(real answer? Prince Albert, not in a can, instilled the german custom to the anglo world. Further back than that I have not heard or can not remember.)
It’s the modern version of the Yule Log! Didn’t the Pagans cut down a big tree, drag into a public hall and burn it for 12 days? Decorating a cut tree without burning it is much more civilised.
I hope to be proven wrong by someone who knows more about this stuff than I profess to.
We don’t. We do it because of a long-standing Germanic traditional celebration of Yule with “Tannenbaum”. It’s supposed to represent Yggdrasil and all that kind of rot, IIRC.
This is why I have a really realistic looking artificial tree 🙂 I just can’t bring myself to kill a living thing that otherwise wouldn’t die, just to toss it in my driveway after a couple weeks to “decorate” a landfill.
If I were in a house rather than a condo, I *might* get a live tree… that way at the end of it’s use as a Christmas decoration, I could chop it up and use it in my fire pit (NOT the fireplace, mind you – pine is HORRIBLE for your chimney).
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat schon zur Winterszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren!
Smells nice.
(real answer? Prince Albert, not in a can, instilled the german custom to the anglo world. Further back than that I have not heard or can not remember.)
It’s the modern version of the Yule Log! Didn’t the Pagans cut down a big tree, drag into a public hall and burn it for 12 days? Decorating a cut tree without burning it is much more civilised.
I hope to be proven wrong by someone who knows more about this stuff than I profess to.
We don’t. We do it because of a long-standing Germanic traditional celebration of Yule with “Tannenbaum”. It’s supposed to represent Yggdrasil and all that kind of rot, IIRC.
This is why I have a really realistic looking artificial tree 🙂 I just can’t bring myself to kill a living thing that otherwise wouldn’t die, just to toss it in my driveway after a couple weeks to “decorate” a landfill.
If I were in a house rather than a condo, I *might* get a live tree… that way at the end of it’s use as a Christmas decoration, I could chop it up and use it in my fire pit (NOT the fireplace, mind you – pine is HORRIBLE for your chimney).
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat schon zur Winterszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren!