut
Assumption High School, Louisville, Kentucky
Bishop Feehan High School, Attleboro, Massachusetts
Bishop McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School, Riverhead, New York
Camden Catholic High School Cherry Hill NJ
Catherine McAuley High School, Brooklyn, New York
Catherine McAuley High School, Portland, Maine
Cristo Rey High School, Sacramento, California (co-sponsored with the California Province of the Society of Jesus)
Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School, Lower Gwynedd Township, Pennsylvania
Marquette High School, Ottawa, Illinois (originally St. Xavier's Academy)
McAuley Catholic High School, Joplin, Missouri
McAuley High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mercy Academy, Louisville, Kentucky
Mercy High School, Baltimore, Maryland
Mercy High School, Burlingame, California
Mercy High School, Farmington Hills, Michigan
Mercy High School, Middletown, Connecticut
Mercy High School, Omaha, Nebraska
Mercy High School, Red Bluff, California
Mercy High School, San Francisco, California
Mercy Montessori Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mercyhurst Preparatory School, Erie, Pennsylvania
Mercymount Country Day School, Cumberland, Rhode Island
Merion Mercy Academy, Merion Station, Pennsylvania
Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School, Chicago, Illinois
Mother of Mercy High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
Mount de Sales Academy, Macon, Georgia
Mount Mercy Academy, Buffalo, New York[11]
Mount St. Mary Academy, Little Rock, Arkansas
Mount Saint Mary Academy, Watchung, New Jersey
Mount St. Mary High School, Oklahoma
Notre Dame High School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Our Lady of Mercy Academy, Syosset, New York
Our Lady of Mercy High School, Rochester, New York
Our Lady of Victory Academy, Dobbs Ferry, New York
Sacred Heart School, Jacksonville, Florida
Sacred Heart School, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Saint Bernard Academy, Nashville, Tennessee
St. Mary Academy - Bay View, East Providence, Rhode Island

Saint Raymond of Penafort, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
St.Catharine Academy, Bronx, New York
Saint Stephen School, San Francisco, California
St. Vincent's Academy, Savannah, Georgia
Sisters Academy, Asbury Park, New Jersey
Walsingham Academy, Williamsburg, Virginia

text: Colleges and universities[edit]

text:
Carlow University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
College of St. Mary, Omaha, Nebraska
Georgian Court University, Lakewood, New Jersey
Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania
Maria College, Albany, New York
Marian Court College, Swampscott, Massachusetts
Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, New York
Mercy College of Ohio, Toledo, Ohio
Mercy School of Health Sciences, Des Moines, Iowa
Mercyhurst University, Erie, Pennsylvania
Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania
Mount Aloysius College, Cresson, Pennsylvania
Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Saint Joseph's College of Maine, Standish, Maine
Saint Xavier University, Chicago, Illinois
Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island
Trocaire College, Buffalo, New York
University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Michigan (previously Mercy College of Detroit; University co-sponsored with Society of Jesus)
University of Saint Joseph, West Hartford, Connecticut

text: Defunct

text:
Mount Saint Agnes College (merged with Loyola University Maryland)
Mount Saint Mary's Seminary High School (merged with Bishop Guertin High School), Nashua NH
Trinity College (merged with University of Vermont), Burlington, VT

text: Hospitals and healthcare work[edit]

text: Mercy (healthcare organization)

text: Australia[edit]

text:
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Brisbane
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Bundaberg
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Gladstone
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Mackay
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Rockhampton
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Townsville
Mater Misericordiae Hospital, North Sydney

text: Ireland[edit]

text: Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin


document_title: Christmas tree

question_text: when were christmas trees first introduced to england

question_tokens: when were christmas trees first introduced to england

root

text: Christmas tree

text: History[edit]

text: Possible predecessors[edit]

text: The relevance of ancient pre-Christian customs to the 16th-century German initiation of the Christmas tree custom is disputed. Resistance to the custom was often because of its supposed Lutheran origins.[12]

tag: p

text: Other sources have offered a connection between the first documented Christmas trees in Alsace around 1600 and pre-Christian traditions. For example, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "The use of evergreen trees, wreaths, and garlands to symbolize eternal life was a custom of the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. Tree worship was common among the pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity in the Scandinavian customs of decorating the house and barn with evergreens at the New Year to scare away the devil and of setting up a tree for the birds during Christmas time."[13]

text: During the Roman mid-winter festival of Saturnalia, houses were decorated with wreaths of evergreen plants, along with other antecedent customs now associated with Christmas.[14]

text: The modern Christmas tree is frequently traced to the symbolism of trees in pre-Christian winter rites, wherein Viking and Saxon worshiped trees.[14] The story of Saint Boniface cutting down Donar's Oak illustrates the pagan practices in 8th century among the Germans. A later folk version of the story adds the detail that an evergreen tree grew in place of the felled oak, telling them about how its triangular shape reminds humanity of the Trinity and how it points to heaven.[15][16]

text: Alternatively, it is identified with the "tree of paradise" of medieval mystery plays that were given on 24 December, the commemoration and name day of Adam and Eve in various countries. In such plays, a tree decorated with apples (to represent the forbidden fruit) and wafers (to represent the Eucharist and redemption) was used as a setting for the play. Like the Christmas crib, the Paradise tree was later placed in homes. The apples were replaced by round objects such as shiny red balls.[10][11][17][18][19][20]

text: At the end of the Middle Ages, an early predecessor appears referred in the Regiment of the Order of Cister around 1400, in Alcobaça, Portugal. The Regiment of the local high-Sacristans of the Cistercian Order refers to what may be considered one of the oldest references to the Christmas tree: "Note on how to put the Christmas branch, scilicet: On the Christmas eve, you will look for a large Branch of green laurel, and you shall reap many red oranges, and place them on the branches that come of the laurel, specifically as you have seen, and in every orange you shall put a candle, and hang the Branch by a rope in the pole, which shall be by the candle of the altar-mor."[21]

text: Modern Christmas trees originated during the Renaissance of early modern Germany. Its 16th-century origins are sometimes associated with Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther, who is said to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree.[22][23][24]

text: The first recorded Christmas tree can be found on the keystone sculpture of a private home in Turckheim, Alsace (then part of Germany, today France), dating 1576.[25]

text: Georgia[edit]

text: Georgians have their own traditional Christmas tree called Chichilaki, made from dried up hazelnut or walnut branches that are shaped to form a small coniferous tree. These pale-colored ornaments differ in height from 20 cm (7.9 in) to 3 meters (9.8 feet). Chichilakis are most common in the Guria and Samegrelo regions of Georgia near the Black Sea, but they can also be found in some stores around the capital of Tbilisi.[citation needed] Georgians believe that Chichilaki resembles the famous beard of St. Basil the Great, because Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates St. Basil on January 1.

text: Poland[edit]

text: There was an old pagan custom, associated with Koliada, of suspending a branch of fir, spruce or pine called Podłaźniczka from the ceiling. The branches were decorated with apples, nuts, cookies, colored paper, stars made of straw, ribbons and colored wafers. Some people believed that the tree had magical powers that were linked with harvesting and success in the next year.

text: In the late 18th and early 19th century, these traditions were almost completely replaced by the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree.

text: Estonia, Latvia and Germany[edit]

text: Customs of erecting decorated trees in wintertime can be traced to Christmas celebrations in Renaissance-era guilds in Northern Germany and Livonia. The first evidence of decorated trees associated with Christmas Day are trees in guildhalls decorated with sweets to be enjoyed by the apprentices and children. In Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia), in 1441, 1442, 1510 and 1514, the Brotherhood of Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their guild houses in Reval (now Tallinn) and Riga. On the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square, where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.[26]

text: A Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 reports that a small tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" was erected in the guild-house for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.[27] In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow in his Chronica der Provinz Lyfflandt (1584) wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square, where the young men "went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame".

text: After the Protestant Reformation, such trees are seen in the houses of upper-class Protestant families as a counterpart to the Catholic Christmas cribs. This transition from the guild hall to the bourgeois family homes in the Protestant parts of Germany ultimately gives rise to the modern tradition as it developed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

text: 18th to early 20th centuries[edit]

text: Germany[edit]

text: By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Wax candles, expensive items at the time, are found in attestations from the late 18th century.

text: Along the lower Rhine, an area of Roman Catholic majority, the Christmas tree was largely regarded as a Protestant custom. As a result, it remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long period of time. The custom did eventually gain wider acceptance beginning around 1815 by way of Prussian officials who emigrated there following the Congress of Vienna.

text: In the 19th century, the Christmas tree was taken to be an expression of German culture and of Gemütlichkeit, especially among emigrants overseas.[28]

text: A decisive factor in winning general popularity was the German army's decision to place Christmas trees in its barracks and military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. Only at the start of the 20th century did Christmas trees appear inside churches, this time in a new brightly lit form.[29]

text: Adoption by European nobility[edit]

text: In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years. In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchesse d'Orléans. In Denmark a Danish newspaper claims that the first attested Christmas tree was lit in 1808 by countess Wilhemine of Holsteinborg. It was the aging countess who told the story of the first Danish Christmas tree to the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen in 1865. He had published a fairy-tale called The Fir-Tree in 1844, recounting the fate of a fir-tree being used as a Christmas tree.[30]

text: Britain[edit]

text: Although the tradition of decorating the home with evergreens was long established,[32] the custom of decorating an entire small tree was unknown in Britain until some two centuries ago. At the time of the personal union with Hanover, George III's German-born wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, introduced a Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800.[33] The custom did not at first spread much beyond the royal family.[34] Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with it and a tree was placed in her room every Christmas. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote:[35]

text: After dinner... we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room... There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees...

text: After Victoria's marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became even more widespread[36] as wealthier middle-class families followed the fashion. In 1842 a newspaper advert for Christmas trees makes clear their smart cachet, German origins and association with children and gift-giving.[37] An illustrated book, The Christmas Tree, describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844.[38] On 2 January 1846 Elizabeth Fielding (née Fox Strangways) wrote from Laycock Abbey to William Henry Fox-Talbot: "Constance is extremely busy preparing the Bohemian Xmas Tree. It is made from Caroline's[39] description of those she saw in Germany".[40] In 1847 Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be".[41] A boost to the trend was given in 1848[42] when The Illustrated London News,[43] in a report picked up by other papers,[44] described the trees in Windsor Castle in detail and showed the main tree, surrounded by the royal family, on its cover. In fewer than ten years their use in better-off homes was widespread. By 1856 a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to them,[45] as well as reporting the accidental death of a woman whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on a Christmas tree.[46] They had not yet spread down the social scale though, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy or the "romantic".[47]

text: Their use at public entertainments, charity bazaars and in hospitals made them increasingly familiar however, and in 1906 a charity was set up specifically to ensure even poor children in London slums 'who had never seen a Christmas tree' would enjoy one that year.[48] Anti-German sentiment after World War I briefly reduced their popularity[49] but the effect was short-lived[50] and by the mid-1920s the use of Christmas trees had spread to all classes.[51] In 1933 a restriction on the importation of foreign trees led to the "rapid growth of a new industry" as the growing of Christmas trees within Britain became commercially viable due to the size of demand.[52] By 2013 the number of trees grown in Britain for the Christmas market was approximately 8 million[53] and their display in homes, shops and public spaces a normal part of the Christmas season.

text: North America[edit]

text: The tradition was introduced to North America in the winter of 1781 by Hessian soldiers stationed in the Province of Québec (1763–1791) to garrison the colony against American attack. General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel and his wife, the Baroness von Riedesel, held a Christmas party for the officers at Sorel, delighting their guests with a fir tree decorated with candles and fruits.[54]

text: The Christmas tree became very common in the United States in the early nineteenth century. The first image of a Christmas tree was published in 1836 as the frontispiece to The Stranger's Gift by Hermann Bokum. The first mention of the Christmas tree in American literature was in a story in the 1836 edition of The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, titled "New Year's Day," by Catherine Maria Sedgwick, where she tells the story of a German maid decorating her mistress's tree. Also, a woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in The Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in Godey's Lady's Book. Godey's copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.[55] The republished Godey's image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree".[56] Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become even more common in America.[55]

text: Several cities in the United States with German connections lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree: Windsor Locks, Connecticut, claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House,[57] while the "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. In his diary, Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, recorded the use of a Christmas tree in 1821, leading Lancaster to also lay claim to the first Christmas tree in America.[58] Other accounts credit Charles Follen, a German immigrant to Boston, for being the first to introduce to America the custom of decorating a Christmas tree.[59] August Imgard, a German immigrant living in Wooster, Ohio, is said to be the first to popularize the practice of decorating a tree with candy canes.[citation needed] In 1847, Imgard cut a blue spruce tree from a woods outside town, had the Wooster village tinsmith construct a star, and placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments, gilded nuts and Kuchen.[60] German immigrant Charles Minnegerode accepted a position as a professor of humanities at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in 1842, where he taught Latin and Greek. Entering into the social life of the Virginia Tidewater, Minnigerode introduced the German custom of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas at the home of law professor St. George Tucker, thereby becoming another of many influences that prompted Americans to adopt the practice at about that time.[61] An 1853 article on Christmas customs in Pennsylvania defines them as mostly "German in origin", including the Christmas tree, which is "planted in a flower pot filled with earth, and its branches are covered with presents, chiefly of confectionary, for the younger members of the family." The article distinguishes between customs in different states however, claiming that in New England generally "Christmas is not much celebrated", whereas in Pennsylvania and New York it is.[62]

text: When Edward H. Johnson was vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, a predecessor of Con Edison, he created the first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree at his home in New York City in 1882. Johnson became the "Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights".[63]

text: The lyrics sung in the United States to the German tune O Tannenbaum begin "O Christmas tree...", giving rise to the mistaken idea that the German word Tannenbaum (fir tree) means "Christmas tree", the German word for which is instead Weihnachtsbaum.

text:
18th to early 20th century representations

The Christmas tree by Winslow Homer, 1858

Christmas in the Netherlands, c. 1899

Illustration for Harper's Bazaar, published 1 January 1870.

Christmas tree depicted as Christmas card by Prang & Co. (Boston) 1880

Vera Komissarzhevskaya as Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House (c. 1904). Photo by Elena Mrozovskaya

An Italian American family on Christmas, 1924

tag: ul

text: 1935 to present[edit]

text: In Russia, the Christmas tree was banned after the October Revolution[64] but then reinstated as a New-year spruce (Новогодняя ёлка, Novogodnyaya yolka) in 1935. It became a fully secular icon of the New Year holiday, for example, the crowning star was regarded not as a symbol of Bethlehem Star, but as the Red star. Decorations, such as figurines of airplanes, bicycles, space rockets, cosmonauts, and characters of Russian fairy tales, were produced. This tradition persists after the fall of the USSR, with the New Year holiday outweighing the Christmas (7 January) for a wide majority of Russian people.[65]

text: The TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) was influential on the pop culture surrounding the Christmas tree. Aluminum Christmas trees were popular during the early 1960s in the US. They were satirized in the Charlie Brown show and came to be seen as symbolizing the commercialization of Christmas. The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree, describing any poor-looking or malformed little tree, also derives from the 1965 TV special, based on the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.[66]

text:
1935 to present

Christmas tree with presents

Christmas Tree in the cozy room at the Wisconsin Governor's mansion.

Christmas tea with Christmas Tree at an espresso shop in Eugene, Oregon

A Soviet-era (1960s) New Year tree decoration depicting a cosmonaut

Christmas Trees in church

An aluminum Christmas tree

text: Public Christmas trees[edit]

text: Since the early 20th century, it has become common in many cities, towns, and department stores to put up public Christmas trees outdoors, such as the Macy's Great Tree in Atlanta (since 1948), the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City, and the large Christmas tree at Victoria Square in Adelaide. The use of fire retardant allows many indoor public areas to place real trees and be compliant with code. Licensed applicants of fire retardant solution spray the tree, tag the tree, and provide a certificate for inspection. Real trees are popular with high end visual merchandising displays around the world. Leading global retailers such as Apple often place real trees in their window displays. In 2009, Apple placed two Fraser fir trees in every one of its retail establishments.[citation needed]

text: The United States' National Christmas Tree has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the White House. Today,[clarification needed] the lighting of the National Christmas Tree is part of what has become a major holiday event at the White House. President Jimmy Carter lit only the crowning star atop the tree in 1979 in honor of the Americans being held hostage in Iran.[67] The same was true in 1980, except that the tree was fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been in captivity.[67]

text: During most of the 1970s and 1980s, the largest decorated Christmas tree in the world was put up every year on the property of the National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. This tradition grew into one of the most spectacular and celebrated events in the history of southern Florida, but was discontinued on the death of the paper's founder in the late 1980s.[68]

text: In some cities, a charity event called the Festival of Trees is organized, in which multiple trees are decorated and displayed.

text: The giving of Christmas trees has also often been associated with the end of hostilities. After the signing of the Armistice in 1918 the city of Manchester sent a tree, and £500 to buy chocolate and cakes, for the children of the much-bombarded town of Lille in northern France.[69] In some cases the trees represent special commemorative gifts, such as in Trafalgar Square in London, where the City of Oslo, Norway presents a tree to the people of London as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during the Second World War; in Boston, where the tree is a gift from the province of Nova Scotia, in thanks for rapid deployment of supplies and rescuers to the 1917 ammunition ship explosion that leveled the city of Halifax; and in Newcastle upon Tyne, where the main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of Bergen, in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from Nazi occupation.[70] Norway also annually gifts a Christmas tree to Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship between Norway and the US and as an expression of gratitude from Norway for the help received from the US during World War II.[71]

text:
Public Christmas trees

Christmas tree in Milan, Italy, 2008

Christmas tree in Vatican City, 2007

Christmas tree in Salerno old town, Italy, 2008.

Trafalgar Square Christmas tree

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

Christmas tree on the Römerberg in Frankfurt (2008)

in Lisbon (2005), at 75 metres (246 feet) the tallest Christmas tree in Europe.

Boston's Christmas Tree.

An Árbol navideño luminoso in Madrid (2011)

Christmas tree in Warsaw

Christmas tree in South Coast Plaza, California

Christmas tree in Stockholm at NK shopping mall

Christmas trees in Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, Hong Kong

text: Chrismon trees[edit]

text: A "Chrismon tree" is a Christmas tree decorated with explicitly Christian symbols in white and gold.[72][73] First introduced by North American Lutherans in 1957,[74] the practice has rapidly spread to other Christian denominations,[75] including Anglicans,[76] Catholics,[77] Methodists,[78] and the Reformed.[79]

text: "Chrismon" (plural "Chrismons") was adopted for the type of Christmas decoration and explained as a portmanteau of "Christ-monogram" (a Christogram).[80][81]

text: Customs and traditions[edit]

text: Setting up and taking down[edit]

text:
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tag: table

text: Both setting up and taking down a Christmas tree are associated with specific dates. Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December)[citation needed] or, in the traditions celebrating Christmas Eve rather than the first day of Christmas, 23 December, and then removed the day after Twelfth Night (5 January); to have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck,[citation needed] and that to avoid bad luck from affecting the house's residents, the tree must be left up until after the following Twelfth Night passes.

text: In many areas, it has become customary to set up one's Christmas tree at the beginning of the Advent season.[82] Some families in the U.S. and Canada will put up a Christmas tree a week prior to American Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November), and Christmas decorations can show up even earlier in retail stores, often the day after Halloween (31 October). In Canada many families wait until after Remembrance Day, as to show respect to fallen soldiers. Some households do not put up the tree until the second week of December, and leave it up until 6 January (Epiphany). In Germany, traditionally the tree is put up on 24 December and taken down on 7 January, though many start one or two weeks earlier, and in Roman Catholic homes the tree may be kept until February 2 (Candlemas).[why?][citation needed]

text: In Italy, Ireland and Argentina, along with many countries in Latin America, the Christmas tree is put up on 8 December (Immaculate Conception day) and left up until 6 January. In Australia, the Christmas tree is usually put up on 1 December, which occurs about a 2 weeks before the school summer holidays (except for South Australia, where most people put up their tree after in late November following the completion of the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, a time frame that has started to filter into other states as the official time Christmas decorations and in store Santa Claus start to appear) and is left up until it is taken down.[citation needed] Some traditions suggest that Christmas trees may be kept up until no later than 2 February, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Candlemas), when the Christmas season effectively closes.[83] Superstitions say that it is a bad sign if Christmas greenery is not removed by Candlemas Eve.[84]

text: Decoration[edit]

text: Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood, or ceramics) that are used to decorate a Christmas tree. The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, and also garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations grew into the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds.

text: Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used to decorate a Christmas tree. Silvered saran-based tinsel was introduced later. Delicate mold-blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of the glass factories in the Thuringian Forest, especially in Lauscha in the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous-name designers. Baubles are another common decoration, consisting of small hollow glass or plastic spheres coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide coloration. Lighting with electric lights (Christmas lights or, in the United Kingdom, fairy lights) is commonly done. A tree-topper, sometimes an angel but more frequently a star, completes the decoration.

text: In the late 1800s, home-made white Christmas trees were made by wrapping strips of cotton batting around leafless branches creating the appearance of a snow-laden tree. In the 1940s and 1950s, popularized by Hollywood films in the late 1930s, flocking was very popular on the West Coast of the United States. There were home flocking kits that could be used with vacuum cleaners. In the 1980s some trees were sprayed with fluffy white flocking to simulate snow.

text:
Decorations

A transparent Christmas bauble

A golden bauble decorating a Christmas tree

Christmas baubles

A snowman-shaped decoration painted as a baseball

A toy bear Christmas decoration.

Fabergé egg as a Christmas decoration.

Christmas decorations

Red ornamented Christmas bauble

Christmas baubles

text: Production[edit]

text: Each year, 33 to 36 million Christmas trees are produced in America, and 50 to 60 million are produced in Europe. In 1998, there were about 15,000 growers in America (a third of them "choose and cut" farms). In that same year, it was estimated that Americans spent $1.5 billion on Christmas trees.[85] By 2016 that had climbed to $2.04 billion for natural trees and a further $1.86 billion for artificial trees. In Europe, 75 million trees worth €2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) are harvested annually.[86]

text: Natural trees[edit]

text: The most commonly used species are fir (Abies), which have the benefit of not shedding their needles when they dry out, as well as retaining good foliage color and scent; but species in other genera are also used.

text: In northern Europe most commonly used are:

text:
Norway spruce Picea abies (the original tree, generally the cheapest)
Silver fir Abies alba
Nordmann fir Abies nordmanniana
Noble fir Abies procera
Serbian spruce Picea omorika
Scots pine Pinus sylvestris
Stone pine Pinus pinea (as small table-top trees)
Swiss pine Pinus cembra

text: In North America, Central America and South America most commonly used are:

text:
Douglas fir Pseudotsuga menziesii
Balsam fir Abies balsamea
Fraser Fir Abies fraseri
Grand fir Abies grandis
Guatemalan fir Abies guatemalensis
Noble fir Abies procera
Red fir Abies magnifica
White fir Abies concolor
Pinyon pine Pinus edulis
Jeffrey pine Pinus jeffreyi
Scots pine Pinus sylvestris
Stone pine Pinus pinea (as small table-top trees)
Norfolk Island pine Araucaria heterophylla

text: Several other species are used to a lesser extent. Less-traditional conifers are sometimes used, such as giant sequoia, Leyland cypress, Monterey cypress and eastern juniper. Various types of spruce tree are also used for Christmas trees (including the blue spruce and, less commonly, the white spruce); but spruces begin to lose their needles rapidly upon being cut, and spruce needles are often sharp, making decorating uncomfortable. Virginia pine is still available on some tree farms in the southeastern United States; however, its winter color is faded. The long-needled eastern white pine is also used there, though it is an unpopular Christmas tree in most parts of the country, owing also to its faded winter coloration and limp branches, making decorating difficult with all but the lightest ornaments. Norfolk Island pine is sometimes used, particularly in Oceania, and in Australia, some species of the genera Casuarina and Allocasuarina are also occasionally used as Christmas trees. But, by far, the most common tree is the Monterey pine. Adenanthos sericeus or Albany woolly bush is commonly sold in southern Australia as a potted living Christmas tree. Hemlock species are generally considered unsuitable as Christmas trees due to their poor needle retention and inability to support the weight of lights and ornaments.

text: Some trees, frequently referred to as "living Christmas trees", are sold live with roots and soil, often from a plant nursery, to be stored at nurseries in planters or planted later outdoors and enjoyed (and often decorated) for years or decades. Others are produced in a container and sometimes as topiary for a porch or patio. However, when done improperly, the combination of root loss caused by digging, and the indoor environment of high temperature and low humidity is very detrimental to the tree's health; additionally, the warmth of an indoor climate will bring the tree out of its natural winter dormancy, leaving it little protection when put back outside into a cold outdoor climate. Often Christmas trees are a large attraction for living animals, including mice and spiders. Thus, the survival rate of these trees is low.[87] However, when done properly, replanting provides higher survival rates.[88]

text: European tradition prefers the open aspect of naturally grown, unsheared trees, while in North America (outside western areas where trees are often wild-harvested on public lands)[89] there is a preference for close-sheared trees with denser foliage, but less space to hang decorations.

text: In the past, Christmas trees were often harvested from wild forests, but now almost all are commercially grown on tree farms. Almost all Christmas trees in the United States are grown on Christmas tree farms where they are cut after about ten years of growth and new trees planted. According to the United States Department of Agriculture's agriculture census for 2007, 21,537 farms were producing conifers for the cut Christmas tree market in America, 5,717.09 square kilometres (1,412,724 acres) were planted in Christmas trees.[90]

text: The life cycle of a Christmas tree from the seed to a 2-metre (7 ft) tree takes, depending on species and treatment in cultivation, between 8 and 12 years. First, the seed is extracted from cones harvested from older trees. These seeds are then usually grown in nurseries and then sold to Christmas tree farms at an age of 3–4 years. The remaining development of the tree greatly depends on the climate, soil quality, as well as the cultivation and how the trees are tended by the Christmas tree farmer.[91]

text: Artificial trees[edit]

text: The first artificial Christmas trees were developed in Germany during the 19th century,[92][93] though earlier examples exist.[94] These "trees" were made using goose feathers that were dyed green.,[92] as one response by Germans to continued deforestation.[93] Feather Christmas trees ranged widely in size, from a small 2-inch (51 mm) tree to a large 98-inch (2,500 mm) tree sold in department stores during the 1920s.[95] Often, the tree branches were tipped with artificial red berries which acted as candle holders.[96]

text: Over the years, other styles of artificial Christmas trees have evolved and become popular. In 1930, the U.S.-based Addis Brush Company created the first artificial Christmas tree made from brush bristles.[97] Another type of artificial tree is the aluminum Christmas tree,[93] first manufactured in Chicago in 1958,[98] and later in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, where the majority of the trees were produced.[99] Most modern artificial Christmas trees are made from plastic recycled from used packaging materials, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC).[93] Approximately 10% of artificial Christmas trees are using virgin suspension PVC resin; despite being plastic most artificial trees are not recyclable or biodegradable.[100]

text: Other trends have developed in the early 2000s as well. Optical fiber Christmas trees come in two major varieties; one resembles a traditional Christmas tree.[101] One Dallas-based company offers "holographic mylar" trees in many hues.[94] Tree-shaped objects made from such materials as cardboard,[102] glass,[103] ceramic or other materials can be found in use as tabletop decorations. Upside-down artificial Christmas trees became popular for a short time and were originally introduced as a marketing gimmick; they allowed consumers to get closer to ornaments for sale in retail stores and opened up floor space for more products.[104] Artificial trees became increasingly popular during the late 20th century.[93] Users of artificial Christmas trees assert that they are more convenient, and, because they are reusable, much cheaper than their natural alternative.[93] They are also considered much safer[105] as natural trees can be a significant fire hazard. Between 2001 and 2007 artificial Christmas tree sales in the U.S. jumped from 7.3 million to 17.4 million.[106] Currently it is estimated that around 58% of Christmas trees used in the United States are artificial while numbers in the United Kingdom are indicated to be around 66%.[107]

text:
Artificial trees

A tree with fibre optic lights

Christmas tree and presents Athens, Greece

White Christmas tree

Spanish artificial Christmas tree

A chrismon tree (St. Alban's Anglican Cathedral, Oviedo, Florida)

An artificial Aluminum Christmas tree

Artificial tree

text: Environmental issues[edit]

text: The debate about the environmental impact of artificial trees is ongoing. Generally, natural tree growers contend that artificial trees are more environmentally harmful than their natural counterparts.[106] However, trade groups such as the American Christmas Tree Association, continue to refute that artificial trees are more harmful to the environment, and maintain that the PVC used in Christmas trees has excellent recyclable properties.[108]

text: Live trees are typically grown as a crop and replanted in rotation after cutting, often providing suitable habitat for wildlife.[citation needed] Alternately, live trees can be donated to livestock farmers of such animals like goats who find that such trees uncontaminated by chemical additives are excellent fodder.[109] In some cases management of Christmas tree crops can result in poor habitat since it sometimes involves heavy input of pesticides.[110] Concerns have been raised about people cutting down old and rare conifers, such as the Keteleeria evelyniana and Abies fraseri , for Christmas trees.

text: Real or cut trees are used only for a short time, but can be recycled and used as mulch, wildlife habitat, or used to prevent erosion.[111][112][113] Real trees are carbon-neutral, they emit no more carbon dioxide by being cut down and disposed of than they absorb while growing.[114] However, emissions can occur from farming activities and transportation. An independent life-cycle assessment study, conducted by a firm of experts in sustainable development, states that a natural tree will generate 3.1 kg (6.8 lb) of greenhouse gases every year (based on purchasing 5 km (3.1 miles) from home) whereas the artificial tree will produce 48.3 kg (106 lb) over its lifetime.[115] Some people use living Christmas or potted trees for several seasons, providing a longer life cycle for each tree. Living Christmas trees can be purchased or rented from local market growers. Rentals are picked up after the holidays, while purchased trees can be planted by the owner after use or donated to local tree adoption or urban reforestation services.[116]

text: Most artificial trees are made of recycled PVC rigid sheets using tin stabilizer in the recent years. In the past, lead was often used as a stabilizer in PVC, but is now banned by Chinese laws.[citation needed] The use of lead stabilizer in Chinese imported trees has been an issue of concern among politicians and scientists over recent years. A 2004 study found that while in general artificial trees pose little health risk from lead contamination, there do exist "worst-case scenarios" where major health risks to young children exist.[117] A 2008 United States Environmental Protection Agency report found that as the PVC in artificial Christmas trees aged it began to degrade.[118] The report determined that of the 50 million artificial trees in the United States approximately 20 million were 9 or more years old, the point where dangerous lead contamination levels are reached.[118] A professional study on the life-cycle assessment of both real and artificial Christmas trees revealed that one must use an artificial Christmas tree at least 20 years to leave an environmental footprint as small as the natural Christmas tree.[115]

text: Religious issues[edit]

text: The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer.[119][120] In the United States, these "German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees."[121][122] When decorating the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, a fact recorded by The School Journal in 1897.[5][123] Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford University writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus.[6]

text: Under the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other religious holidays—were prohibited as a result of the Soviet anti-religious campaign.[124][125][126] The League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, among them being the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an anti-religious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.[127] With the Christmas tree being prohibited in accordance with Soviet anti-religious legislation, people supplanted the former Christmas custom with New Year's trees.[126][128] In 1935 the tree was brought back as New Year tree and became a secular, not a religious holiday.

text: Pope John Paul II introduced the Christmas tree custom to the Vatican in 1982. Although at first disapproved of by some as out of place at the centre of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican Christmas Tree has become an integral part of the Vatican Christmas celebrations,[129] and in 2005 Pope Benedict XVI spoke of it as part of the normal Christmas decorations in Catholic homes.[130] In 2004, Pope John Paul called the Christmas tree a symbol of Christ. This very ancient custom, he said, exalts the value of life, as in winter what is evergreen becomes a sign of undying life, and it reminds Christians of the "tree of life" of Genesis 2:9, an image of Christ, the supreme gift of God to humanity.[131] In the previous year he said: "Beside the crib, the Christmas tree, with its twinkling lights, reminds us that with the birth of Jesus the tree of life has blossomed anew in the desert of humanity. The crib and the tree: precious symbols, which hand down in time the true meaning of Christmas."[132] The Catholic Church's official Book of Blessings has a service for the blessing of the Christmas tree in a home.[133] Likewise the Protestant Episcopal Church in The Anglican Family Prayer Book, which has the imprimatur of The Rt. Rev. Catherine S. Roskam of the Anglican Communion, has long had a ritual titled Blessing of a Christmas Tree, as well as Blessing of a Crèche, for use in the church and the home.[134]

text: In 2005, the city of Boston renamed the spruce tree used to decorate the Boston Common a "Holiday Tree" rather than a "Christmas Tree".[135] The name change drew a poor response from the public and it was reversed after the city was threatened with several lawsuits.[136]

text: Chrismon trees are a variety developed in 1957 by a Lutheran laywoman in Virginia, as a specifically religious version appropriate for a church's Christmas celebrations, although most Christian churches continue to display the traditional Christmas tree in their sanctuaries during Christmastide.[137]