It’s that time of the year when our kids’ eyes light up as they see shop windows start to sparkle with tinsel, Christmas lights and larger and larger baubles every year….our streets become festive with council-funded decorations and Christmas Trees, and we start re-discovering our neighbourhood and beyond looking for the best decorated homes to show our kids and grandkids in the evening creating family traditions that are treasured by all.
So how and why did we start putting up Christmas Trees?
Of course, the Christmas Tree tradition needed to start somewhere!
To find out more about our ‘modern’ tradition of decorating Christmas Trees, we need to go right back to 16th Century Germany.
But the story starts way before then, back to pre-Christian times in fact.
Throughout Europe, there were traditions and customs regarding evergreens during winter.
Pagans decorated their homes with branches from evergreen fir trees as a way of raising their spirits during their cold, dark winters, and evergreens were used by Romans to decorate the temples for their Saturnalia festival.
The green theme even occurred in Africa, when Ancient Egyptians used green palm rushes as part of the ceremonies worshipping their god Ra.
Evergreen represented fertility and new life, which was a particularly important belief during the dark winters, and included the wintery plants Holly, Ivy, and Mistletoe.
This concept continued and developed over the centuries, until it became the tradition of Christmas Trees beloved by the 16th Century Germans.
As emigration occurred, the idea of the Christmas Tree with its decorations was spread around the world, and became a new tradition for so many people.
So when should we be putting up our Christmas Trees?
As the year comes to an end and we dive headlong towards December, this seems to be one question that everyone asks. Even though there are traditional dates for the raising and decorating of the tree, just ask around a little bit to discover that everyone’s preference is wildly different, everything from 1st November, “Now that Halloween is finished”, right through to Christmas Eve, “Bah, humbug!”.
Whatever date you choose though, once the tree has been adorned in all its tinsel-y gorgeousness and you stand back in admiration (or even plain relief that it’s finally done!), isn’t that a fantastic feeling? Are we the only ones to start singing or humming “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’’ with a tingle of excitement and a frisson of festiveness, thinking of the joys of the merry season?
It doesn’t matter what kind of tree you choose, or what size it is, there sure is something special about decorating our Christmas Trees each year. More than anything else a Christmas Tree seems the most emblematic Christmas adornment possible; the centrepiece of our celebrations.
Choosing a Christmas Tree
The most important decision for people to make is… pine perfection or sensational synthetic, and in recent times- recycled fence pairings are filling the “ insta” space.
There are benefits to all options.
There’s the rich, Christmassy scent of the pine tree, or the convenience of the boxed version; the fun of gathering as a family to choose your new tree for the holidays, versus the tree that is used year after year, retaining so many happy memories. Mind you, both trees seem to have the same downside: the needles dropping, whether they be pine or plastic! And recycled timber minimalistic versions of fence-palings, how do we get rid of the splinters!
Let’s talk about the romantic option for a moment, the one that’s probably shown in every American Christmas movie. That is the expedition to choose a Christmas tree and the adventure of bringing it home. For sure we don’t have to wrap up in coats, scarves, and gloves for this main event, as they always seem to do in the movies, but other than that the adventure remains the same.
For us folks on the Mornington Peninsula, we are spoilt with three gorgeous Christmas Tree farms to visit where not only will we be dazzled by hundreds and hundreds of trees to choose from, we can’t escape the retail outlet without being tempted to fill our baskets with the latest amazing gadget to place on our prized tree. And if we are lucky…Santa’s helpers will be there to say hi to the youngest members of the family.
Also, we can rely on organisations such as Scouts groups or Rotary clubs to give us plenty of trees to choose from.
Our goal is to find a tree with the perfect shape…and height. It never looks quite the same if you get your tree home in your living room and have to chop off 30 centimetres from the top of that perfect pine tree.
Your angel or star ends up sitting on a kind of shelf rather than being poised at the pinnacle as it should be!
Dates and Decorations
Some people are brought up with the custom of 12 days of Christmas.
This meant that on the twelfth day before Christmas, up went the tree, and down it came on the twelfth day after Christmas.
Where did this schedule come from?
Well, for a start it’s nothing to do with partridges, five gold rings, or lords a’ leaping.
This is a Christian tradition and actually only refers to the removal of the tree. Celebrations for the birth of Jesus lasted for 12 days, therefore the twelfth day was when the tree needed to come down.
For Roman Catholics, the tradition is to put the tree up on Christmas Eve.
Another Christian tree tradition is to put it up on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the start of Advent.
One thing to remember if you’ve opted for a real pine tree and decide to buy it in November – The tree should last around four weeks if you look after it properly.
So even if you have tended it with great care, by Christmas Day it may look as if it’s been on the Christmas sherry; a little bedraggled and worse for wear – perhaps a bit like Great Aunt Myrtle who only partakes in a tipple at Christmas!
And what of decorations?
For many years the standard seemed to be glass baubles, tinsel and a string of lights or two. There might also be a few adorable decorations hand-crafted by your three-to-six-year-olds, and if you were lucky these would survive for more than one Christmas. Sadly, they almost never lasted long enough to become family heirlooms.
Some people have a tradition of buying a new decoration for their tree from exotic places they visit on their travels, as a reminder of a wonderful holiday. You might find a sparkly Eiffel Tower or Sydney Harbour Bridge dangling from a branch, next to a richly decorated Windsor Castle, or a glittery croc from Kakadu. When a child is born, a First Christmas bauble often gets added to the collection. We wonder: does this need to get included every year though, despite the fact the ‘baby’ has now started to shave, or should that bauble simply be stored as a happy but distant memory?
These days there seems to be endless variations of Christmas Trees and their decorations; minimalist to magnificent, extravagant to eccentric.
Regional Christmas Traditions
Mornington Peninsula residents have embraced a more recent Christmas tradition around our beautiful region. So many people now make it part of their celebrations to drive around the local streets to look at Christmas lights. You don’t have to go far before you discover dazzling displays of decorations and lights, creating a multitude of magical Christmas kingdoms in front gardens big and small, to the delight of young and old alike.
One particularly local tradition is to park at the Frankston boat ramp or by the beach, and walk round to soak up the Christmas light and sound show from one of the houses on Oliver’s Hill. It is so special and quite sensational.
And how could we forget watching the town Christmas tree lights being switched on? For more than 20 years, we have been going along to Frankston’s Christmas Festival of Lights, a magical family event full of festive joy, culminating in switching on the Christmas tree lights and a firework display. However, while COVID restrictions are in place a month-long celebration is happening instead. We can’t wait to get involved in some of these events!
It’s always a great tradition to travel into Melbourne CBD to see all the Christmas lights around the city, and the extraordinary Christmas tree and display at Federation Square. But the most long-standing, must-do experience is to visit the Myer Christmas windows! You may have to queue for a while, catching glimpses of the incredible displays as you slowly move along, but the wait is totally worth it. Each window weaves a wondrous Christmas themed story, and it’s always a delight to behold. To see the amazement, enchantment, and happiness on the faces of the watching children is an absolute joy in itself.
Another very special tradition is donating to worthy causes via the many Giving Trees set up in different venues. In Frankston, there is often a Giving Tree at the Frankston Library, amongst other places. It’s such a special tradition not only because we are donating, but we are teaching our children the importance of giving to charity and helping others in need.
What makes a great Christmas Tree?
Now there’s a question! Perhaps Christmas Tree decorating falls into a small handful of genres.
The more colourful, gaudy, and glitzy the better.
Traditional decorations, subtle tinsel and lights, a little bit of everything, but not too much of anything.
The kooky, individual, out-for-a-laugh decorations, like beer bottle tops as baubles, or toy cars hanging from the branches.
Decorations that are subtle, subdued, elegant, perhaps colour-themed but often white or silver.
Who can say what the best is? It really is up to the individual to decorate their tree in their own way. They might want to make a statement or they might want something beautiful to look at for the duration. You can decorate your tree however you want – we love them all!
Should you decorate your home for Christmas when selling?
Perhaps the lead up to Christmas for you is usually going all out to festoon your property with a kaleidoscopic winter wonderland full of brightly lit reindeer, inflatable Santa’s, snowmen and stars, bursts of Christmas bells, giant toy soldiers rubbing shoulders with all the individuals in an illuminated nativity scene, and every inch of the roof, porch, and garden covered with coloured globes.
But your enormous colourful Ho Ho Ho sign is a bit ho ho hum when it comes to selling your home. While you revel in sharing the joy of the season and love nothing better than hearing the exclamations of delight from people coming to see your home’s Christmas display, selling your home is a key time to resist Christmas decorating in this way.
Note that we say ‘in this way’. Whilst we aren’t giving you free reindeer, oops… free rein (see what we did there!) it is possible to retain a bit of Christmas sparkle and cheer in your house for sale. With one proviso: it is much better for there not to be any decorations when the photographer is taking the photos of your home. Imagine how this will look three weeks into January when the sales campaign is only partway through, or if your house didn’t sell by December 28th as you expected – it may ‘date’ the house and perhaps send a message like ‘it still hasn’t sold, it might have been on the market for ages, maybe we’ll get a bargain?’. That’s not an idea that you want to give potential buyers.
Once the photos have been taken, you might decide to introduce one or two elements of Christmas decorations. (See, we’re not scrooges after all!) This is where the Christmas tree comes into its own. As long as you keep it subtle and sophisticated, it can be a lovely addition to a living room. Make sure that it’s not taking up too much space or in the way for potential buyers during their Open for Inspection visits. You may have to invest in a small tree temporarily. It’s probably a good idea to keep the more personal or precious decorations and baubles safely stored too. Breakages would be so sad when it’s something associated with a precious Christmas memory. And just as we advise that you don’t have your family photos displayed liberally around the house, the same applies to any decorations that you might have with photos.
Buyers need to be able to see and feel that this house is a family home where they can make their own wonderful Christmas memories, and a Christmas Tree can go some way to helping them envisage that idea. When you are selling in the heart of the Christmas season, a tree can be a boon. But keep it simple. Think white lights and subtle adornments instead of coloured, glitzy and extravagant trimmings.
Christmas with Janice Dunn Estate Agents
We pride ourselves on being a friendly, happy,
community-minded boutique agency. Our clients become like family and we want to
help them every step of the way on their real estate journey.
Unveiling our Christmas tree in early December is an
important tradition for us, it’s not simply to make the office look seasonal.
It’s a way of demonstrating that we are ready to enjoy the season and celebrate
Christmas with all our clients, in much the same way that we celebrate their
successes when buying and selling their homes with us. And of course, we just
love the magic and joy of Christmas! So, when we say “Merry Christmas”, we
really do wish it for all of you!