A Short History of the Christmas Tree
Christmas tree, Yule tree or Tannenbaum (German: fir tree) is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. It is a symbol of the promise of life to come after months of cold winter.
Have Yourself A Frugal Little Christmas
Your June wedding and honeymoon are behind you. You and your new spouse have set budgets for how much you will spend for the Christmas season on each other and on friends and relatives. You even wisely started setting aside time and money to get those gifts before the crowds started invading the shopping malls and discount stores.
Suddenly, you realize that although you listed Christmas decorations on your original wedding registry, you only received two “Our first Christmas” ornaments. They are beautiful, but two ornaments won’t go very far in decorating.
The Christmas Tree
Traditionally, the Christmas tree was not put up until 24th December, Christmas Eve, and it was taken down on 6th January, 12th Night. The Germans used to put their tree up on Christmas Eve and take it down on 1st January, once the New Year celebrations were over. However, modern commercialism dictates that a lot of trees now go up as early as the first or second week in December. This has been made possible by the fact that a lot of people use artificial trees - to bring a real fir or pine tree indoors that early would result in falling needles and half bare branches by Christmas Day.