James A. Surrell, M.D.

As we prepare to celebrate our wonderful Christmas, let’s take a brief look at the history of the Christmas tree in the USA. As we all can observe, many of our families and businesses have their Christmas trees beautifully decorated and on display for us to see this beautiful symbol of our very special Christmas season. Following is a brief look at the history of Christmas trees in the USA.

Historically, it is reported that late in the Middle Ages, the people of Germany and other European countries placed decorated evergreen trees in their homes or outside their doors during the time of Christmas. It is believed that the modern day Christmas tree evolved from these early German traditions that were eventually brought to the USA.

During the War of Independence, in 1776, George Washington and his troops defeated the German Hessians who were fighting the USA in this war. After the war ended, many of these Germans stayed in the United States. The Germans then introduced the USA to their long-standing tradition of the Christmas tree. At that time, the size of the Christmas tree was limited to 8 feet, and the tree ornaments and decorations consisted mainly of dolls, as well as small food snack items.

As you know, this concept of having a decorated evergreen tree on display to celebrate Christmas has become a very major Christmas tradition. This evolved as we entered into the early 1800’s, when many Americans were proudly displaying their Christmas trees. At this time, the trees were primarily decorated with homemade ornaments, and many families also used various colors of popcorn as decorations to add beauty and color to the branches.

Because of the great free market capitalism in our country, it was recognized that the United States needed to provide Christmas trees to satisfy the high demand for these trees. Of course, these trees needed to be grown, harvested, and then transported to the marketplace. As a result, the USA Christmas tree market then became a major business. It is reported that the first major supplier of Christmas trees was a gentleman named Mark Carr from the Catskill Mountains in New York. He took it upon himself to cut down fir and spruce trees that grew in abundance in the Catskill Mountains. Mr. Carr then transported these trees to the large population and business market in New York City where he rented space for his business to sell these Christmas trees. He continued his successful Christmas tree business until the year 1898.

In summary, the concept of the Christmas tree came to us from Germans who stayed in the United States after the War of Independence. It is reported that President Benjamin Harrison had the first Christmas tree inside the White House in 1889, when he set up a Christmas tree for his grandchildren, and President Harrison even dressed up as Santa Claus.

Let me now wish you all a very Merry Christmas as you spend this very special time with your family and friends. MERRY CHRISTMAS!