At the heart of any good set of festive decorations is the tree. That has always been the case, but somewhere down the line, artificial Christmas trees replaced real ones as the most popular choice. This blog is going to explore how, why and when that happened.
Christmas tree origins
The notion of keeping a tree in your house over the festive season is one that only took root (if you’ll pardon the pun) during the 19th century. Long before that though, people used to bring evergreen plants into their homes during the winter months. This was to frighten away evil spirits and to remind them of summer.
Germany is credited with inventing the Christmas tree, but it was the British royal family that popularised it here. It became known that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert – who came from Germany – had a tree.
Artificial takes over
For nearly a century, the only Christmas trees available were real. That changed in the 1930s, when Addis Housewares Company came up with the first artificial tree with realistic bristles. They were adopted more widely following an article published by TIME Magazine at Christmas 1964. This hailed artificial trees as the hottest new festive trend.
Why did people embrace them?
So now we know how and when they became popular – but why did they? That is simple: they are less messy and they give people more options. You can get items like pre-lit and snow Christmas trees if you buy artificial.
