Everyone has a Christmas tree, but do we know where the idea originally came from. The accepted story is that Prince Albert brought the first Christmas tree over from Germany, decorated it and the idea spread from there.
While it is true that this was how Christmas trees were popularised, trees had been used as part of the celebrations much earlier. A Devonshire monk travelling in Germany used the triangular shape of the fir tree as a symbol to represent the Holy Trinity.
The first decorated tree is thought to have been in Riga, Latvia in 1510, and soon after, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a tree for his children.
Nowadays, as I said at the beginning, everyone has a tree, and several decisions have to be made about this. Do we want a real tree or an artificial one. The latter are much more realistic now and a lot easier to put up. But then, there is storage to consider and the possibility of losing the instructions before next year.
But somehow there is nothing quite like the excitement of going to choose the tree every year. This in itself gives cause for deliberation. Once, having a real tree meant a great deal of cleaning up, and often you were lucky if there were any needles left on by Twelfth Night. It's much easier now with the varieties of non-drop tree.
Four Seasons Garden Centre has a great selection and at a good price if you take advantage of our offer. Nick will also advise you on the best type for situation, whether it's just a 3 foot tall one or as big as 10 foot, choose from Norway Spruce, Silver Fraser Fir, Scots Pine or Nordman Fir - and it can be delivered.
