Christmas tree
Christmas tree
Christmas DecoratingChristmas News

Five Reasons NOT to take Down Your Christmas Tree Yet

We live on a busy Main Street in our little town. We have a large picture window at the front of our house. Each Thanksgiving weekend we look forward to the beacon of light our Christmas tree becomes along our bustling street. But as the week of Christmas passes and New Year’s brings the month of January our Christmas tree quickly falls out of fashion. One year we left the …

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Christmas FeaturesChristmas History

The First Christmas Tree in England

It was the British royal family’s German connections which led to the introduction of the Christmas tree custom in England. King George III’s wife, Queen Charlotte — who was of German descent– arranged for a great yew tree to be erected inside the Queen’s Lodge at Windsor on December 25 1800. A party of children of the local great-and-good was to take place that Christmas Day, and she had the …

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Christmas FeaturesChristmas Video

What Your Christmas Tree is Doing Right Now

A month from now folks will begin heading out into the woods — if they have a permit — to snag a Christmas tree from U.S. Forest lands. Those rare few will get a tree cheap, at least compared to the cost of an artificial tree from a store or a real tree grown and harvested from a tree farm. Artificial trees can be shopped for now — and real …

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Christmas DecoratingChristmas FeaturesChristmas HistoryChristmas LegendsChristmas TraditionsChristmas Video

A Different Kind of History of Christmas Trees

Pick a history resource out there and you will find a history of Christmas trees that dates back to pagan traditions of the Winter Solstice. The History Channel says Christmas trees took root from ancient use of evergreens as an end-of-year ritual of hope and eternal life. Wikipedia, to its credit, admits that is purely a “speculative theory”. But even Christian history resources cite pagan roots for the modern Christmas …

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Tips for Keeping Your Tree Fresh
Tips for Keeping Your Tree Fresh
Christmas DecoratingChristmas Features

Tips for Keeping Your Christmas Tree Fresh

By Walt Frazer, California Tree Grower The great debate of Christmas trees will usually lead to what is “wrong” with a real or artificial tree. The hard truth of the matter is that no Christmas tree is imperfect. If there are problems with any kind of Christmas tree it comes from likely not knowing how to handle it. This is especially true of real trees. Growing up near and later …

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Christmas DebatesChristmas FeaturesChristmas Opinion

Christmas Debate: Real or Artificial?

By Jeff Westover (Author bias: We use an artificial tree in our home every holiday season but we do so under protest. If I could, I would use a real tree. But our choice of tree has nothing to do with environmental consciousness. The simple fact is that we live in a desert and real trees can’t be home grown and never last five days if imported. In my heart, …

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