Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Every Christmas, millions of real Christmas trees are cut down and sold from lots across the nations.  Have you ever wondered where these evergreens come from year after year and how they have become the Christmas symbol throughout centuries? 

Well, Christmas tree farming is a big sector in the US agriculture.  The map above depicts the locations of the Christmas tree farms in Georgia alone.  It is taken from the Georgia Christmas Tree Association (http://www.gacta.com/index) – a farmer organization of Georgia Christmas tree growers, established in 1961.  Georgia is not the only state that grows Christmas trees.  In fact, there are about 15,000 farms growing about half a billion of Christmas trees in all 50 US States according to the National Christmas Tree Association (www.christmastree.org). 

While real Christmas evergreens have been around for more than five centuries, the nationwide celebration of the Christmas icon has officially commenced this year.  On November 30^th, the US Senate unanimously passed S. Res 341, a resolution to designate the first full week of December as National Christmas Tree Week (http://www.christmastree.org/11_PR12.pdf, http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=sr112-341).

Why Christmas Tree? The tradition was traced back to many ancient cultures among the pagans and Christians when green branches were used to symbolize life, prosperity and protection from evil spirits during the winter solstice.  According to Wikipedia, the earliest accounts of decorated Christmas tree were recorded in Livonia (modern-day Estonia and Latvia) in the 15th century, and in Germany in the 16^th century.  Some legends stated that Martin Luther brought about this tradition when he discovered the beautiful evergreens with sparkling snows on the branches under the moonlight during his nightly walk.  He then set up a fir tree inside his home to share with his children.  To learn more about the history of Christmas Tree, please check out these references:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree, http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html, http://www.firstchristmastree.net/.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!