SpiritMatters Monthly December 2010

Of the things that are, that have been,

And that future years shall see,

Ever more and ever more!

Contrary to popular belief,

Christmas Trees are not an ancient tradition. If you asked the average person on the street where the tradition of Christmas Trees came from, he or she would probably tell you that it was an ancient pagan custom that Christians adopted. Unfortunately, there isn’t any evidence to support this theory. While it is known that ancient pagans brought branches of evergreen and mistletoe into their homes during the winter season, the earliest evidence we have of anything even resembling a Christmas Tree dates from around the mid 1400s, and even then the practice was restricted to a few places in Estonia and Northern Germany. The modern popularity of Christmas Trees, particularly among English-speaking Christians, can largely and reliably be dated to one event:

In December of 1848 a drawing was printed in the Illustrated London News that depicted Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert standing around a decorated fir tree with the royal family (Prince Albert was German and therefore familiar with the Christmas Tree traditions of his homeland). The English nobility immediately latched on to the tradition and by the end of the 19^th century having a Christmas Tree was quite common, both in England and America. While it is true that we don’t know the exact date of Christ’s birth, we do know that Christians have been celebrating the event on December 25^th since before the year 355AD. That’s at least 1,655 Christmases! Over all those years the traditions surrounding the holiday have changed and developed as each new generation of Christians brings to the observance their own customs, rituals and beliefs. Some customs were brought by pagan converts (mistletoe), some were brought by ethnic groups (German Christmas Trees) and other we can trace to specific individuals (St. Francis of Assisi is responsible for creating the first Nativity Scene or Crèche).

We are now in the midst of the holiday season, a time of the year when for most of us tradition plays a larger role than during most of the rest of the year. Tradition is a funny thing: it shapes us while we shape it. Tradition is a living thing, and like most living things, it evolves and changes over time. We live in relationship with tradition, much like we live in relationship with other people in our lives: healthy relationships involve give and take; they involve listening and challenging; most importantly they involve mutual respect and not coercion. We may not always understand a tradition, but that is no reason to dismiss it. Healthy traditions allow us to be uniquely who we are, while at the same time challenging us to be a part of something larger, older and greater.

Tradition has a way of forcing us to encounter people that we would otherwise have no hope of meeting in our daily lives. It is through tradition that we encounter individuals that died hundreds, even thousands of years before us. By observing the same (or similar) rituals and practices, we are in a sense linked to our ancestors and they speak to us through the tradition. Our observance of different traditions connects us to people in far off foreign lands, at different times and in different places. It is also by tradition that we leave a legacy to those who will come after us. Tradition is that bizarre place where past, present, and future come together.

The Victorians adopted a tradition that was not their own (the German Christmas Trees), because in it they saw something of great beauty and value that enhanced their own celebration of Christmas, and by adopting the practice, they in turn have shaped our tradition. I love the fact that our modern holiday celebrations are such a hodgepodge of different traditions from different cultures. For me, the fact that our traditions are continuing to grow and develop are proof that God isn’t done with us yet.