What’s the story behind your Christmas tree?

Glittering tinsel, lights, glass balls, and candy canes dangle from pine trees.

Did you know that long before pine and fir trees came to symbolize Christmas, people in the colder parts of the world brought in evergreen trees into their homes in the winter, as it made them think of the spring to come?

The original story behind the tree

However, most people agree that the tradition of putting up Christmas trees started in 16th century Germany. In fact, according to one popular legend, the custom of decorating the tree with lights was started by the protestant reformer, Martin Luther. It is said that Luther was walking home down the street on an evening when he glimpsed the stars softly twinkling behind the evergreen trees on the street. When he went home, he tried to recapture the sight for his family by putting up a tree, and then wiring it with lighted candles! Isn’t that a lovely story?

Of course, the tradition didn’t become popular in the rest of the world until a picture of Queen Victoria and her family standing beside a decorated tree appeared in the paper. And the rest is history. Today, if you were to ask anyone, whether their Christmas festivities would be complete without a tree, chances are, they would look at you in total disbelief. That’s right, Christmas is incomplete without a tree!

Some stories from this Christmas

However, between the last minute work that seems to pile up right before the holidays, and the rush of preparing for the festive season, it’s not an easy task to buy and decorate a tree. So, in the spirit of spreading some cheer this Christmas eve, we decided to roll out a special service- Christmas trees on demand. So we paid a visit to our customers’ homes this festive season, along with a Christmas tree, and decorated it for them.

In the process, not only were we rewarded by the pleasure on people’s faces, we also managed to elicit quite a few smiles from the children! They just couldn’t keep away from the miniature gift boxes and candy canes on the trees, not to mention, they were quite fascinated by the lights!

This little one was fascinated by the twinkling lights and kept trying to figure out what they were made of!

A shy child who finally came out of hiding only to get a better view of the Christmas stocking!

Little Nihal on the other hand, couldn’t keep away from the tree. He even insisted on hanging up a few decorations by himself!

By the way, did you know that traditionally, Christmas trees aren’t taken down until the first week of January? So, if you’re as excited about Christmas as these little kids seem to be, then it might be a good idea not to put away your Christmas trees for a bit.

And, if you have any Christmas stories of your own, you can share them with us in the comments section!