17th of December - Christmas Trees

One the most beautiful Christmas traditions most of us have is putting up a Christmas Tree. I love how it festively decorated gleams and sparkles in our living room. A Christmas Tree simply belongs to Christmas and although it looks different at every house, I believe every tree is beautiful in its own way.

The tradition of putting up such a Christmas Tree finds its origin in the late 15th century in Germany. Then the  tree was traditionally decoratd with edibles such as apples, nuts and dates. But now the food has widely been replaced by ornaments, Christmas tree baubles and balls, tinsel, garland, little bells and other pretty glittering decoration. On top of a Christmas tree usually an angel or a star is put. Since many generations, my family has always tied a big red bow on the highest branch of the tree.

Some families still enlighten their Christmas tree with real candles but due to the high flammability of the dry fir tree most of the people nowadays use electric candles or Christmas lights.

We bought our tree last Saturday and I am already looking forward to setting it up and decortating it a few days before Christmas...

Enjoy some nice pictures from the web: