'Tis the Season, and all that....

Our farm in the foothills of Mt. Hood in Oregon

Here we are in the U.S. not even to Thanksgiving yet, but in my household Christmas is in full swing. Or, I should say the harvest is in full swing because we own a Christmas tree farm. It’s a very busy time of year for my husband who takes on the herculean task of running it all, and I provide support wherever I can. It’s an interesting business, and the Christmas tree tradition has some cool historical roots (pun intended).

The origins of putting up greenery to add a little life and hope in the dead of winter darkness are very old. The practice was part of winter solstice celebrations in both the ancient Roman and Germanic/Celtic worlds. Since my area of expertise as a historian is the Viking Age, I’m going to focus on that time and the celebration known in Old Norse as Jól, which translates into English as Yule.

For Viking Nordic peoples in the northern world of Scandinavia, the year was divided into two halves: summer and winter. If you’ve ever spent time there you know what this means. In the height of summer there is almost perpetual daylight, while in winter the opposite is true. Imagine living at the time, without artificial lighting, where darkness rules for 22 hours each day and most plants have lost their foliage and are in hibernation. Most, that is, except for the hardy evergreen trees. The evergreen was a symbol of life and, hopefully, the fertility of the soil to come when the darkness lifted. So, it should be no surprise that displaying greens from those trees was something that could brighten a Viking’s winter mood.

The Vikings were part of a pan-Germanic culture that had a tradition of celebrating the winter solstice, though exactly how it was done we know relatively little about as it was not consistent throughout their world. Beliefs and rituals could and did change depending on where one lived. The type of rigid structure and dogmatic practice that Christianity would bring to Scandinavia around the year 1,000 A.D. did not exist in the Nordic world prior. One of the few sources to mention the Jól celebration is the saga of Hákon the Good. He was the king of Norway in the 10th century. That saga tells us a festival could last three days and there was lots of drinking involved. Lots. Hákon even made it compulsory, under threat of legal penalty, for every man to brew ale for the celebration. Gods forbid that they should run out of beer.

There was also a huge feast with lots of meat consumed, most if not all of which was butchered on the spot as part of the festivities. The Old Norse word blót, which sounds a lot like “blood” for good reason, was the word for such ritual celebrations at certain times of the year. People gathered at the temple where the sacrifices took place. Once killed, the animals’ blood was poured into vessels and then twigs were dipped into the blood and used to splatter it on the temple walls and the onlookers as well.

The Nordic gods hopefully being appeased with these animal sacrifices were those such as Thor and Freyr who were powerful and had connections with weather, agriculture, and the fertility of the soil, as well as to the goddess Freya in hopes of a peaceful and joyous season.

In addition, we know from other sagas that men swore oaths at Jól, and that these seemed to be particularly sacred promises resulting in serious punishments — even possibly death — for breaking them. The Old Norse scholar Dr. Jackson Crawford has likened these sacred oaths to the New Year’s resolutions some of us make today.

And right there in the midst of all of this was the festive greenery.

So, a Christmas tree or wreath isn’t really about Christmas at all. Sure, the Christians have December 25th as their winter celebration so the timing is similar. But the medieval Christians were simply laying their holiday — the birth of Jesus (which actually didn’t happen on 12/25, but that is a different story….) — over the previous “pagan” traditions of the time to make the transition to the new faith easier. The displaying of greenery just came along as part of the conversion process.

Our neighbor Paul, who is 83, has for years been using cuttings from our trees to make beautiful wreaths

Okay, so a few evergreen branches strewn about or hung up to remind us of spring is one thing, but why cut down a perfectly good tree and put it inside your home? Good question.

This practice is actually much newer, coming from the Victorian Era in England. Still a Germanic practice (thanks to the German House of Hanover who was reigning at the time), the tradition was brought to the royal palace in the early 19th century by Queen Charlotte and then later continued by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Because Al and Vickie were huge role models and drivers of trends, the tradition stuck. And the Americans latched onto it as well. Soon everyone wanted a tree, and Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without it.

Albert, Victoria, and the family at Christmas time. After Joseph Lionel Williams, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

But aren’t we supposed to be saving and planting trees rather than cutting them down? Aren’t we destroying the forest and our environment by doing this? The short answer is no.

Christmas trees are a crop, grown in the same manner as all other crops we enjoy or consume such as wine grapes, corn, wheat, or flowers. For each tree cut down another (or more) is planted, and the cycle begins anew. So, don’t worry. The cutting of your Christmas tree does not contribute to deforestation or global warming.

Actually, the opposite is true.

It’s pretty common knowledge at this point that trees capture carbon, so they actually help the environment. The more trees, the better, and since Christmas tree farms always have lots of trees in the ground at any given time, they are massive Carbon sinks. They also provide shade and cooling, both important in a warming climate.

Tree farms like ours have the benefit of providing important habitat for lots of wildlife ranging from insects all the way up to owls, hawks, coyotes, elk, cougar, and bears. So, our farm is not simply a business endeavor, it is an ecosystem. This is incredibly important to us — namely being good stewards of the land. We will not be here forever, so we want to leave the land in better condition than we found it. And by better we mean healthier for all who live on and around it.

For farmers like us this means using sustainable practices such as beneficial insects instead of insecticides, ground covers to keep the soil moist and erosion down instead of having a scorched-earth Round-Up desert, and using Biodiesel in all our trucks and equipment. We also primarily grow Noble fir, which is a species that is native to our area so it can flourish more easily without needing so much artificial “help” such as chemical fertilizers.

All of this means that a real tree for your holiday is the “greenest” choice in every sense of the word.

Some people still don’t get it and believe putting up an artificial tree is the best thing to do from an ecological standpoint. It’s an easy misunderstanding. People think buying a fake tree means they’re saving the real ones and hence it’s better for the world. But they’re dead wrong.

Fake trees have a MUCH larger carbon footprint. They are manufactured from plastics, generally petro-chemical products, and they usually come from far away like China or other places in Asia. They travel in tanker ships taking weeks to get to their destination, not to mention the trucks that then have to drive them to the stores where you can buy them, all of which also burns fossil fuels.

Not only that, but because they are made of plastic, once you are done with the tree — and no doubt at some point you will be — where do you think you are going to dispose of it?? There are no plastic tree recycling centers, so that means it will end up in a landfill where it will take eons to break down, adding pollutants to the ground. If it is incinerated, it will add pollutants to the air. A real tree, by contrast, can be mulched or composted and used to add nutrients to the soil.

So, what seems like a good choice made by people with good intentions is actually based on false assumptions.

My farmer in his happy place. If you’re interested in what it takes to bring you that tree each year, follow his daily diary on Instagram at @christmastrees365.

Contrary to what it might sound like, I’m not here to sell you a real Christmas tree. You’ve got your own traditions and can make up your own mind. But if, like the Vikings, you want to add a little green to bring life to your winter celebration, choose the real stuff. Whether it’s a wreath, a swag, a full tree, or just a few sprigs, you’ll be supporting a tree farmer and the environment. Besides, it smells nice, makes people happy, and reminds us that the light of spring is just around the corner.

Happy Jól, ya’ll!