O Tannenbaum, wie grün sind Deine Blätter?
For a couple weeks now, I’ve been thinking of writing an article about Christmas trees. Are they called pine trees or spruce or fir? Or are they called evergreens? And how do they get to Florida?
The more I thought about writing this article, the more memories and questions popped into my head.
How much drag does a Christmas tree produce on a car roof? How many people get injured each year by Christmas trees falling from car roofs?
What’s my favorite Christmas movie Christmas tree? That's an easy one: “Dad, did you bring a saw?”:
Is it environmentally better to use a real Christmas tree versus an artificial tree? And what do you do with the tree after Christmas?
Growing up in Switzerland, we used real candles and the fire department was pretty busy (and so were the home owners insurance adjusters).
Why do cats like to push over Christmas trees and should you really put an aspirin in the tree stand’s water (or maybe an Alka-Seltzer) to keep the needles on the tree longer?
Are Christmas tree edible, or is it just goats that eat them?
What if you bring a fresh-cut Christmas tree home and find an owl roosting in it?
Are Christmas songs the most covered songs of all time? How is it that you can hear Christmas songs all day long and are able to sing along to each and every one? Except Heino singing “O Tannenbaum”:
And of course, then there are all the common trivia questions like the oldest, largest, most expensive, etc.
With your help, I’d like to put together the weirdest, funniest list of Christmas tree questions, memories, and traditions. Every year, around mid-December, we’ll revisit this list and expand on it until we have the best unofficial list about this prickly tree.
To get some out of the way now, here’s a list of common Christmas tree trivia. Maybe have a fun game with your Christmas party guests this year and see how many they know!
- The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season occurred before the birth of Christ.
- The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510.
- The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
- Approximately 100,000 people are employed full or part-time in the Christmas tree industry.
- In the United States, there are more than 15,000 Christmas tree farms. There are approximately 350 million Christmas trees growing on U.S. farms.
- The most popular Christmas trees are: Scotch pine, Douglas fir, noble fir, Fraser fir, balsam fir, Virginia pine, and white pine.
- The first Christmas tree retail lot in the United States was started by Mark Carr in New York, in 1851.
- Live Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850.
- Using small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle of the 17th century.
- 10.9 million artificial trees were purchased in the United States in 2012.
- Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882. Christmas tree lights were first mass-produced in 1890.
- The official Christmas tree tradition at Rockefeller Center began in 1933. Since 2004, the tree has been topped with a 550-pound Swarovski Crystal star. And since 2007, the tree has been lit with 30,000 energy-efficient LED’s, which are powered by solar panels.
- 24.5 million farm-grown Christmas trees were purchased in the United States in 2012, with a real market value of $1.01 billion.
- 93% of real Christmas tree consumers recycle their tree in community recycling programs, their garden, or backyard.
- Real trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. Artificial trees contain non-biodegradable plastics and possible metal toxins such as lead.
- It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical height (6 – 7 feet) or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.
- The top Christmas tree producing states are Oregon, North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Washington.
- Even before the time of Christ, evergreen trees were seen in winter as a symbol of fertility.
- Real Christmas trees came eighth in a survey of the nation’s favourite smells in 2004, just behind the sea but ahead of perfume.
- The first use of the term ‘Christmas tree’ in English was in 1835.
- The average Christmas tree contains about 30,000 bugs and insects.
- Manufactured Christmas tree ornaments were first sold by Woolworths in 1880.
- The United States’ National Christmas Tree has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the White House.
- An angel or star might be placed at the top of the tree to represent the archangel Gabriel or the Star of Bethlehem from the Nativity.
Source: https://www.uselessdaily.com Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
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