From the Vicar
Dear All,
As our thoughts turn to Christmas, many of you will be putting together the ‘to do’ list, and perhaps, fairly high on this list, will be the purchasing of a Christmas tree or retrieving the artificial Christmas tree from storage. Indeed, families around the world signal the beginning of the Christmas season by “putting up the tree”.
If you have ever wondered how this particular tradition became so important, the history of the Christmas tree might surprise you. Both the Protestant and Catholic traditions lay claim to the first Christmas tree, while many tie it to ancient pagan rituals.
Protestant tradition credits Martin Luther as the first person to actually decorate a Christmas tree. The evergreen fir, he said, represented the eternal love of God and the steadfastness of their own faith. The candles he decorated it with represented the star that led the Wise Men to Christ.
Alternatively, Catholic tradition has it that the very first Christmas tree was due to an 8th Century English missionary called St. Boniface. Around the time of the Winter Solstice, Boniface witnessed a group of pagans worshipping an old oak tree. Horrified by what he saw as blasphemy, Boniface took an axe and hacked down the tree, demonstrating to the pagans the power of his God over theirs. A year later, the pagan converts came to celebrate their new faith by decorating the evergreen. This story ties in neatly the pagan roots of tree worship with today’s traditional use of the evergreen fir tree.
Clearly, many myths surround the Christmas tree’s origin but if history has taught us anything, it’s that the Christmas tree does not belong to one group or one set of beliefs. Instead, it belongs to many. The Christmas tree that you place in your home might be a symbol of your faith, of family tradition, or simply a way to celebrate the season. From a Christian perspective, Christmas without a Christmas tree would be very dull indeed. Not that there were many Christmas trees around on that night in Bethlehem, 2000 years ago!
Apart from what we read in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we know very little detail about the circumstances of Christ’s birth but what we do know is that Christ’s birth points the way to be truly human, it lightens up the darkness of our human frailty and failure, it paints for us God’s portrait in human form.
Our Christmas trees also lighten up the darkness, not least the fabulous specimens in our churches, so lovingly decorated by members of our congregations. As you sit in church before a Carol service or on a Sunday, take a few moments to look at the tree and enjoy it. It too points upwards, it draws our eyes beyond ourselves and its light and colour enlighten our vision and bring joy to our hearts. That’s exactly the point of the Christmas tree and it is the point of all our Carol singing and festivities, of present-giving and tinsel, of feasting and sharing. Christmas needs to enlighten the future with new possibilities for change and for fresh hopes to become reality, like our trees, to help us see beyond the everyday and be caught up in a brighter vision, to uplift our spirits and show us what is possible when people work together to overcome need, using our skills, energies and resources for the good of others.
So as Christmas approaches in your own home and family, when you take out the decorations and erect
the Christmas tree once again, think not only of how it delights the senses, but also of how it can bring
hope and change in our world. And long after Christmas has been and gone, let finding those stray
pine needles also remind you of the continuing presence of God-with-us, Emmanuel, as the prophets
called Jesus. The Christmas trees in our churches will shine out throughout Christmastide and you will be most welcome to join us at any of our Christmas Services. Wherever you are this Christmastide, enjoy the Christmas tree and see in it, the promise of change, light in the darkness, which the birth of the Christ Child brings.
Wishing you all a peaceful and blessed Christmas!
David Beale,
Reader at St Giles, Great Longstone.
