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Do you ever take a step back and think
about the idea of a Christmas tree?
I know why it all started. That makes
sense to me. What I don't understand is
why a person would go chop down some perfectly
good tree, drag it into their house, stand it
upright in a bowl of water, and wrap it with
several yards of electrical wire. Why not just
drive your car into your house?
The electrical plugs are two-pronged and haven't a
ground connection. There's no fuse. We need to
remember that the tree is standing in a
metal bowl of water.
You can call me an idiot. People do it all
the time. Regardless, I think a fuse and
ground connection might come in useful.
You're wrapping a flammable plant in
electrical wire that's surging with 120 volts
of electricity. The whole thing is precariously
braced upright by 3 screws anchored to a metal
bowl filled with water, and
it's inside your house.
Christmas trees are dangerous. I'll bet there's
an existing term for the phobia of Christmas trees.
I haven't a clue as to what the term could be. That's
a difficult one. Any ideas?
The question I can't answer is, why? Does it symbolize
something? What meaning does it have, and what amount
of importance supports that meaning?
There must be something that compels people to spend
time and effort on such a perplexing activity. Is it
worth getting electrocuted over? Is it so important
that you're willing to let your house burn down?
Why kill trees? It doesn't need to be chopped down.
Just go outside, find a tree, and decorate it with
shiny objects.
I don't understand it. 
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I can give you one reason: The smell.
Plastic trees are worthless. The "Silver Fir" (edelgran, 'noble fir') that doesn't shed its needles, hence have been very popular the last few years, has virtually no smell, and is worthless.
A true "Norway Spruce": When you enter the living room in the morning where the tree has has had all night to spread its subtle perfume all over the room ... Nothing can give me the Christmas feeling like that!
You can have similar experiences with juniper branches, or by burning incense, but those are raw and brutal when compared to the rich, sophisticated aroma of a true, Norwegian Spruce, Christmas tree.
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trønderen wrote: I can give you one reason: The smell.
That's probably one of the most significant reasons there are. Your answer says a lot.
The sense of smell is by far the most powerful influence in forming, and recalling emotional memories.
There's a part of your brain called the amygdala, located very close to your olfactory system (i.e. sense of smell). The amygdala has an amazing capacity for long-term memory. That's why your earliest memories tend to coincide with emotions.
I think we all enjoy being out in nature amongst the evergreen trees. Your amygdala has anchored that scent to feeling positive. In addition, that scent is also anchored to your experience of celebrating the holidays. Those two (at least) anchors your amygdala has associated with that scent reinforce one another. That's why you love the scent on such a powerful and deep level.
So, yes. You've provided a very compelling reason to explain why a Christmas tree is something of considerable significance to so many people. That's interesting. It sheds a lot of light on my question of "Why?". 
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i agree. the aroma of christmas
"A little time, a little trouble, your better day"
Badfinger
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I am thinking I need to buy one of those car scent products shaped like a tree that people hang on their rear view mirror and hide it in my artificial tree.
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Those smell horrible. Very artificial, chemical smell. Bad idea.
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Yep. Around here I prefer subalpine fir as it has the best smell and shouldn't lose many needles
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Christmas trees always gave me asthma attacks when I was a kid. I remembered Christmas as a depressing yellow time because of it. It wasn't long before our family switched to artificial plastic trees used for several seasons each. Now that my family has grown up, I buy an extra small live tree in a bucket and try to plant it in the ground afterwards. The last two died.
Anyhow, to avoid the electrical dangers, you could just use wax candles, instead. 
Regarding the origin and purpose, I think that subject goes beyond what is allowed here but look up Yuletide.
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Bruce Patin wrote: I buy an extra small live tree in a bucket and try to plant it in the ground afterwards
I wouldn't expect in the northern hemisphere that planting a tree in January is going to work out well normally.
Perhaps buy one in the spring, follow the instructions, then in a couple of years celebrate by throwing a couple of lights around it.
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The tree is fine, now. I have a few fruit trees under lights in my basement for the winter. After Christmas this time, I will put it there with the others. Thanks for the tip.
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Leave it in the bucket until spring. After Christmas, move it gradually to lower temperatures over a period of a couple days, and let it spend the rest of the winter at winter conditions - that's the natural thing for it.
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Bruce Patin wrote: Christmas trees always gave me asthma attacks when I was a kid.
That is one good reason not to bring a real tree into the living room. But, even though some people are allergic to dogs, I think it is OK for non-allergic people to have dogs. So I think non-asthmatic people can continue having Christmas trees - or, that is not a reason for throwing it out.
If you really are asthmatic, you probably should avoid a few other things, too. I guess that there are different varieties of asthma, but a fair share of those who are plagued by fir trees are similarly plagued by candles, so you might want to avoid them. And incense - like many families in Norway, we used to burn it around Christmas time, but at least one guest could not come to visit us if we had burnt incense the same day.
I've been pondering as a business idea that which you suggest: Christmas trees that are allowed to live on, every year your hedgerow gets a little longer ... You probably would need a very big bucket. Around here we have just been through 3 weeks of night temperatures of -16 to -15 C, day temperatures around -12 C. You have to be very careful when moving an outdoor tree into living room temperatures: Do it in several temperature steps, spread over a couple days. After Christmas is over, do the opposite: Condition it slowly to low temperatures before moving it back into your garden. During Christmas: Use a spray bottle to give the tree higher humidity than is common in a living room in winter; at least around here, it tends to be much to dry for a tree to thrive.
Doing this with a juniper is probably a better alternative than a fir - junipers are robust, they can take a beating. I'd probably go for those cultivated, narrow almost like a column, variants; they are suitable for a an semi-open hedgerow. Juniper also has a nice smell, and it won't shred its needles. If you have a small living room, you may like that it occupies far less space than most fir trees (and plastic trees).
A well known Norwegian Christmas song goes "Let us dance around the juniper bush". In old days, junipers were used as Christmas trees, but now you rarely see it. Maybe rooted trees could make a comeback for the juniper!
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I think mostly my childhood asthma has gone. But thank you for the tips about slowly acclimating to lower temperatures. Actually, I have a garden under lights in my basement. I will put it there this year after Christmas. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.
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This is the reason behind the Christmas tree, as I have heard it.
Thousands of years ago, people in east Europe thought that evergreen trees had magic powers and that this is what enabled them to stay green throughout the winter.
They thought that by bringing a bow of the tree into their homes, they would benefit from the tree's magic powers.
And that turned into the tradition of a whole tree.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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One thing is for sure: It has nothing to do with the Christian celebration of the birth of a couple of Jesuses.
It is a strictly heathen symbol that has no foundation in any sort of Jewish or Christian religious beliefs.
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trønderen wrote: One thing is for sure: It has nothing to do with the Christian celebration of the birth of a couple of Jesuses.
It is a strictly heathen symbol that has no foundation in any sort of Jewish or Christian religious beliefs.
I haven't much about heathen influences. I thought it was strictly Pagans who practiced such traditions.
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The whole timing of Christmas is suspect. There is no evidence that Jesus was born at (or shortly after) the winter solstice, but there is plenty of evidence of pagan winter solstice celebrations. As it has done with other festivals in many places since, the early Christians just took a pre-existing celebration and rebranded it as the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Tomorrow night I will celebrate Sunturn (aka. winter solstice) with friends, the way we have done the last 15-20 years. This year we have to stay up late: The exact time for lifting our glasses is past midnight, at UTC 3:28 (which is 4:38 local time). Every year we watch the "Rare Exports Inc." movie - if you haven't seen it, try to get an opportunity to. It is great!
For Easter, there is less discussion about the right season, although Jews and Christians differ in their ways to calculate it, so the celebrations may be weeks apart. But then: The reasons for celebration is quite different in the two religions, so there is no logical reason why they should be synchronized. But: The great majority of cultures that experience any sort of winter season, has celebrated some sort of "spring feast", that nature and life wakes up again.
Here in Norway, Easter never (at least for the last three generations) was considered a great religious feast. Even in my childhood, everybody went to church at Christmas, noone at Easter, except for those who go every Sunday. People go up in the mountains to ski on the last remains of snow. In the south, they take their boat out on the fjord. Ask kids what they think of as "Easter symbols": They will say "Chickens!" Eggs. Marzipan. Branches of sprouting birch and pussy willow - the Norwegian word for catkins is "goslings", known by any four-year-old to be an important element of Easter.
While there are still people around here trying to claim Youle as a Christian celebration - they are fewer ever year - I can't remember anyone claiming monopoly on Easter as a religious feast. Even going back to my grandparents and great grandparents, photo albums and that sort of things have no indications of any church activity, but lots about skiing, cottage life, boat trips to the small islands.
Another celebration: I spent a year in the USA when 17-18 years old, as was surprised that they celebrated new year as a religious feast. I had never heard of that in Norway, not a word in that direction. So I asked what made it a reason to celebrate, an was met with a strange look: Don't you know? Don't you know that it is Jesus' Circumcision Day? I have to admit: I had never ever heard that mentioned before, and here in Norway, not until this day. It must be said that circumcision was practically unknown in Norway at that time; I knew it as word when I was a boy, but when someone told me, at around 10-12 years, what it really meant, I first refused to believe it, that anyone would do anything as crazy as that! So using Jesus' GM day the basis for celebration wasn't very strong, and if someone had been promoting it, I guess we would have responded with an "Ouchh!"
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Celebrating Jesus' circumcision day is something I never heard of before. It strikes me as odd, but then most religious customs seem odd to non-believers.
Re Christmas/Yule/Sunturn/Saturnalia/..., this just reinforces my point that early Christians simply repurposed an existing holiday.
There is an intimate tie between Easter and Passover (Pesach, in Hebrew). The date of Easter is calculated as the Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. But wait - this is not the real moon, but a calculated moon known as the Paschal moon. In Hebrew, Easter is known as Pascha, obviously from the same root.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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I've lived in the USA my whole life and grew up Catholic. I've never heard a religious reason for New Year's Day until you mentioned it just now.
On a side note, there is a medically valid reason for waiting the Jewish prescribed number of days for circumcision. It's been a long time, but I think it deals with a perfect balance between immune system development being far enough along and something else.
Bond
Keep all things as simple as possible, but no simpler. -said someone, somewhere
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote: Thousands of years ago, people in east Europe thought that evergreen trees had magic powers and that this is what enabled them to stay green throughout the winter.
They thought that by bringing a bow of the tree into their homes, they would benefit from the tree's magic powers.
Yep, you got it.  The practice of fostering nature is fundamental to people who practice Paganism. I have to wonder if Christmas trees would exist without the Pagans. It's funny that Pagan customs are embraced during a Christian holiday.
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If you go to "Christian" societies in Africa, you might be surprised by how much of the old tribal religions has been integrated into Christian practices, and are still alive today. They call themselves Christians (well, I guess that they have no choice, if they want to interact with white man), but lots of their practices would not be accepted in a Western all-white church.
That is not only Africa. Even in North America will natives, living their daily lives in a modern, industrialized society, honor sprits and powers that are remote from the Bible. They practice their transition rites from child to adult, with a lot of religious elements, and the religion is not Christianity. You will find the same in Latin and South America: Even if the village has a church, and the village people attend it, there are plenty of rituals of religious nature outside the church, both in a physical and religious sense.
In Norway, it was discovered in the late 1800s, that high up in a valley (Setesdalen, if my memory is correct), there were still people making sacrifice to the old Norse gods, like Odin ant Thor. They knew very well that the Christian church was much against it, so they had kept it secret for several hundred years, but continued the practice until it was discovered. As they rightfully feared: The practice was forced to stop. Freedom of religion does not go as far as to making sacrifices to Odin and Thor.
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Well, you can avoid all that worry about ungrounded, unfused electric wires wrapped around a tree standing in a bowl of water by....
... using real candles, which is what people traditionally did -- in fact, my mother, being German, I have pictures of our Christmas tree with candles when I was 2 or 3 years old.
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The electrical hazard isn't that big. In a traditional electrical Christmas candle chain, the individual candle lights are coupled in series, so that the 240 V AC distributed over 24 candle lights make the voltage drop over each of them about 10 V. You can see the series coupling in that unscrewing any one of the lights make the entire chain go black. In theory you could by accident create a shortcut between the first and the last light in the chain; that would be a voltage similar to that of the outlet where it is plugged in. I never heard of that happening.
Today, most people use about five hundred LED bulbs rather than 24 candle lights, with an adapter box providing maybe 12 V, maybe only 5. Not really life threatening.
One of our friends 30 year ago still used live candles. They had a fair number of spray bottles available all around the tree. Their sons had an awe for the tree when the candles were lit that I found impressing, yet not something that I wanted to transfer to my children.
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trønderen wrote: The electrical hazard isn't that big.
I can imagine it has improved over the years. The last Christmas lights I placed on a tree only had that little two-pronged plug. Those were the times when we'd scoff at wearing a helmet while skateboarding in concrete parking lots, or jumping over a set of stairs. Our tolerance for risking danger back then was a lot more casual than it is now. Either way, I'll skip the candles for LEDs.
trønderen wrote: One of our friends 30 year ago still used live candles. They had a fair number of spray bottles available all around the tree. Their sons had an awe for the tree when the candles were lit that I found impressing, yet not something that I wanted to transfer to my children.
Wow. That's nuts. You can understand why the whole concept of setting up Christmas trees is so baffling to me. I've gotten some good answers though.
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