WEBVTT - From the Vault: Holiday Inventions 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.920 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. This is 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:11.200 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday. I 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.200 guess it's Christmas Day. Maybe it is Christmas, Okay, Yeah, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:19.040 so this this episode originally aired on December. It was 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.720 about a holiday associated inventions. Yeah, yeah, and you know, Joe, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:31.040 Merry Christmas, Oh, Merry Christmas to you. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:40.280 to Blow your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:42.199 you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.080 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And I was 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:48.760 gonna say that it's almost Christmas time, but I don't 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:51.760 know exactly what day this episode is going to be airing. 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:55.320 We haven't fully worked that out yet. So it's sometime 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.200 within a couple of weeks of Christmas, right, well Christmas Day, 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.120 but certain it falls within the month of December or 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:08.280 like the three month radius of surrounding December. So it's Christmas. 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:12.320 It's the holidays. Bells will be ringing, meaning doorbells with 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:15.560 deliveries because that's uh, that's the kind of Christmas that's 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.600 going on this year. Yep, yep. A supply chain straining 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:25.040 holiday season. Yes, um so, yeah, you wanted to talk 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:28.440 about some Christmas related inventions, and I gotta say we 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.759 turned up some surprisingly weird and funny stuff on this subject. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.280 I was pleasantly surprised with where this went. Yeah. Last 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.120 year in the Invention feed Back when Invention was its 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.440 own podcast, we focused on some popular toys, where they 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:46.640 came from, how they were invented, things that went under 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.080 the tree. This year, all of the inventions were discussing 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.120 are things that go on the tree? Which is uh 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.760 and and yeah these It turned out to be quite interesting. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:57.920 Do you have a tree up right now, Joe? We do. 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.920 It is fake. It is made primarily of petroleum products. 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.920 So uh, what was once ancient organisms floating in the 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:10.160 seas have settled down and become oil and now they 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.639 are plastic and they're in my home and they make 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:15.320 it festive. Oh nice, Well, we too have our tree 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.280 up It is a a live tree, or at least 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:20.919 one that was was alive at some point and it 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.119 was cut free from the earth and uh so yeah, 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:26.519 now it is in my living room and I run 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.880 a hose in from outside to give it more water 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.440 every day or so were you always a live tree person? 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.040 Or was that a transition. I've just always been a 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.280 fake tree family my whole life. We were always a 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:41.200 live tree family, and we would do this thing. I 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:43.320 think this is something my family picked up in Canada 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.760 and then continued to do, and that is for a 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.120 for the the tree stand. Instead of having an actual 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.040 tree stand, we had a bucket of rocks. So you'd 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.240 put the tree stump in the bucket and then you 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.639 put big sizeable rocks around it, you know, to fill 0:02:57.680 --> 0:02:59.240 it up, but there's still space for water, and then 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.840 we'd pour water are in and uh, I think we 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.600 did that till one year the tree tipped over and 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.680 rocks and water went everywhere, and then they decided, well, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.000 let's let's see about getting an art official tree, and 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:14.160 then they made the switch. But uh, I've done both 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.360 here in my own household. Um. I mean, you know, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:19.639 it's it's a trade off, right because the there's a 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.799 nice smell to the to the fresh cut tree. Um, 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:25.760 But then you have to pick up the needles, you 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:28.440 have to inevitably do a little song on it to 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:32.040 make it function in your house. So I don't know 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.520 I can go either way. I think conceptually, I'm very 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.560 much a live tree person. I've just never in actuality 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:39.680 been one. That's that's the power of habit and the 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:42.440 power of family tradition. Right, Like, if you were to 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.560 present me these options afresh, as if you know I'd 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.240 never celebrated Christmas before, I would definitely go live tree. 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:51.560 But now I think I'm gonna be plastic to the grave. 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:54.400 I used to like the idea of doing a small 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.280 tree because if you do a small little tree, it's 0:03:57.360 --> 0:03:59.760 less less work, right, But now we have all of 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.280 the is We've accumulated all of these these family heirloom decorations, 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.280 so you know, we've got to put those on the trees. 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:07.840 You gotta have a large enough tree to hold them. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.840 That's a very good points as the ornaments that come 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.320 as Christmas gifts that people give you when they don't 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.000 know what else to give you for Christmas, as they 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.760 accumulate over the seasons, they really do start weighing down 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.960 those branches. Alright. So, like I said, everything that we're 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.760 discussing this episode, all the inventions are things that go 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.800 on a Christmas tree. So we really need to lay 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.599 the groundwork, especially for our first invention, Christmas tree lights, 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:37.679 electric Christmas tree lights. Now we always discussed what came before. Well, 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.640 I mean, obviously we have to talk about just the 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:44.400 origin of the Christmas tree as much as we understand it. Um. Now, 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:46.400 if a couple of different ways to consider this. You know, 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.560 you can think about the the use of control fire 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:52.000 itself for ceremonial purposes. Uh, this has a role in 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:55.320 every culture. But here we're talking more specifically about the 0:04:55.440 --> 0:05:01.039 use of illumination technology combined with the form of a 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:03.920 tree or an actual tree. Now, I know I read 0:05:04.080 --> 0:05:07.840 a legendary account. Something tells me this this might not 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:12.000 be necessarily true, but a legendary account involving Martin Luther 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:16.239 and the origins of lighting up a Christmas tree. Um. So, 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.640 so this story, I guess would post date the invention 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.360 of the Christmas tree itself because it assumes there's already 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.880 a tree inside the house. But the story is that 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.400 Martin Luther is out wandering one night, you know, the 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.200 Protestant reformer Martin Luther. I'm sure he's uh, he's composing 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:34.640 in his mind some extremely scatological screed against the pope, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.240 and then he's wandering and he sees trees, and he 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:43.440 sees the stars, behind the trees twinkling and shining through 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.240 the branches, and he's like, oh, how could I recreate 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.920 that at home? And the idea he comes up with is, well, 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:51.200 let's put a bunch of candles in the branches of 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.360 this evergreen. Yeah. It's a beautiful story, but as far 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:58.360 as I can tell, it's just a story, just made up. Yeah, 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:03.320 much like another story, another myth concerning St. Boniface thwarting 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:07.320 a pagan ceremony and somehow turning it into a Christmas tree. Again. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.720 You know, it makes for a cool origin story, but 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:12.360 there's nothing to it now. There's certainly you get into 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:14.960 the myth making about the origin of the Christmas tree. 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.599 Like Another thing to keep in mind is that we 0:06:17.680 --> 0:06:19.040 have a lot of what you can think of as 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:23.520 auxiliary traditions. Uh. For instance, in England, prior to the 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.720 use of Christmas trees, there were fifteenth and sixteenth century 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.479 traditions involving bringing holly and ivy in during the winter 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.640 and doing things with holly and ivy. They are dreadic 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:37.520 traditions concerning mistletoe and we've explored those on the podcast. 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.800 Before the winter may Pole tradition has also some similarities 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.560 according to historians. Yeah, the general ideas that you could 0:06:45.760 --> 0:06:49.240 find something that was green in the wintertime, some kind 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.600 of evergreen branch, you know, if it was pine needles 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.239 or or holly or something, and you'd bring that into 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:59.159 the home around the winter solstice, and the green decoration 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.560 would help distress the family from the barren misery that 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:07.160 is winter time. But Christmas tree traditions themselves where you'd 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:09.840 actually cut down an evergreen tree and then bring it 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:12.080 inside the house or at least put it somewhere near 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.920 the house or in the barn or in the home. Uh. 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.800 That appears to begin among German speaking people's maybe around 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.280 the sixteenth century. That again, it's a little complicated because 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.440 that seems to emerge from similar older traditions. But but 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.720 the Christmas tree itself looks like it it comes around 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.200 the fifteen hundreds. And this was not the only Christmas 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:37.320 decoration tradition among German speaking people's at the time. Another 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.280 German classic was what came to be known as the 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:47.000 Christmas pyramid. Though this name comes after Napoleon's adventures in Egypt. Uh, 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.800 it's not strictly a pyramid like the ones at Giza, 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.200 you've seen this before. It's sort of a tapering miniature 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:58.000 tower with platforms populated by angels with trumpets and other 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.280 critters of that stripe. It's a little I arama, okay, 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.280 I you know, I don't know that I've seen this. 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.680 I think I've seen pyramid type constructions where they use points, 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.400 setta plants and kind of arrange them like that. But 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:11.320 I think one thing you could do when you're building 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.360 your Christmas pyramid is put some evergreen branches on it, 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:16.160 you know, kind of spruce it up and like, oh, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.760 it's maybe it's not winter. Here's something green. Yeah. And 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.520 then of course U slay all the servants who helped 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:24.880 you erect it and placed them under the under the pyramid, 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.400 right scoop the brains out of the angels through the nose. 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.280 Yeah yeah. Oh man, you know, an an ancient Egyptian 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.400 themed Christmas tree would actually be quite lovely. I'm not 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.400 sure if you would put at the top, maybe a cyrus. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.640 Maybe you could put in the sun disc. I don't know. 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:41.880 There's there's so much you could do. Now I want 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.000 to make one, except that I would not be permitted 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.679 to do that. Now I was looking more into the 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:48.640 the history here the tree, and you pointed to the 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:51.839 sixteenth century origins in Germany, and certainly that seems to 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.680 be when it was. We can really point to it 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.520 and say, like, here is the Christmas tree tradition in action. 0:08:58.200 --> 0:09:01.280 But I was also reading from a book by Judith Flanders, 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.360 Christmas Say Biography. She's a historian and writer with a specialty. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.320 Her main especially, I think, is Victorian history, and she 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.600 says that we can we can think of of many 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:15.079 of these earlier traditions as again precursors to the Christmas Tree, 0:09:15.520 --> 0:09:19.040 and an association that had been forged between winter traditions 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.160 and the tree we're already growing around this time, especially 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:24.760 in Germany. The origins, she says, seemed to take us 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.480 back to the early fifteenth century. In Germany, there are 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:32.400 records of a fourteen nineteen decorated tree in Freiburg decorated 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:39.719 with apples, flower paste wafers, tinsel and gingerbread flower paste wafers. 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:46.040 Oh boy, so Flanders points to documented traditions of paradise 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.880 plays performed at the time and performed around Christmas. They 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.479 use that would have used an evergreen fur with apples 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.640 tied to their branches in place of the Tree of 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.360 Knowledge a k a. The Tree of the Knowledge of 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:02.040 Good and Evil, which of course is important to Judeo 0:10:02.120 --> 0:10:06.439 Christian traditions and tied to the world tree myths in general. Right, 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.679 So in the Paradise play, this would be reproducing the 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.600 the the myth of the Garden of Eden, where Eve 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.480 is tempted by the serpent to eat of the Tree 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:17.960 of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which Adam and 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.839 Eve have been forbidden from from partaking of. They can 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:22.560 eat of the Tree of life, and that you know, 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.520 live forever, but they can't know what's right and wrong. 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:27.760 And and once they eat of the fruit, then they 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.320 realize they're naked, and all kinds of bad stuff happens. 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.440 God gets very angry. Yeah, it's a it's a whole scene, 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.600 trust me. But at any rate that this would have 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.000 been a tree standing in to represent that mythic tree, 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:45.599 and the decorations would have included wool thread against straw apples, 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:50.720 things like nuts and pretzels and yeah, pretzels, which makes sense, right, 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.120 You can make things out of pretzels, make curious shapes 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:55.920 and all. It sounds good and also feels authentically German. 0:10:56.480 --> 0:10:58.240 This brings up a question I was talking about with 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.120 Rachel recently, and something about this has me still a 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.480 little bit steaming. Are you not supposed to eat a 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:08.800 gingerbread house. I'm getting mixed signals about what the whole 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.560 deal with the gingerbread house is, because if you're not 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.240 supposed to eat it, why are you making it entirely 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.400 out of edible foods? Uh? I guess that's a redundancy 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.040 out of edible things. And if you are supposed to 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:25.920 eat it, why is it treated I don't know. I'm 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.520 very confused. Well, I guess part of it is that 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.000 it's not just you know, cookier cake, it's load bearing 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:35.680 cookier cake. Right. Um, yeah, I was always told you 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.120 were making a gingerbread house, but you can't eat it 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.160 because the gingerbread is obviously just sitting out on the 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:46.480 table and is not fit for consumption at this point. 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.800 You know, when you turn the lights off at night, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.920 you go to bed and you nestle in, You nestle 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.160 in and get all cozy. The roaches come out. They 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.920 crawl all over the gingerbread house, so they eat little 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:57.640 bits off of it, and then they scurry away in 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.800 the morning. So if you go and take a bite, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.480 just know who you're eating after exactly. Yeah, that's that's 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.200 all a good reason not to trust it, unless I 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.760 guess you're very controlling with your gingerbread house. It goes 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.400 into the refrigerator when you're not using it. I mean, 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:13.439 I could see that as working, and that could be fun. 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.000 But otherwise, you don't eat the house. You eat the men. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:22.520 You eat the gingerbread men. Voiced by Gary Busey. Yeah, alright, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.120 So this tree is becomes popular, In fact, it becomes 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.920 so popular it outlasts the popularity of these paradise plays, 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:33.839 and it becomes this holiday tradition. It is the it 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:36.560 is the Christmas tree. It is the the vi Knox bomb. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.760 So Flanders right, So the oldest Christmas tree market was 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.080 apparently in Strassburg, just over the current German border in 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.720 France in the seventeenth century, and Flanders points to the 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:52.959 first decorated indoor Christmas tree as being is being tied 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.040 to sixteen o five. Again, the decorations seemed to include 0:12:56.040 --> 0:12:59.480 things like apples and sweets, and they became quite popular 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.640 in the straws Burg region with Actually there were fifteenth 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.960 century laws put in place at one point to limit 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.600 the number of trees per household. Oh, this is not 0:13:07.679 --> 0:13:11.679 the last place we're going to encounter laws regulating Christmas trees. Yeah, 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:13.559 I mean people, you know, they get upset about the 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.800 War on Christmas, but wars must be waged against Christmas 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.560 to keep it from getting out of control, because it will. 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.199 This is a centuries long tradition. Yeah. Now, speaking of 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.880 of the traditions though, uh, you know, we we often 0:13:27.000 --> 0:13:30.679 especially here in the United States, uh, and and certainly 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.080 in England, you think of it as being you know, 0:13:33.160 --> 0:13:36.600 firmly rooted in English speaking people's right, But the tradition 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.559 didn't actually travel from Germany to England un till the 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.640 final quarter of the eighteenth century. Flanders points to the 0:13:42.679 --> 0:13:46.880 Gurton novel The Sorrows of Young Worther from seventeen seventy four, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.520 which was translated into English and includes a description of 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.520 a tree not only with organic decorations, but with lights. 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:56.520 So I had to I had to look it up, 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.640 and you can find this text in full on the internet. 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:04.400 In but it here's the juicy part. Quote. He began 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.240 talking of the delight of the children and of that 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.199 age when the sudden appearance of the Christmas tree decorated 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.040 with fruits and sweetmeats and lighted up with wax candles 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.360 causes such transports of joy. The tree lighted up with 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:24.440 wax candles is going to cause such transports of something. Yes, 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:28.760 So another big thing that was involved in the transfer 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:32.400 of the Christmas tree tradition to England. In seventeen nine, 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.360 the German wife of George the third suggested they erect 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:39.120 quote an illuminated tree according to the German fashion, and 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:44.320 and so you see it making the leap over into England. Now, 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.320 as for the Christmas tree in North America, this is interesting. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.240 Flanders writes that it may have been here in North 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.720 America as soon as seventeen eighty six. Quote in North 0:14:53.760 --> 0:14:57.680 Carolina that year a member of the Morovian Brethren accused 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.760 an apprentice of cutting down a small pine tree Christmas Eve, 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.640 the day on which trees were customarily erected in Germany. Interesting. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.840 And there's also evidence of one in Georgia in eighteen 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:12.120 o five. So this is this is interesting. We often 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.920 think of of of things sort of you know, establishing 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.480 themselves in England and then becoming a thing here in 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.880 the United States. Uh, you know, but of course there 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.640 were people from from various European countries coming into North America, 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.120 so it ultimately makes perfect sense that the Christmas tree 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.360 would arrive here around the same time or even a 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:34.240 little earlier. Well. Yeah, so, based on what I've reading, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.320 it seems like Christmas trees really started making their way 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:41.280 to the United States, being brought with German immigrants, not 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.640 not so much coming directly from England. The few people 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.720 in England were trying to pick it up. Um, it 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:51.480 looks like the German immigrants would bring them in the 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.240 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they weren't taken up as 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.840 readily among the general population as you might imagine, And 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.520 there was basically a history of religious discrimination against Christmas 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.080 trees and other types of Christmas celebrations. After all, many 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.680 of the early settlers of eastern the eastern North American 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:15.360 colonies were English Puritans, who, most of the time, we're 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:18.040 not fans of the sort of you know, beastie old 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.840 pagan implications of a hallowed tree. You know, they were thinking, like, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:23.440 if you're gonna put a tree up in your house, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.800 why not just celebrate Christmas by having a decapitation contest 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.560 green Night. Uh So, and a few examples of this. 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.120 William Bradford, you know, the King of the Puritans, the 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.720 pilgrim governor of the Plymouth Colony. Uh. He was famous 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:42.000 slash infamous, depending on your point of view. Apparently in 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:47.120 one instance, Bradford just went ballistic and chewed out a 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.200 bunch of people in the Plymouth Colony for trying to 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:53.240 take the day off on Christmas. So you know, Bob 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.080 Cratchit's out in the street hanging out on Christmas morning, 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:01.120 and Bradford sees him and just his eyes glow red. Uh. 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.000 And so he's writing incredulously that instead of working, he 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:08.400 found people on Christmas Day, quote in the street at 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:12.919 play openly, some pitching the bar and some at stool 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:16.960 ball and such like sports. And he regarded these celebrations 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.280 of Christmas as some kind of quote, pagan mockery of 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.520 God and the spirit of Jesus. So I think Bradford's 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.560 idea of Christmas is you go to work and then 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:27.760 maybe you go to church. But you you you do 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.680 not decorate, you do not play, you do not take 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.240 the day off, you do not sing. That that is 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.680 all satanic mischief. Yeah, he really sounds like the grand here. Yeah, totally. 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.200 And there were some other examples that I found cited 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.480 in a in a history dot com article I was 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.679 reading called the History of Christmas Tree. So one of 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:48.960 them was about Oliver Cromwell, not in the colonies but 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.240 back in England, English Puritan leader, one of the victors 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.240 of the English Civil War and becoming Lord Protector. He 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.320 he did not like what he called the heathen traditions 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.800 of things like Christmas carols, or decoration of trees or 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.080 you know, running around acting Mary that that was all 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.439 kind of desecration of what he called the sacred event 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.240 of Christmas. Um And this article also says quote in 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:18.000 sixteen fifty nine, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:21.520 law making any observance of December twenty five other than 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.560 a church service a penal offense. People were fined for 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:30.400 hanging decorations. The Stern Solemnity continued until the nineteenth century, 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.679 when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermine the 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:38.400 Puritan legacy. Oh man, this this is rich again, especially 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.040 when you look at some of the like legitimate angst 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:45.720 that emerges around you know, so called wars on Christmas 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:50.080 and so today, Oh well, it's this is funny because 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:52.040 while I was reading about this, looking at for these 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.800 historical sources, I also just happened to stumble across like 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:01.240 fundamentalist Christian blogs called things like Christmas Tree Truth and 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:05.120 stuff like that. They're still railing against Christmas trees as 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.000 a as a trap door into some kind of covert 0:19:08.080 --> 0:19:11.879 satanic mass. It was, Yeah, that that's a whole corner 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.680 of the Internet that is worth exploring. Yeah, Christmas trees 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:19.720 are just a gateway to find joy and other satanic concepts. Yeah. 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.160 But so by the mid to late eighteen hundreds, there 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:25.160 there had been a real transition. By the late eighteen hundreds, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.560 Christmas trees started becoming popular in homes throughout the United States, 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:32.720 not just among German immigrants and their descendants. Christmas became 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.720 a federally recognized national holiday in eighteen seventy I think 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.479 that was signed into law by Grant. And so, of course, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:44.040 as Christmas and Christmas trees became more mainstream, and you know, 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:46.959 you're not necessarily part of an immigrant community who has 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.439 a centuries long tradition of how exactly to festoon the 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.360 branches you know, going back to your grandparents and all that, 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.920 the question is going to become, how do you decorate 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.280 this thing? Well, you know, we're talking about Christmas tree lights, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.840 so the immediate predecessor to electric Christmas tree lights, it's 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:08.760 of course going to be candles accentuated. This is interesting. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.120 I hadn't really thought about this, but accentuated by special 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.639 glass beads that were strung around the tree. Uh Flanders 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:18.840 mentioned this, pointing out that to check glassblowers specialized in 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.959 these not only were they beautiful, but there were there 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.000 were something they were actually something on the tree that 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.720 would not burn if things got out of control. Because 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.560 of course, fire is a big risk when you're talking 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:36.360 about decorating a tree with little candles, and it's it's actually, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:39.480 you know, I knew this innately, like that's dangerous. That 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.080 sounds like an out of control fire waiting to happen, 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:46.159 But I hadn't really thought about all the various ways 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.480 in which it is dangerous. Uh Flanders points out that that, 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.160 first of all, with candle lights and hearth fires in general, 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.600 fire was just a much greater daily risk back then. 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:00.480 But then you had these little candles wired tied to 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:05.120 individual tree branches, which again in and of itself dangerous, 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.520 But then as the candles melt, their weight alters and 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:11.720 uh and so so that's going to alter the tilt 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.880 of the branch that they're fixed to. Um, and that's 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.720 you know, potentially move moving that little ball of fire 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:20.040 around and putting it in contact with other branches and 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:23.840 decorations and things. On top of that, wax is dripping 0:21:23.880 --> 0:21:27.639 down from these candles onto lower branches, and uh and 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:31.760 and uh in increasing their weight as well. So the risks, 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.120 you know, go way beyond merely you know, a situation 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.919 of candles balanced in a dried out tree, it becomes 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.439 a moving system to contend with with with branches with 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:46.600 one candle slowly moving up branches beneath, slowly dipping down 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:52.200 with accumulating wax. Um. It's frightening, yeah, so Flanders writes quote. 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.960 A series of innovations and contrivances designed to hold each 0:21:56.000 --> 0:21:59.040 candle in place with greater stability appeared over the years, 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:02.280 but a litt tree was never a safe tree. Many 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:06.280 households lit their candles only once on Christmas Eve, prudently 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.360 keeping the hand water and a stick with a sponge 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.520 on the end of it um, which sounds great, like 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.080 that that should be like a Christmas character, that should 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:18.000 be like have its own decoration like the the sponge 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:22.159 stick guy for putting out the tree fire calls to 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:29.439 mind weird associations with the crucifixion scene in the Sponge Yeah. Alright, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:34.199 so obviously again this is terribly dangerous situation. But it 0:22:34.320 --> 0:22:39.639 is the immediate predecessor to the electric Christmas tree lights, 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:44.240 So this we can basically look back to the late 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.240 eighteen hundreds on this one. In eighty two, the Edison 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:51.639