Many people around the world have many family traditions and many different ways of celebrating the holiday of Christmas. One thing that we all have in common is engaging in the family tradition of hanging brightly colored bulbs, shining lights, glistening beads, and heirloom ornaments from an evergreen, more commonly know as the Christmas tree.
The origin of the Christmas tree can be tracked very far back in history. As for back as 1510 is when the first decorated Christmas tree is believed to have been celebrated in Rigid, Latvia. The story is told that Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant movement, was walking the a forest in Rigid one evening when he came upon a beautiful fir tree that was glimmering in the night's light. He was so moved by it's beauty that he found a smaller tree and chopped it down. He then brought the smaller tree back to his home to share with his children. There inside his home he hung small candles from the tree to recreate the image of the moon and stars glimmering through the tree as he saw it in the forest. The first Christmas tree was then born.
The Christmas tree has always been a very valued piece among all of my family's Christmas traditions. My family and I have gone through many traditions with some we still carry on, and some that have been left behind. Even though we had not known the true meaning of the Christmas tree.
The first memory of a Christmas tree I have from in our home is from when I was five years old. I was in kindergarten at the time and I remember making Christmas ornaments in class to bring home to our tree. We would cut the shape of a Christmas tree out of green construction paper and decorated them with crayons, beads, glitter and whatever other materials we could find. Then we would punch a hole in the top and tie a string on it. I would bring it home that day and my mom would hang it up right in the middle of our tree with all the rest of the sparkling ornaments and lights.
