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Decorations are very personal. Some people pack their tree with lots of decorations and some treat the tree more elegantly. Whatever you do, send us a photo!
Christmas
Trees
History of the Christmas Tree
Christmas trees are an essential part of every home at Christmas, after all, without them, where would you put your Christmas gifts.
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So what is the history of the Christmas tree? Germany is traditionally credited with starting the trend of putting a Christmas Tree in the home. In the 16th century, Christians put trees inside their houses simply to decorate them. They adorned them with candles and other natural decorations. Candles were believed to have been first added to Christmas trees by Martin Luther, but no firm evidence has been found. The story goes that he wanted to bring the twinkling of the stars into his home. Ah, sweet. However, other countries took a lot longer to take on this tradition, almost 300 years in fact, as Christmas trees were believed to be pagan symbols.
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| For more artificial trees from £19.99 and a huge choice of lights and decorations for your Christmas tree see Christmas at Gardens and Home Direct. Plus a massive choice of outdoor lights and displays. | ||
The British monarch, Queen Victoria, may have popularised the Christmas tree in the UK. They were pictured in a UK newspaper standing with their children next to a Christmas tree in 1876, and this sparked a new trend. Hot on the heels of the British were the Americans, who adopted this new tradition soon after. By the start of the 20th century, Christmas decorations started to arrive from Germany, and soon adorned Christmas trees across Europe and America.
Should you have a real Christmas Tree?
Having a real christmas tree is something everyone really wants at Christmas. They're grown especially for the Christmas market and are available online, at various shops and often at places like the supermarket in the week before Christmas. The advantage of ordering a tree online is that you decide what sort of tree you want and how tall.
There are many types of tree including the Norway Spruce Picea abies which may be the cheapest tree available. A fir tree (species Abies) shouldn't shed it's needles like the Pine (Pinus)
You can of course buy a living tree in a pot which you can then plant out in to your garden and enjoy all year round.
To prevent needles getting into the carpet, you should keep the tree in the coolest part of the room, preferable in somewhere not heated . Use a pretty throw underneath, or a special cloth to catch the needles on.
An artificial tree doesn't shed needles but may shed the odd strand of glitter, but nothing like the mess a tree can make once it starts to drop needles.
Themed trees are easy to do. Just buy some christmas baubles in one particular
colour and only add things that match. You can go for a single colour
theme or a two tone colour scheme. Red and gold are popular colours, or
silver and gold.
You can reuse decorations each year, or buy a new set each year - it's
entirely up to you. To save money though reusing the same items each year
and just adding a couple of extra pieces is an easy way to manage the
christmas tree.
Where do you place your tree? Do you put it in the lounge, dining room, in a large hallway so it greets people. It depends a lot on how you use your home, if you spend time in one room in the evening it might be nice to have it in there, so you can have the lights on in the evenings.
The Christmas tree can be a focal part of the season if you place Christmas
gifts around the tree.
One thing you can do is to wrap large boxes and leave these round the
tree and hide away the real christmas presents.
How to decorate your christmas tree
- Get the whole family involved
- chose your scheme - either toned silver or gold, or a multitude of colours
- Check the lights work NOW and order new bulbs or new lights if need be
- Have a mince pie whilst you're decorating the tree
- Space baubles evenly
- Don't need to put baubles behind the tree where no one will see them!
- Use tinsel and wrapping paper to make an attractive base for the tree
- Place chocolate wrapped goodies out of the way of pets who'll eat them!
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