Christmas tree

A robin has landed in our tree adding a splash of colour to the tree of silver and gold!

Possibly the first recorded Christmas tree was at Riga in Latvia in 1510 when a guild of German merchants erected a spruce tree outside their headquarters and then set it alight to celebrate the winter solstice and the birth of Jesus. A few years later after noticing the stars twinkling through the trees Martin Luther decorated a little fir tree with candles to represent the stars that were part of God’s wonderful universe. By the mid 16th century German markets were selling trees at Christmas with bakers selling special gingerbreads to hang on their Christmas trees and the idea spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia frequently with edible gifts put on the trees.
It was many years before they became common in Britain. Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert popularised the Christmas tree in England in 1840 but Queen Charlotte, the German born wife of George III already had a decorated tree at Windsor in 1800 and some of the nobility then followed her tradition before Victoria became Queen. Now trees are everywhere in all shapes, colours and sizes adding brightness to the dark days of winter.