Kranthi Kiran's

Many folk legends have grown around the Christmas tree. Christ's blessing and gift to mankind in the form of a decorated tree remains the central theme of most. Across Europe, people used tree-based folk tales to teach children about the celebration of Christ's birth.

One story tells that when Christianity first came to Northern Europe, three virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity were sent from Heaven to find a tree that was as high as hope; as great as love; as sweet as charity; and one that had the sign of the cross on every bough. Their search ended in the forests of the North where they found the Fir. Lighted from the radiance of the stars, it was the first Christmas tree.

Another typical tale tells about a woodcutter who helps a small hungry child. The next morning, the child appears to the woodcutter and his wife, and is none other than the Christchild. The child breaks a branch from a fir tree and tells the couple that it will be a tree that, at Christmas time, will bear fruit. As foretold the tree is laden with apples of gold and nuts of silver.

Various Conifers - such as spruce, balsam, eastern hemlock and the scotch pine are used as Christmas trees but the scotch pine has surpassed the Douglas Fir as the nations most popular Christmas tree. But in the Holy Land conifers are mostly small and insignificant and forests few apart from Lebanon with its magnificient cedars (Psalm 104:16). Even in ancient times forested areas were small. How did the evergreen tree come to become associated with Christmas? Is it an appropriate symbol in Christian homes? Is it rooted in paganism or Christian symbolism? Is there a significance to it's decorations?