Design Crafters

When the word, "Christmas” is mentioned, one of the
first things people think about is a Christmas tree.  Christmas trees
are one of the most recognizable images of the season. You spend quite a
bit of time to carefully decorate your tree; you pile your gifts under the
tree; you gather around it to sing Christmas carols and drink eggnog. If you
put up a real Christmas tree, you probably spent a lot of time picking out the
perfect size and shape. Maybe you even cut down your own. Just picking out your
Christmas tree is a special event.

It’s so popular that it’s no surprise that many Christmas cards feature a
Christmas tree with all different kinds of decorations. There are even many
contemporary Christmas cards featuring a stylistic Christmas tree with a
swishy design as shown above. On our website, we have a Christmas card category
dedicated to Christmas trees. There is one with candles as decoration, one
where a Christmas tree is made up of shiny gold stars; one has a tree decorated
with turtle doves, poinsettias and gold garland. We even have Christmas cards
with decorated trees outside covered with snow. We have at least 33 different
Christmas cards featuring Christmas trees at www.designcrafters.com. Check them
out today!

The first store to even sell Christmas tree ornaments was Woolworths back in 1880. They caught on very quickly and were soon added to the candies and cakes previously hung by ribbon from the Victorian times.

In the 16th century, Martin Luther is credited as being the first person to put candles on a tree. The first electrically lighted Christmas tree appeared in 1882 and Calvin Coolidge in 1923 ceremoniously lit the first outdoor Christmas tree at the White House, starting that long tradition.

Now that
we know where Christmas trees came from what about the origins of the modern
nativity scene? Saint Francis of Assisi
was the creator of the nativity scene or crèche. In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi
was in the town of Grecio to
celebrate Christmas. When he gathered a
crowd at Midnight Mass, he wanted to visually represent the birth of Jesus to
the people to help them truly understand the meaning of Christ’s birth. In order to do this, Saint Francis created a
living nativity scene. 

His idea became
tradition, and is played out today all over the world during the Christmas
season. Nativities still often use real
people but many people prefer to simply display a beautifully crafted crèche in
their house. Just like Saint Francis
knew, Christ’s birth is the reason for Christmas, and there are many religious
Christmas cards which feature the nativity scene.

Tomorrow I will discuss the origins of the Christmas stocking.