The Marketing of Christmas Trees: Commercializing Tradition
Christmas tree farms and the aggressive marketing of trees, began in the United States during the Great Depression. According to Jones (2001), it was then that nurserymen could not sell evergreen trees for landscaping because of harsh economic conditions; consequently, to ômoveö excess evergreen stock, the notion of selling Christmas trees to the mass market was developed. Today, this is a multimillion-dollar industry in North Carolina alone, where more than 4 million trees are harvested for the market, generating total sales of more than $100 million for growers and retailers (Jones, 2001).
The roots of the Christmas tree tradition are not, as might be expected, Christian in origin. They are, as Layser (2000) reported, traced back to the pre-Christian era. However, as popular seasonal icons symbolic of one of the Christian faithÆs seminal holy day, it has been suggested that Saint Boniface (an English missionary monk who brought Christianity to Germany around 700 A.D.), incorporated a pagan ceremony taking place around a mighty oak tree into Christian observances of Christmas Day. Striking down the oak, Boniface told the people to take an evergreen into their home and to accept this tree as a sign of endless life.
Over time, Christmas trees gained popularity in Germany and were brought to England by Queen VictoriaÆs husband, German-born Prince Albert. In 1850, Charles Dickens described the use of the Christmas tree as a common social practice (Layser, 2000).
In the United States, German settlers and soldiers are credited with bringing the Christmas tree here. Between 1832 and 1851, Christmas trees began to appear across the United States though some Puritans in New England and others denounced the Christmas tree as a throwback to pagan customs. Layser (2000) contends that by the 1930s, many communities had begun the practice of decorating a ...