Christmas Trees

Christmas Trees and Jeremiah 10

Welcome to the Third Degree. My name is Suley Prince and I'm here with Dr. Tony Costa. Dr. Costa, isn't the Christmas tree pagan and doesn't Jeremiah 10 mention it?

Well, first of all, the Christmas tree is not pagan because the fir tree was not a particular tree that was worshipped by the ancient pagans. We know that the ancient Germanic peoples worshipped the oak tree and Jeremiah 10 is not talking about the Christmas tree.

It talks about that a man goes out into the forest and hews down a tree. The King James Version is a little unclear on this because it says he takes down the tree and then he adorns it with silver and gold and it sounds like it's a Christmas tree.

But the actual Hebrew and modern translations bring out the idea that what's going on here is that someone goes out to the woods and cuts down a piece of lumber and from the wood, the lumber, they make an idol and then they plate it with gold and silver and so forth.

So what Jeremiah is talking about there is actually the creation of an idol. That idol is nothing but the tree that you've hewn down and you've carved out an idol out of it. So Jeremiah is definitely not talking about a Christmas tree.

The Christian Origins of the Christmas Tree in Germany

Now, the idea of the Christmas tree, of course, has its origins actually in the 16th century in Germany. It actually goes back to Germany and it was actually Martin Luther, the reformer, who made the Christmas tree famous because he's the one that actually took the Christmas tree and started putting candles on it and the candles represented Christ, the light of the world.

And the Christmas tree, or the fir tree, because it's a very hardy tree, it was seen as a strength, a tree of strength and so forth. It could endure the winter. And then later on, it made its way into England, the UK, through King George III.

Boniface, Thor, and the Fir Tree as the Tree of the Christ Child

And then under Queen Victoria's reign, it became popular principally because of her German husband, Prince Albert. He's the one who actually really popularized the Christmas tree in the United Kingdom.

And then that went out into the Commonwealth and, of course, into the British colonies, which became the United States. And so the idea of the Christmas tree, if you really want to trace it, it goes back to the 8th century in Germany.

There was a huge oak tree that was dedicated to the god Thor, the Norse god Thor, god of thunder. And there was a British, an Anglo-Saxon missionary called the Apostle to Germany, Boniface was his name.

In the year 723 AD, he went into the center of the city where they had this great oak tree of Geismar, as it was called. And he cut it down, he hewn down the tree. And he claims that when that oak tree fell, it destroyed all the trees in the forest except one, the fir tree.

And Boniface referred to the fir, he called the fir tree the tree of the Christ child. And because the Christmas tree or the fir tree has a triangular shape, he used it as an illustration of the Trinity.

Why the Christmas Tree Is Not Pagan

And so as you can see, the origins of the Christmas tree have nothing to do with paganism. It starts with a Christian taking down a tree that represents the thunder god Thor, which was an oak tree, not a fir tree.

And then because the fir tree survived the fall of this tree, he decided to call it the tree of the Christ child. And of course, Martin Luther, of course, made it famous as well in Germany. And Victoria brought that into the United Kingdom and into the Commonwealth.

So the Christmas tree really has no origins in paganism.