Candles and the Christmas Tree

 Ah, we've all seen movies and books with pictures of a candle lit Christmas tree. Big cities and small towns alike put trees in the square or some other prominent part of town. One of the most iconic here in America is the tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. I've seen it myself, and it's quite the sight!

I have a book releasing any day now. A time travel where my hero and heroine travel back in time at Christmas, and are staying with a family of farmers who put candles on their tree. It freaks my hero and heroine out, even though the tree is beautiful, they're more concerned about the house burning down.

There's been a resurgence of putting candles on the tree. Yes, it's beautiful, but when did this get started? Well, the earliest would be way back in the time of ancient pagans, when folks used the combination of evergreens and lights to symbolize life in the middle of winter. Fast forward to the 17th century, and the German Christians combined the yule log (yes, another pagan custom that helped create the Christmas tree) with the Christmas tree, by putting candles on the branches, and voila! The illuminated Christmas tree was born.

Christmas trees were brought to America by German-speaking Morovians who settled themselves in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the early part of the 19th century. Later, by around 1820 or so, the Christmas tree was growing popular, and more and more households were putting them up.

Jump ahead about thirty years to the early 1850s when a man by the name of Mark Carr started selling Christmas tree. Yep, Mark had the first tree lot! He got his trees from the Catskill mountains and brought them to New York City  to sell.

But it didn't take long for people to figure out that the whole candle business that came along with a Christmas tree had its drawbacks. Fire was always the big danger, and the cause was unstable candle holders.  So, in 1878, a fellow by the name of Fredrick Artz invented a clip on candle holder. His holder firmly attached a candle to any branch, and though this helped, it still didn't dim the fire hazard.

If candles on the tree is your thing, remember,  it's a lot safer (and wiser) to use battery operated candles that can clip onto the tree. There are also strings of "candle lights" one can put up. Just make sure you have either spare batteries for the battery operated ones, or a few nice string of candles instead of candles and a box of matches. Your tree will last a lot longer! And so will your house.

Until next time,

Kit