Christmas tree

One of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas, the Christmas tree is normally an evergreen conifer tree that is brought in the house or used in the open, and is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful ornaments during the days around Christmas.

Artificial trees

Artificial trees are very popular, particularly in the U.S., where despite their lack of realism (both in looks and scent), they are considered more convenient and (if used for several years) eventually less expensive than real trees. Some people simply store the whole decorated tree covered in a large bag, ready for the next year. In the U.S., about 70% of trees are now artificial. In most of Europe, artificial trees are still considered very bad taste, although even there electrical lights have replaced the candles in most households.

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Artificial trees are sometimes even a necessity in some rented homes (especially apartment flats), due to the potential fire danger from a dried-out real tree, leading to their prohibition by some landlords. They may also be necessary for people who have an allergy to conifers.

Related Topics:
Apartment - Fire - Landlord - Allergy

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Feather trees

The first artificial trees were tabletop feather trees, made from green-dyed goose feathers wound onto sticks drilled into a larger one, like the branches on a tree. Originating in Germany in the 19th century to prevent further deforestation, these "minimalist" trees show off small ornaments very well. The first feather trees came to the U.S. in 1913, in the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog.

Related Topics:
Dye - Goose - Feather - Germany - 19th century - Deforestation - Minimalist - 1913 - Sears, Roebuck and Company - Catalog

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Modern trees

The first modern artificial Christmas trees were produced by companies which made brushes. They were made the same way, using animal hair (mainly pig bristles) and later plastic bristles, dyed pine-green colour, inserted between twisted wires that form the branches. The bases of the branches were then twisted together to form a large branch, which was then inserted by the user into a wooden pole (now metal with plastic rings) for a trunk. Each row of branches is a different size, color coded at the base with paint or stickers for ease of assembly.

Related Topics:
Brush - Pig - Plastic

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Those first trees looked like long-needled pine trees, but later trees use flat PVC sheets to make the needles. Many also have very short brown "needles" wound in with the longer green ones, to imitate the branch itself or the bases that each group of pine (but not other conifer) needles grows from. These trees have become a little more realistic every year, with a few deluxe trees containing multiple branch styles. Many trees now come in "slim" versions, to fit in smaller spaces. Most of the better trees have branches hinged to the pole, though the less-expensive ones generally still come separately. Better trees also have more branch tips, the number usually listed on the box.

Related Topics:
PVC - Deluxe

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Around 2003, some trees with molded-plastic branches started selling in the U.S., intended to look more realistic, but at this stage still falling short in most cases.

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Designer trees

The first trees which were not green were the metallic trees of the 1950s and 1960s. They were aluminium-coated paper, meaning that they also posed a great fire hazard if lights were put directly on them (warnings to this effect are still issued with most christmas tree lights). They were instead lit by a spotlight or floodlight, often with a motorized rotating color wheel in front of it. More recent tinsel trees can be used fairly safely with lights.

Related Topics:
Metallic - 1950s - 1960s - Aluminium - Paper - Spotlight - Floodlight - Motor - Color wheel

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Other artificial trees which look nothing like a conifer except for the triangular or conical shape, are also used as tabletop decorations, such as a stack of ornaments.

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Outdoor trees

Outdoor branched trees made out of heavy white-enameled steel wires have become more popular on U.S. lawns in the 2000s, along with 1990s spiral ones that hang from a central pole, both styles being lighted with standard miniature lights. These lights are usually white, but often are green, red, red/green, blue/white, blue, or multicolor, and sometimes with a small controller to fade colors back and forth.

Related Topics:
Enameled - Steel - Lawn - 2000s - 1990s - Spiral

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A few hotels and other buildings, both public and private, will string lights up from the roof to the top of a small tower on top of the building, so that at night it appears as a lit Christmas tree, often using green or other coloured lights. Some skyscrapers will tell certain offices to leave their lights on (and others off) at night during December, creating a Christmas tree pattern.

Related Topics:
Hotel - Skyscraper

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Other gimmicks

Since the late 1990s, many indoor trees now come "pre-lit", with several hundred miniature lights, often the newer type which will stay on even if a bulb is damaged or removed. Some are instead lit partly or completely by fibre optics, with the light in the base, and a rotating color wheel causing various colors to shimmer across the tree.

Related Topics:
1990s - Fibre optics

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Past gimmicks include small talking or singing trees, and trees which blow "snow" (actually small styrofoam beads) over themselves, collecting them in a decorative cardboard bin at the bottom and blowing them back up to the top through a tube hidden next to the trunk.

Related Topics:
Styrofoam - Cardboard

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A long-standing and simple gimmick is conifer seedlings sold with cheap decorations attached by soft pipe cleaners. Real potted ones are often sold like this, and artificial ones often come with a "root ball" but only sometimes with decorations.

Related Topics:
Seedling - Pipe cleaner

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