I don’t know about you, but my family put an overemphasis on the Christmas tree. We set aside a day to hunt the tree down, going from one Christmas tree farm to another looking for the perfect tree. We then spent the evening putting lights and decorations on. It was a joyous time.

Nevertheless, have you ever wondered why we have a Christmas tree and what the emphasis is to Christ? Bringing evergreens into a house started off as a pagan belief. Evergreens represent fertility and new life in the darkness of winter.

“The common story goes that [Monk Boniface] encountered some native Germans performing some sacrifices in front of a mighty oak tree — oak trees being sacred to the god Thor, Boniface seized his axe and felled the tree in order to stop the pagans worshiping a false idol and the pagans were waiting for him to be struck down by lightning, but it didn’t happen.  So at this stage he took the opportunity to convert them.

Then legend has it that a fir tree grew out of the fallen oak. 

That became a symbol of Christ — being triangular in shape it represents the trinity — and from there came the idea that the tree should be a symbol of Christ and new life,” Dr Wilson

“…blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes;  its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8