Christmas Eve is the feast day of our first parents, Adam and Eve. They are commemorated as saints in the calendars of the Eastern churches (Greeks, Syrians, Copts). Under the influence of this Oriental practice, their veneration also spread to the West and because very popular towards the end of the first millennium of the Christian Era. The Latin church has never officially introduced their feast, though it did not prohibit their popular veneration. In many old churches of Europe their statutes may still be seen among the images of the saints. Boys and girls who bore the names of Adam and Eve (quite popular in past centuries) celebrated their "Name Day" with great rejoicing. In Germany the custom began in the sixteenth century of putting up a "paradise tree" in the homes to honor the first parents. This was a fir tree laden with apples, and from it developed the modern Christmas tree.
--Francis X. Weiser
If you start with that very first sentence, you realize we're not in Kansas anymore. Christmas Eve is the feast day of Adam and Eve? Who knew? And the Christmas tree began in homes in Germany because of the morality plays of a few centuries earlier (which linger in our culture as the "Christmas pageant," sometimes presented by children in bathrobes or costumes, sometimes presented by adults with live animals, for publicity. Several churches around me advertise one every year. They have the money to spend on billboards. The wisdom of using church funds that way I won't get into.). A Paradeisbaum was a common feature of a popular German morality play, turning the Tree in Genesis into a symbol of redemption, much as Christ redeemed us all on the Cross. Which is ironic, because historian Stephen Nissenbaum thinks the Christmas tree gained popularity in America because it was seen as a symbol of reward for unselfish behavior (in the then contemporary German tradition, the tree itself was hung with Christmas presents, and only revealed to the children on Christmas Eve.).
But it has bugger all to do with pagan celebrations. Yes, the Romans trimmed their houses with evergreens at Kalends. But Christmas celebrations didn't start up until the 4th century, and by the time they became widespread (the Middle Ages) most Roman customs like Kalends were long forgotten. Greens started up as Xmas decorations centuries after that, so....
Once more, with feeling: the idea that all of these Christmas traditions are of ancient "pagan" origin is from 17th century Puritans, not archaeologists and historians. The idea of Christmas Eve as a feast day is a tell: the Puritans didn't have feast days, and even outlawed Christmas celebrations (or even the religious observance) in their colonies in the New World.
Christmas trees took a while to take root in American celebration. "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (1823), usually credited with starting all our American Christmas traditions: Santa Claus = St. Nick; the chimney, the reindeer (Moore named them all, names that persisted through the '50's "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer"); the stockings by the chimney. But no Christmas tree. More contemporary illustrations of the poem might include one in the background, but Moore makes no mention of it. Jean Ritchie, born in 1922 in Viper, Kentucky, tells a story of her family's first Christmas tree, something she had heard about but never seen. In her story she literally starts the tradition in her family by getting her mother to go out with her to find a tree on Christmas Eve. If bringing a live tree into the house in winter and hanging candles and glass and paper ornaments on it had any connection to pagan practices, those connections vanished a long, long time ago.
Unless you just wanna Scrooge about people enjoying themselves in the bleak midwinter with a little cheery house decorating.
Its kind of fun to see the "ugliest Christmas trees" posted online. It was kind of unfair when it was Melania pretending to do the decorations at the WH, the blood Christmas one was the creepiest I've ever seen. Maybe I'll make a dowel tree, though it would be easier if I used the square stock my brother left in my mother's garage. Cheaper, too. I've always admired yours.
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