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Show Christmas trees have interesting history 1K.. Actually, Andrew Jackson had, for an 1835 White House Christmas party, a "small frosted pine tree with toy animals around it," one of his French chef's famous ices. During Theodore Koosevelt's occupancy of the White House the Christmas tree came out of the closet. Teddy had put it there, fearing that the annual cutting of so many evergreens would deplete American forests. The ardent conservationist decreed there would be no White House Christmas tree. Like the New York Times, Theodore Roosevelt could he wrong. The day alter Christmas 1(102, he revealed in a letter: "So their mother and I got up, shut the window, lit the k . ..jiHsaL-- i 3 A Victorian family celebrates around their Christinas tree in this drawing by renowned American artist Winslow Homer, published in "Harper's Weekly" in IH5N. In 1871, a New York glassmaker, William De Muth, produced the first American-made silvered glass balls. The number and diversity of tin, wax, cardboard, candy and glass Christmas whimsies available by 1890 must have astonished even dedicated consumers like the Victorians. A four-inch four-inch silver ocean liner had several hundred portholes, all its lifeboats and tiny cotton puffs of smoke rising from lour smokestacks. But despite the plenty of this Christmas cornucopia, the average American family at the turn of the century still relied primarily on popcorn, cranberries, sweets and homemade ornaments to decorate its tree. Universal acceptance of the Christmas tree, however, was not yet at hand. In 1883, a New York Times editor predicted that the Christmas tree, "a rootless and lifeless corpse," would soon disappear and that a return to the good old Christmas stocking of his childhood was imminent. Even the Times could be w rong. Not only did the Christmas tree grow in popularity, it grew in size. The lloor-to-ceiling tree was an American innovation. The Christmas tree grew in status as well. It has teen bandied about that Franklin Pierce introduced the Christmas tree to the White House in 1850 cover of The Lady's Book wasan Americanized version of a picture from the Illustrated London News of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the royal family around their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle. Mrs. Hale, the editor, had removed both the queen's coronet and the prince's royal insignia and sash. Mysteriously, she also had removed his moustache. Nonetheless, the little Christmas tree's royal connection impressed fashion-conscious fashion-conscious Victorians. Once accepted, Kriss Kringle's decorated evergreen grew faster than Jack's beanstalk, at least it grew fuller. The Christmas tree of a well-to-do Victorian family, a symmetrical fir, was a miniature world of tiny houses, ships, animals, furniture, flowers, fruits, Hags, dolls, drums and sugar plums, and much, much more. The introduction to America of store-bought store-bought ornaments made all of this splendor possible. Commercial importation to the United Slates of German-made ornaments began as early as 1869. In that year, Harper's Bazaar described the "globes, fruits, and flowers of colored glass, bright tin reflectors, and ' innumerable grotesque figures suspended by a rubber string Bismarck leaping up Napoleon's shoulders." First lady Nancy Reagan examines some of the Christmas ornaments unearthed from White House storage. She is planning an old-fashioned American Christmas decor for the White House and for the traditional Blue Itoom tree. fruit richer than the golden apples of the Hesperides, or the sparkling diamonds that clustered on the branches in the wonderful cave of Aladdin." A best-selling children's book, "Kriss Kringle's Christmas Tree," published in Philadelphia in 1845, introduced a Santa Claus figure and his Christmas tree "to tots across the land. German immigrants and influences carried the Christmas tree north, south, west and east, even, horrors, to Boston. In a widely read penny pamphlet, anti-slavery champion Harriet Martineau described the tree that Charles Follen, a Harvard professor of German, had decorated lor his son in 1832. She concluded . with a prediction that might have shocked the Puritans, "I have little doubt the Christmas-tree will become one of the most flourishing exotics of New England." To the south, in Vicksburg. Miss., a niece of Jefferson Davis, Mahala Kggleston Roach, in 1851 created a tree lor her children from her imagination. "...I never saw one," she wrote, "but learned from some of the German stories I had been reading." Botanist William Brewer reported from California in 18(2 that in San Francisco, despite the unfortunate lack of Christmas snow, "Christmas trees are the lashion." From its first planting, in a Pennsylvania community lertile with tradition, the Christmas tree had spread its branches from coast to coast. Two popular magazines, Harper's Weekly and Godey's, Lady's Book, gave the Christmas tree a further boost. The December lire, taking down the stockings, of course, put on our a rappers, and prepared to admit the children. But first there wiis a surprise for me, also for their good mother, for Archie had a little Christmas tree of his own, which he had rigged up with the help of one of the carpenters in a big closet; and we all had to look at the tree and each of us got a present off of it." Officially the White House continued to declare each year that there would he no presidential Christmas tree. Unofficially, the president allowed Archie to have a small tree in his own room having been reassured by Gilford Pinchot, the foremost conservationist in the country, that proper cutting would not be harmful to forests. Conservationists, however, continued to point to the dangers of denuding the roadsides and rural landscape and urged Christmas tree cultivation. At Hyde Park, in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roose 'elt became , America's most famous The Christmas tree tradition has long since Ihtii reestablished in the White House. "All I want is an old-fashioned American Christmas tree." first lady Nancy Reagan requested, when plans were being made for this year's White House tree. She will get her w ish. The shiny glass halls and hand-made p;i per animals and flowers will be red (and a number of other colors), the strings of popcorn will le white. By INK MENDELSOHN Smithsonian News Service "Bah! Humbug!" you may say, But believe it or not, there really is something in America this inflation-ridden Christmas season that costs less than it did 150 years ago. In 1830, an advertisement in the York. Pa. Republican notified the public: "Tickets will be sold for 61 4 cents, which will admit the bearers to the 'Christmas Tree' during the time it remains for exhibition." Today, as any mother's child knows, it costs not a penny to see delightfully decorated Christmas trees during the holiday season everywhere in the land. As late as 1840, however, the Christmas tree was still such a curiosity in America that people were willing to pay for the privilege of seeing one. At least, entrepreneurs like Mr. Goodridge of York, Pa., hoped they were. He advertised: "Christmas Trees. For the amusement of the ladies and gentlemen of York and its vicinity, GOODRIDGE, will exhibit at his residence, in East Philadelphia Street, a CHRISTMAS TREE, the exhibition of which will commence on Christmas Eve. and continue, Sunday further Christmas Eve. and continue, Sunday excepted, until New Year. Tickets to be had at his store." A familiar sight today, the Christmas tree grew slowly in America. In Massachusetts, the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas lor much of the 17th century. Banned in Boston, the Christmas tree first took root in Pennsylvania, transplanted by German immigrants to "Penn's Woodland" in the 18th Century. The Pennsylvania "Dutch" t anglicized lor "Deutsch," m meaning German) tree was a small juniper lighted with tiny tapered candles and decorated with apples, nuts, strings of popcorn and cranberries and, most important of all, . . i - i ' ' u : - ' cookies. These were no ordinary cookies. They were works of art. In fact, a lew of these elaborately decorated cookie ornaments actually survived hungry children and can be seen today in American museums. Pennsylvania Dutch women cherished their cookie cutters and tried to save at least one design that was theirs alone, resulting in the creation of a dazzling variety of styles and shapes. When that new American character, Uncle Sam, came along in the 19th century, he too, became a cookie. With his arrival in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, it was evident that the rest of America had reached these isolate larm people. In turn, their Christmas customs began to spread leyond the countryside to Philadelphia and on to the rest of America. In 1825. Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post reported seeing "trees visible through the windows, where green boughs are laden with CKDAH CITY The Cedar City Middle Sch(Ml honor and concert bands, under the direction of Larry Wright practice for their upcoming annual Christmas concert. Entitled "Sounds of Christinas," Ihc production begins at 7::(l p.m. lonighl in the Middle School gymnasium. The i uiK t'i t is free and open to the public. |