Christmas trees have been a great Irish and European tradition for many centuries. It has now gone worldwide, writes Iva Pocock.
The Christmas tree has come a long way in the last few hundred years. From its first decorated outing in Latvia in 1510, it has cloned into a consumer product whose popularity grows globally each year. Millions of trees are now shipped around the world - one US company advertises for clients in the Caribbean, East Indies and Pacific region, with a last orders by October 1st. In Ireland the largest producer, the Emerald Group, expects to sell 275,000 trees, mainly to the UK, although they've had enquiries from Costa Rica and Argentina and have shipped as far east as Singapore.
The initial growth of the Christmas tree was slower, in keeping with the times. The Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association says its organisation's raison d'être originates in Celtic reverence for the evergreen in winter "as a symbol of life in a season of death". A charming publication, The Christmas Book, by Esme Eve, substantiates the belief that Christmas trees are a fusion of pagan customs into Christian celebration:
"At one time, festoons of holly, ivy, fir, larch and other evergreens were the only form of decoration." Holly, notes Eve, was thought to discourage witches and tax collectors, but when made into a wreath it "symbolised the crown of thorns, the berries representing the drops of Christ's blood".
The first use of an evergreen tree by Christians was in the 7th century, according to Christmas historian Maria Hubert von Staufer, who has documented in detail the evolution of the festive trees. According to her, an English monk used the triangular shape of a fir tree to describe the Holy Trinity to converts in Germany. "By the 12th century it was being hung upside-down from ceilings at Christmas time in central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity."
By the early 17th century they were still confined to this region, in particular Germany as the Tannenbaum, and were decorated with food and paper before real-silver tinsel marked a new level of sophistication in 1610. The tree made its first debut in England in 1829 but didn't really catch on (among the upper classes) until a drawing of Queen Victoria and her German Prince posing beside a candlelit Christmas tree appeared in the Illustrated London News 15 years later.
From there its popularity blossomed beyond the small German communities in the US as fashion-conscious east-coast America embraced the latest festive fad. German glass ornaments initially adorned high-societies' trees before an 1882 US patent for electric lights brought decoration into the modern era.
As the decorations became more sophisticated, so too did the growers' cultivation techniques and choice of tree species. Irish Christmas tree producers now grow six different non-native species - Noble, Fraser and Nordman Fir, Lodgepole and Monterey pine, and Norway Spruce - and Coillte, which has been farming Christmas trees since 1990, has even branded its own tree: the Coillte Lodgepole pine. While the Norway Spruce is a traditional tree in Ireland and the UK, its popularity has waned with the rise of the non-shed varieties. The needle-retaining Noble Fir significantly reduces the post-Christmas clean-up, as do the other fir and pine species grown here.
The most popular trees in Europe are the Noble Fir and the Nordman Fir, which is widely grown in Denmark and Germany, but "not so popular in Ireland", according to Noel Moran, managing director of the Emerald Group.
He says their seedlings are grown under contract in Denmark before being transplanted to one of the sites they lease from farmers for a 10-year period. Most of the Emerald Groups sites range from 40 acres to 160 acres, totalling 1400 acres, but they are now looking for bigger sites for ongoing planting.
"It takes eight years and a lot of hard work to grow a Christmas tree," says Moran, "and the yield you get depends on the land, the tree and the handling." During the cultivation period, wayward trees may be braced so that the leading shoots grow vertically, a meticulous procedure involving workers walking up and down rows and rows of trees. "The techniques of growing Noble Fir have only recently improved," says Moran, "and there is plenty of room for expansion as this is only a tiny part of the EU market so far."
Not surprisingly, the north American market is dominated by different tree species. Canadian Nova Scotia's most popular tree is the Balsam Fir, which thrives in cold climates, has dark-green needles and a pleasant shape. Further south other species dominate: Arizona Cypress is popular in southern states, the Eastern Redcedar is found in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and as far north as southern Ontario and Quebec. According to the US National Christmas Tree Association, wild Eastern Redcedars were the choice for many in the south prior to the availability of plantation-grown Christmas trees.
In other parts of the world whatever species that could pass as a "traditional" Christmas tree and was locally available was used.
In the Cayman Islands, a naturalised Australian Pine, Casuarina, was the tree of choice before North American imports arrived, according to one veteran holiday-maker. And in Zambia, where the Mac Mahon family lived for over 20 years, the top of one of the region's many trees grown as fuel for the copper mines took pride of place among ex-pat households. "They bore no resemblance to the modern Irish tree," laughs former school teacher Tom Mac Mahon.
Christmas trees are now a part of life throughout the western world - even in Japan, where Christian's make up only one per cent of the population, trees appear in December.
Noel Moran says the European market of between 50 and 60 million trees per annum is growing. "In Spain, Portugal and Italy, it's not so well-developed, but I think the Christmas tree tradition is working south. For example, the French market is expanding at a fairly rapid rate." And while the market is expanding, the industry's sales period is confined to just a few weeks with a very clear sell-by date.
Moran remembers one shipment to Singapore arriving on St Stephen's Day, which explains why large-scale online American growers go to great lengths to specify shipping deadlines.
"The harvesting is crammed into three-and-a-half weeks," says Moran. "During this time we're putting 10,000 trees a day onto lorries." To help them shift such large numbers of trees, the company brings in up to 120 extra workers, many of whom come on temporary work permits from the original home of the decorated Christmas tree - Latvia. Other Eastern Europeans - from Poland and the Ukraine - are also employed by both the Emerald Group and Coillte. A spokesperson for the state company explained that Coillte's trees are this year also being harvested by 25 Nepalese workers.
The Irish Christmas tree is now truly global.