WEBVTT - Holiday Inventions: Christmas Tree Lights, Tinsel and Angels 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:14.120 My Heart Radio. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.480 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:21.079 And I was gonna say that it's almost Christmas time, 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:23.800 but I don't know exactly what day this episode is 0:00:23.840 --> 0:00:26.319 going to be airing. We haven't fully worked that out yet. 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:30.360 So it's sometime within a couple of weeks of Christmas, right, 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.000 well Christmas Day, but certainly it falls within the month 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:39.320 of December or like the three month radius of surrounding December. 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.680 So it's Christmas, right, It's the holidays. Bells will be ringing, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.599 meaning doorbells with deliveries because that's uh, that's the kind 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.720 of Christmas that's going on this year. Yep, yep, the 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:57.200 supply chain straining holiday season. Yes, um so, yeah, you 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.520 wanted to talk about some Christmas related invent chins, and 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.520 I gotta say we turned up some surprisingly weird and 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.440 funny stuff on this subject. I was pleasantly surprised with 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:10.760 where this went. Yeah, last year, in the Invention feed 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.120 Back when Invention was its own podcast, we focused on 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.160 some popular toys, where they came from, how they were 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:21.480 invented things that went under the tree. This year, all 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:24.080 of the inventions were discussing are things that go on 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.200 the tree? Which is uh and and yeah these It 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:29.240 turned out to be quite interesting. Do you have a 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.640 tree up right now, Joe? We do. It is fake. 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.000 It is made primarily of petroleum products. So, uh, what 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:39.680 was once ancient organisms floating in the seas have settled 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:43.959 down and become oil and now they are plastic and 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.200 they're in my home and they make it festive. Oh nice, Well, 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.480 we too have our tree up. It is a a 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.559 live tree, or at least one that was was alive 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.000 at some point and it was cut free from the earth. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.200 And uh so yeah, now it is in my living 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:00.800 room and I run a hose in from outside to 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.760 give it more water every day or so you were 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.480 you always a live tree person or was that a transition. 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.519 I've just always been a fake tree family my whole life. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.320 We were always a live tree family and we would 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:15.160 do this thing. I think this is something my family 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.720 picked up in Canada and then continue to do. And 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.280 that is for a for the tree stand. Instead of 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.240 having an actual tree stand, we had a bucket of rocks, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.760 so you'd put the tree stump in the bucket and 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.120 then you put big sizeable rocks around it, you know, 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:31.840 to fill it up, but there's still space for water, 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.519 and then we'd pour water in and uh, I think 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.120 we did that till one year the tree tipped over 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.480 and rocks and water went everywhere. And then they decided, well, 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:43.920 let's let's see about getting an artificial tree, and then 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.360 they made the switch. But uh, I've done both here 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.399 in my own household. Um. I mean, you know, it's 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.440 it's a trade off, right like, because the there's a 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.559 nice smell to the to the fresh cut tree. Um, 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.520 but then you have to pick up the needles, you 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.240 have to inevitably do a little song on it to 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:04.840 make it function in your house. So I don't know, 0:03:04.880 --> 0:03:07.320 I can go either way. I think conceptually I'm very 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.360 much a live tree person. I've just never in actuality 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.480 been one. That's that's the power of habit and the 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.200 power of family tradition, right Like, if you were to 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:18.359 present me these options afresh, as if you know, I'd 0:03:18.400 --> 0:03:22.040 never celebrated Christmas before, I would definitely go live tree. 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:23.920 But now I think I'm going to be plastic to 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:26.600 the grave. I used to like the idea of doing 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:29.560 a small tree because if you do a small little tree, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.440 it's less less work. Right, But now we have all 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:37.040 of these, We've accumulated all of these these family heirloom decorations, 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:39.040 so you know we've got to put those on the trees. 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:40.720 You gotta have a large enough tree to hold them. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.600 That's a very good points as the ornaments that come 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.119 as Christmas gifts that people give you when they don't 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:48.800 know what else to give you for Christmas, as they 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.560 accumulate over the seasons, they really do start weighing down 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:56.720 those branches. Alright. So, like I said, everything that we're 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.520 discussing this episode, all the inventions are things that go 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.600 on a Christmas tree. So we really need to lay 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.400 the groundwork, especially for our first invention, Christmas tree lights 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:10.440 electric Christmas tree lights. Now we always discussed what came before. Well, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:12.440 I mean, obviously we have to talk about just the 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:17.200 origin of the Christmas tree as much as we understand it. Um. Now, 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:19.159 if a couple of different ways to consider this. You know, 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.360 you can think about the the use of control fire 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.800 itself for ceremonial purposes. Uh, this has a role in 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.120 every culture but here we're talking more specifically about the 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:33.800 use of illumination technology combined with the form of a 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:36.719 tree or an actual tree. Now I know I read 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.640 a legendary account. Something tells me this this might not 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.799 be necessarily true. But a legendary account involving Martin Luther 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:49.039 and the origins of lighting up a Christmas tree. Um. So, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.400 so this story, I guess would post date the invention 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:55.120 of the Christmas tree itself because it assumes there's already 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.680 a tree inside the house. But the story is that 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:01.080 Martin Luther is out wandering one night, the Protestant reformer 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.200 Martin Luther. I'm sure he's uh, he's composing in his 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.520 mind some extremely scatological screed against the pope. And then 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.599 he's wandering and he sees trees, and he sees the 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.880 stars behind the trees, twinkling and shining through the branches, 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.599 and he's like, oh, how could I recreate that at home? 0:05:19.960 --> 0:05:22.000 And the idea he comes up with is, well, let's 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:25.360 put a bunch of candles in the branches of this evergreen. Yeah. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.800 It's a beautiful story, but as far as I can tell, 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.560 it's just a story, just made up. Yeah, much like 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:36.840 another story, another myth concerning St. Boniface thwarting a pagan 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:40.120 ceremony and somehow turning it into a Christmas tree. Again. 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:42.520 You know, it makes for a cool origin story, but 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.159 there's nothing to it now. There's certainly you get into 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.840 the myth making about the origin of the Christmas tree. Like. 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.520 Another thing to keep in mind is that we have 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.320 a lot of what you can think of as auxiliary traditions. Uh. 0:05:54.400 --> 0:05:57.400 For instance, in England, prior to the use of Christmas trees, 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.560 there were fifteenth and sixteenth century traditions involving bringing holly 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.080 and ivy and during the winter and doing things with 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:08.440 holly and ivy. They are dreadic traditions concerning mistletoe and 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.920 we've explored those on the podcast before The winter may 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:16.560 pole tradition has also some similarities according to historians. Yeah, 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:19.880 the general ideas that you could find something that was 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.560 green in the wintertime, some kind of evergreen branch, you know, 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.880 if it was pine needles or or holly or something, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.159 and you'd bring that into the home around the winter 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.560 solstice and the green decoration would help distract the family 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.200 from the barren misery that is winter time. But Christmas 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:41.360 tree traditions themselves, where you'd actually cut down an evergreen 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:43.720 tree and then bring it inside the house, or at 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:45.640 least put it somewhere near the house or in the 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.919 barn or in the home. Uh. That appears to begin 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:53.680 among German speaking people's maybe around the sixteenth century. That again, 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.600 it's a little complicated because that seems to emerge from 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:01.240 similar older traditions. But but the Christmas tree itself looks 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:04.640 like it it comes around the fifteen hundreds. And this 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.200 was not the only Christmas decoration tradition among German speaking 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.320 people's at the time. Another German classic was what came 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.600 to be known as the Christmas pyramid, though this name 0:07:16.120 --> 0:07:20.680 comes after Napoleon's adventures in Egypt. Uh. It's not strictly 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.160 a pyramid like the ones at Giza. You've seen this before. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:28.400 It's sort of a tapering miniature tower with platforms populated 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.120 by angels with trumpets and other critters of that stripe. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.240 It's a little diorama. Okay, I you know, I don't 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:37.880 know that I've seen this. I think I've seen pyramid 0:07:37.920 --> 0:07:40.560 type constructions where they use point seta plants and kind 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.960 of arrange them like that. But I think one thing 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:45.440 you could do when you're building your Christmas pyramid is 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:47.760 put some evergreen branches on it, you know, kind of 0:07:47.800 --> 0:07:49.960 spruce it up and like, oh it's maybe it's not winter. 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.280 Here's something green. Yeah. And then of course slay all 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.360 the servants who helped you erect it and placed them 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.800 under the under the pyramid, right scoop the brains out 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.960 of the angels through the nose. Yeah. Yeah, oh man, 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.880 you know, an ancient Egyptian themed Christmas tree would actually 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:08.920 be quite lovely. I'm not sure if you would put 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:10.960 at the top maybe a cyrus. Maybe you could put 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.200 in the sun disc. I don't know. There's there's so 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.160 much you could do. Now I want to make one, 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.600 except that I would not be permitted to do that. Now. 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.080 I was looking more into the uh, the history here 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.240 the tree, and you you pointed to the sixteenth century 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.119 origins in Germany, and certainly that seems to be when 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.880 it was. We can really point to it and say like, 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:31.200 here is the Christmas tree tradition in action. But I 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.720 was also reading from a book by Judith Flanders, Christmas 0:08:34.760 --> 0:08:38.160 Say Biography. She's a historian and writer with a specialty. 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:42.120 Her main especially, I think is Victorian history, and she 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.400 says that we can we can think of of many 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.840 of these earlier traditions as again precursors to the Christmas Tree, 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.839 and an association that had been forged between winter traditions 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.920 and the tree we're already growing around this time, especially 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.520 in Germany. The origins, she says, seemed to take us 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.280 back to the early fifteenth century. In Germany, there are 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:05.199 records of a fourteen nineteen decorated tree in Friedburg decorated 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:12.520 with apples, flower paste wafers, tinsel and gingerbread flower paste wafers. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:18.840 Oh boy, so Flanders points to documented traditions of paradise 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.680 plays performed at the time and performed around Christmas. They 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.240 use They would have used an evergreen fur with apples 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.440 tied to their branches in place of the Tree of 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.120 Knowledge a k a. The Tree of the Knowledge of 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:34.800 good and Evil, which of course is important to Judeo 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.240 Christian traditions and tied to the world tree myths in general. Right, 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:42.439 So in the paradise play, this would be reproducing the 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:45.360 the the myth of the Garden of Eden, where Eve 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.280 is tempted by the serpent to eat of the tree 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.760 of the knowledge of good and evil, which Adam and 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.600 Eve have been forbidden from from partaking of. They can 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:55.320 eat of the tree of life, and that you know, 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.320 live forever, but they can't know what's right and wrong. 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.559 And and once they eat of the fruit, then they 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.120 realize they're naked, and all kinds of bad stuff happens. 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:07.240 God gets very angry. Yeah, it's a it's a whole scene, 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.400 trust me. But at any rate that this would have 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.800 been a tree standing in to represent that mythic tree, 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.400 and the decorations would have included wool thread against straw apples, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.880 things like nuts and pretzels and pretzels. Yeah, pretzels, which 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:24.960 makes sense, right, You can make things out of pretzels, 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.520 make curious shapes and all. It sounds good and also 0:10:27.559 --> 0:10:30.480 feels authentically German. This brings up a question I was 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:34.240 talking about with Rachel recently, and something about this has 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.880 me still a little bit steaming. Are you not supposed 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.959 to eat a gingerbread house. I'm getting mixed signals about 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.839 what the whole deal with the gingerbread house is, because 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:45.960 if you're not supposed to eat it, why are you 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:49.560 making it entirely out of edible foods. Uh. I guess 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.000 that's a redundancy out of edible things. And if you 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.360 are supposed to eat it, why is it treated I 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.600 don't know, I'm very confused. Well, I guess part of 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.000 it is that it's not just you know, cookieer cake, 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.679 it's load bearing cookier cake. Right. Um. Yeah. I was 0:11:07.720 --> 0:11:11.360 always told you were making a gingerbread house, but you 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:13.880 can't eat it because the gingerbread is obviously just sitting 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:18.600 out on the table and is not fit for consumption 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.000 at this point. You know, when you turn the lights 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.160 off at night, you go to bed, and you nestle in, 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.400 and you nestle in and get all cozy, the roaches 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.000 come out. They crawl all over the gingerbread house, so 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:29.760 they eat little bits off of it, and then they 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:31.960 scurry away in the morning. So if you go and 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:35.320 take a bite, you just know who you're eating after exactly. Yeah, 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:37.439 that's that's all a good reason not to trust it, 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:41.160 unless I guess you're very controlling with your gingerbread house. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.920 It goes into the refrigerator when you're not using it. 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:45.600 I mean, I could see that as working and that 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.160 could be fun, but otherwise you don't eat the house. 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:52.600 You eat them men. You eat the gingerbread men. Voiced 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:58.199 by Gary Busey. Yeah, alright, So this tree is becomes popular. 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.560 In fact, it becomes so popular it out last the 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:05.680 popularity of these paradise plays, and it becomes this holiday tradition. 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.800 It is the it is the Christmas tree. It is 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.840 the the vi Knox bomb. So Flanders rights of the 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:15.559 oldest Christmas tree market was apparently in Strassburg, just over 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.200 the current German border in France in the seventeenth century, 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:22.640 and Flanders points to the first decorated indoor Christmas tree 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:27.480 as being is being tied to sixteen o five. Again, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.240 the decorations seemed to include things like apples and sweets, 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:34.080 and they became quite popular in the Strasburg region with 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:36.839 Actually there were fifteenth century laws put in place at 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.959 one point to limit the number of trees per household. Oh, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:41.960 this is not the last place we're going to encounter 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:45.439 laws regulating Christmas trees. Yeah, I mean people, you know, 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:48.160 they get upset about the War on Christmas, But wars 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.400 must be waged against Christmas to keep it from getting 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:53.680 out of control, because it will. This is a centuries 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:58.760 long tradition. Yeah. Now, speaking of the traditions though, uh, 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.720 you know, we we often expect here in the United States. Uh, 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.240 and and certainly in England. You think of it as being, 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.800 you know, firmly rooted in English speaking people's right. But 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:11.920 the tradition didn't actually travel from Germany to England till 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.319 the final quarter of the eighteenth century. Flanders points to 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.880 the Gurton novel The Sorrows of Young Werther from seventeen 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.360 seventy four, which was translated into English and includes a 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:26.440 description of a tree not only with organic decorations, but 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.960 with lights. So I had to I had to look 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.760 it up, and you can find this text in full 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.720 on the internet. And but it here's the juicy part. Quote. 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.640 He began talking of the delight of the children and 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.120 of that age when the sudden appearance of the Christmas 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.760 tree decorated with fruits and sweetmeats and lighted up with 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.880 wax candles causes such transports of joy. The tree lighted 0:13:51.960 --> 0:13:54.800 up with wax candles is going to cause such transports 0:13:54.840 --> 0:14:00.000 of something. Yes, So another big thing that was involved 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.760 in the transfer of the Christmas tree tradition to England 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:06.800 in seventeen eighty nine, the German wife of George the 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.880 third suggested they erect quote an illuminated tree according to 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:14.000 the German fashion, and and so you see it making 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:18.040 the leap over into England. Now, as for the Christmas 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.320 tree in North America, this is interesting. Flanders rights that 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.760 it may have been here in North America as soon 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.560 as seventeen eighty six. Quote in North Carolina that year, 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:31.200 a member of the Morovian Brethren accused an apprentice of 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:33.880 cutting down a small pine tree on Christmas Eve, the 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:38.440 day on which trees were customarily erected in Germany. Interesting, 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:41.600 and there's also evidence of one in Georgia in eighteen 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.920 o five. So this is this is interesting. We often 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.720 think of of of things sort of you know, establishing 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:51.280 themselves in England and then becoming a thing here in 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:53.680 the United States. Uh, you know. But of course there 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.440 were people from from various European countries coming into North America. 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.920 So it ultimately makes perfect sense that the Christmas tree 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.120 would arrive here around the same time or even a 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.000 little earlier. Well. Yeah, so, based on what I've reading, 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.120 it seems like Christmas trees really started making their way 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.040 to the United States being brought with German immigrants, not 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.160 not so much coming directly from England, though a few 0:15:17.160 --> 0:15:21.000 people in England were trying to to pick it up. Um, 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.160 it looks like the German immigrants would bring them in 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.880 the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but they weren't taken up 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.840 as readily among the general population as you might imagine. 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:35.840 And there was basically a history of religious discrimination against 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.280 Christmas trees and other types of Christmas celebrations. After all, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:43.000 many of the early settlers of eastern the eastern North 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:47.960 American colonies were English Puritans, who most of the time 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.280 were not fans of the sort of you know, be 0:15:50.440 --> 0:15:54.160 steel pagan implications of a hallowed tree. You know, they 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:55.600 were thinking, like, if you're going to put a tree 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:57.760 up in your house, why not just celebrate Christmas by 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:02.560 having a decapitation contest night. Uh so, And a few 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:06.000 examples of this William Bradford, you know, the king of 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.640 the Puritans, the pilgrim governor of the Plymouth Colony. He 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:14.479 was famous slash infamous, depending on your point of view. Apparently, 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.800 in one instance Bradford just went ballistic and chewed out 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.880 a bunch of people in the Plymouth Colony for trying 0:16:22.880 --> 0:16:25.720 to take the day off on Christmas. So you know, 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.880 Bob cratchit's out in the street hanging out on Christmas morning, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:33.920 and Bradford sees him and just his eyes glow red. Uh. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.760 And so he's writing incredulously that instead of working, he 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.200 found people on Christmas Day quote in the street at 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.720 play openly, some pitching the bar and some at stool 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.720 ball and such like sports. And he regarded these celebrations 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:53.080 of Christmas as some kind of quote, pagan mockery of 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.280 God and the spirit of Jesus. So I think Bradford's 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.360 idea of Christmas is you go to work and then 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.480 maybe you go to church, but you do not decorate, 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:04.200 you do not play, you do not take the day off, 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.200 you do not sing. That that is all satanic mischief. Yeah, 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.320 he really sounds like the Grand here. Yeah, totally. And 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:14.080 there were some other examples that I found cited in 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.600 a in a history dot com article I was reading 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:18.680 called the history of Christmas Trees. So one of them 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.960 was about Oliver Cromwell, not in the colonies, but back 0:17:22.000 --> 0:17:25.119 in England, English Puritan leader, one of the victors of 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:28.320 the English Civil War and becoming Lord Protector. He he 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.280 did not like what he called the heathen traditions of 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:37.399 things like Christmas carols, or decoration of trees or you know, 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.320 running around acting Mary, that that was all kind of 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:44.080 desecration of what he called the sacred event of Christmas. 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:48.120 Um And this article also says quote in sixteen fifty nine, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.960 the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.240 observance of December twenty five other than a church service 0:17:55.560 --> 0:18:00.119 a penal offense. People were fined for hanging decorations. The 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:04.320 stern solemnity continued until the nineteenth century, when the influx 0:18:04.359 --> 0:18:08.560 of German and Irish immigrants undermine the Puritan legacy. Oh man, 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.520 this this is rich again, especially when you look at 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.800 some of the like legitimate angst that emerges around you know, 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.520 so called wars on Christmas and so forth today. Well 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:23.919 it's this is funny because while I was reading about this, 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.199 looking at for these historical sources, I also just happened 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:31.719 to stumble across like fundamentalist Christian blogs called things like 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:36.520 Christmas Tree truths and stuff like that. They're still railing 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.919 against Christmas trees as a as a trapdoor into some 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.040 kind of covert Satanic mass it was. Yeah, that that's 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:46.800 a whole corner of the internet that is worth exploring. Yeah, 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.040 Christmas trees are just a gateway to find joy and 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:53.560 other Satanic concepts. Yeah, but so by the mid to 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.360 late eighteen hundreds there there had been a real transition. 0:18:56.520 --> 0:18:59.760 By the late eighteen hundreds, Christmas trees started becoming popular 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.960 in homes throughout the United States, not just among German 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:07.000 immigrants and their descendants. Christmas became a federally recognized national 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.160 holiday in eighteen seventy I think that was signed into 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.320 law by Grant. And so, of course, as Christmas and 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.480 Christmas trees became more mainstream, and you know, you're not 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:20.440 necessarily part of an immigrant community who has a centuries 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:24.000 long tradition of how exactly to festoon the branches, you know, 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:27.080 going back to your grandparents and all that, the question 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.000 is going to become, how do you decorate this thing? Well, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.080 you know, we're talking about Christmas tree lights, so the 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:37.000 immediate predecessor to electric Christmas tree lights, it's of course 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.880 going to be candles accentuated. This is interesting. I hadn't 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.800 really thought about this, but accentuated by special glass beads 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.919 that were strung around the tree. H Flanders mentioned this, 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:52.960 pointing out that check glassblowers specialized in these. Not only 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.399 were they beautiful, but they were they were something, they 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.679 were actually something on the tree that would not burn 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:01.960 if things got out of control. Uh. Because of course 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.360 fire is a big risk when you're talking about decorating 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.679 a tree with little candles, and it's it's actually, you know, 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:13.080 I knew this innately, like that's dangerous. That sounds like 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:16.600 an out of control fire waiting to happen, But I 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.359 hadn't really thought about all the various ways in which 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.080 it is dangerous. Uh. Flanders points out that that, first 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.960 of all, with candle lights and hearth fires in general, 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.400 fire was just a much greater daily risk back then. 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:33.199 But then you had these little candles wired or tied 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:38.399 the individual tree branches, which again in and of itself dangerous. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:42.320 But then as the candles melt their weight altars and 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.520 uh and so so that's going to alter the tilt 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.680 of the branch that they're fixed to. UM, and that's 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.520 you know, potentially move moving that little ball of fire 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:52.840 around and putting it in contact with other branches and 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.600 decorations and things. On top of that, wax is dripping 0:20:56.640 --> 0:21:00.520 down from these candles onto lower branches, and and and 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.560 uh in in increasing their weight as well. So the risks, 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:07.840 you know, go way beyond merely you know, a situation 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.679 of candles balanced in a dried out tree, it becomes 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:14.239 a moving system to contend with with with branches, with 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:19.399 one candle slowly moving up branches beneath, slowly dipping down 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:25.000 with accumulating wax um. It's frightening. Yeah, so, Flanders writes, quote. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.760 A series of innovations and contrivances designed to hold each 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.840 candle in place with greater stability appeared over the years, 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:35.080 but a lit tree was never a safe tree. Many 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.080 households lit their candles only once on Christmas Eve, prudently 0:21:39.160 --> 0:21:42.120 keeping the hand water and a stick with a sponge 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.280 on the end of it. Um, which sounds great, like 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.840 that that should be like a Christmas character, that should 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.760 be like have its own decoration, like the the sponge 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.920 stick guy for putting out the tree fire. Calls to 0:21:54.960 --> 0:22:00.640 mind weird associations with the crucifixion scene and the sponge. 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:06.000 Yeah alright, so obviously again this is terribly dangerous situation, 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.720 but it is the immediate predecessor to the electric Christmas 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:15.840 tree lights, so this we can basically look back to 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.440 the late eighteen hundreds on this one. In eighteen eighty two, 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:23.879 the Edison Illuminating Company built the world's first electrical power station, 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:26.960 and four months later they lit up a Christmas tree. 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.280 It consisted of eighty red, white, and blue bulbs and 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:33.199 was installed in the home of Edward H. Johnson, an 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:37.440 inventor and Edison's business partner. But at this point electricity 0:22:37.680 --> 0:22:40.600