Like many of you, I believed in Santa Claus when I was a child. Back then, I gave little thought to the origin of this character. Before proceeding with today’s
ADRIAN O HANLON III | Staff photo
Here are some things you may or may not have known about Christmas and holiday traditions.
1. How did the tradition of putting up Christmas trees start?
History.com states ancient cultures believed evergreens had special meaning during the winter and warded off spirits and illnesses. Devout German Christians are credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition in the 16th century by bringing evergreens into their homes to decorate them. Christians frowned upon the practice at first before warming up to the tradition later.
Christmas trees were rare in early 19th-century America before the first record of one came in the 1830s among German settlers of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747 but Christmas trees were considered pagan symbols as late as the 1840s and not accepted by most Americans.