Photo by JJ Harrison
In the seventh century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the word of God. His name was Saint Boniface. He did many good works there and spent much time in Thuringia, a region later to become the center of the Christmas decoration industry.
Tradition has it that Saint Boniface used the triangular shape of the fir tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the fir tree as God’s tree, as they had previously revered the oak.
By the twelfth century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmas time in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity and was referred to as the ‘Tree of Christ’.
The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia in 1510.
