The art of the Christmas tree

Walk through a Lebanese home in December, and you will find the same glowing sight: a Christmas tree standing in the corner of a living room, shining through a balcony window, or perched proudly on a tabletop. Some sparkle with warm yellow lights, others glow in bold reds or soft pastels, and many are crowded with mismatched ornaments collected over the years. Whether real or plastic, the Christmas tree has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the holiday season.

We gather around it, photograph it, dance beside it, and pile presents beneath its branches. But behind the December magic lies a much older and more layered story. The Christmas tree was not always a global staple, and its meaning stretches across ancient civilizations, missionary legends, religious controversy, royal fashion, and modern reinvention. Its history is longer, stranger, and more intertwined with human ritual than most people realize.

A Historical Symbol of Survival

Long before Christianity, cultures across the world already worshiped, admired, or simply depended on the evergreen tree. The Winter Solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year was a moment of both fear and awe. Nature seemed to die, darkness stretched on, and cold tightened its grip. The evergreen, however, remained alive. That resilience turned it into a sacred symbol.

 In ancient Egypt, families filled their homes with palm branches to honor Ra, the sun god, believing the greenery proved that life would triumph over death. In Scandinavia, Vikings decorated their homes with evergreens to celebrate Balder, the god of light and rebirth. In ancient Rome, during the unruly, joyful festival of Saturnalia, evergreen boughs decorated temples and homes as a promise that fields would soon turn green again. The evergreen was not merely decorative; it was reassurance. A living reminder, in a season of darkness, that life would return.

When Christianity began to spread, it encountered these winter rituals rather than replacing them fully. Instead, the evergreen began to acquire new meaning layered on top of the old. One of the most famous stories linking Christianity to the tree is the legend of St. Boniface, an 8th-century missionary who devoted his life to preaching in what is now Germany.

According to tradition, Boniface stumbled upon a pagan ceremony on Christmas Eve in which villagers planned to sacrifice a child beneath a sacred oak dedicated to Thor. The missionary intervened, shattered the priest’s hammer with his staff, and cut down the oak. Behind it stood a small evergreen tree. Boniface pointed to it as a symbol of everlasting life, rooted and alive even in the coldest season, and the villagers brought it home to decorate as they listened to the story of Jesus’s birth. Whether fact or legend, the tale helped reshape the evergreen from a symbol of survival into one of spiritual meaning.

A Shift in Culture

Everything changed in 1848, when a single image reshaped Christmas culture. The Illustrated London News published a sketch of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert celebrating Christmas around a decorated tree with their children. The scene captured the Victorian imagination instantly. Because the public adored Victoria and admired Albert’s German traditions, the tree went from obscure novelty to fashionable symbol almost overnight. Across Britain, Europe, and eventually the United States, families rushed to imitate the royal scene. The tree became not only accepted, but essential.

From that moment on, the Christmas tree became a cultural canvas. Candles, hand-carved ornaments, strands of nuts and fruit, glass baubles, garlands, angels, and stars all began to shape what we now think of as “classic Christmas.” By the 20th century, the Christmas tree appeared everywhere: in homes, department stores, postcards, films, and later in televised ceremonies and Instagram feeds. In Lebanon, giant trees rose in Martyrs’ Square, downtown Beirut, Byblos, and towns across the country, turning the Christmas tree into both a celebration of faith and a public expression of joy and resilience.

The Tree Today

Today, the Christmas tree means something slightly different to each household. For some, it is a religious symbol, a reminder of Christ’s birth and the promise of eternal life. For others, it is an expression of warmth and togetherness in a cold season. It can be minimalist or maximalist, curated or messy, nostalgic or modern. A tree can tell the story of a family through ornaments collected on trips, passed down from grandparents, or crafted in school classrooms. It can reflect trends scrolling across Pinterest boards, or the quiet traditions repeated year after year without ever being questioned.

In Lebanon, where holidays often unfold against a backdrop of political instability and economic strain, the Christmas tree has taken on an added layer of meaning. Putting it up is an act of hope. It is a small, glowing declaration that beauty still exists, that rituals matter, and that families continue to gather and celebrate despite everything happening outside their windows.

And perhaps that is why the Christmas tree continues to endure. From ancient solstice rituals to Victorian fashion, it has always stood for the same thing: light amid darkness. It’s the reminder that winter never lasts forever.