Many people can correlate the origins of Christmas with those bits of the Biblical account of the birth of Christ – whose name is of course the first part of Christmas. The synoptic gospels tell us that Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor of the time, made a rule that “the entire world” (that is, the Roman Empire) should be taxed, and this happened when Cyrenius was Governor of Syria. This meant that everyone had to return to the native city of his forebears, for a census to be taken and taxes duly collected.
So Joseph and his betrothed wife Mary, who was pregnant at the time, had to travel from Galilee, out of Nazareth to Bethlehem, since he was of the lineage of King David. When Jesus was born, angels appeared to the shepherds who were tending their flocks, and told them the Good News. This is the real origin of Christmas. In fact, one of the phrases in the carol 12 days of Christmas’ origin is “parturit in apertum” (she gave birth in the open) which later became “Partridge in a pear tree”. So much then, for the carol where it involves the origin of Christmas. Tree stories, on the other hand are much more various and varied; in this same carol, we could say that the twelve days of Christmas are the number of days the Yule log was supposed to be allowed to burn, before it was doused and a piece kept to start the fire of the following year.
There are many variants of the Christmas origins with which we are most familiar. But like the twelve days of Christmas origin tale, above, everything we use today probably has an older origin. Christmas tree lore says it appeared in Druid ceremonies; just as origin of Christmas stockings is attributed to the gifts Saint Nicholas gave to three poor girls, and origin of Christmas lights gores back to the feast of Mithras, and Christmas card origin dates back to 1843 London.
The Origins of Christmas, therefore, are shrouded in antiquity. And just as the origin of Christmas is a mix-and-match game for purists, so is the origin of the Christmas tree. What is sure is that it has no Christian Christmas origin, but probably dates even further back than a solstice tradition.
The Romans have also been credited with Christmas tree origin; they balanced candles on branches of live trees during Saturnalia. The origin of the Christmas tree in Scandinavia, involved hanging apples from an evergreen, sacred to Baldur, during the winter solstice to remind themselves that nature would be born anew come spring.
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