This article appears in the December 2013 issue of Organic Hudson Valley. (A direct link is available under Links to Articles.)
After Thanksgiving, as the fall harvest draws to a close and the remaining plants die from the frost, the outdoor weather begins to cool down. Then there is the ever-present threat of snow as a harbinger of the long months of cold, monotonous gray weather that is to come and settle over the valley during the upcoming season. During this time, we will ride out the winter in wait of the coming year’s spring weather and the brighter thoughts of happier days spent outdoors in the sun. However, before you let an overwhelming feeling of dread overcome and consume you, there is the Christmas season to look forward to, a season that began as a tradition, both as a literal and figurative light in the dead, dark depths of winter, a holiday that could bring warmth and light to its celebrants, even back before there was a Christmas holiday celebration as we know it today.
Christmas trees are essentially the center piece to the holiday decorations that cover everything from town squares to shopping malls to people’s living rooms. Think of the big trees, such as the one in Rockefeller Center or the one in Washington, D.C., Christmas trees so celebrated as lights in the dark of winter that they get their own television specials, complete with celebrities and concerts to mark the cultural importance of the Christmas tree and the symbolism it brings in the winter.
History of the Christmas Holiday Celebration
The history of Christmas gives an interesting look at the importance of having a light in the middle of a dark winter, the Christmas tree serving as perhaps the most important symbol of that light. The tradition even overrides the religious aspects inherent in any Christmas celebration, as some of the historical roots for the tradition pre-date Christianity and the birth of Jesus Christ. Even today, the concept of a “holiday tree,” while upsetting to some who feel it may devalue Christmas, is an example of a larger cultural acceptance of the Christmas tree as a decoration of joy that everyone can share, regardless of their religious beliefs.
The roots of a holiday festival in mid-winter, such as Christmas, go back to before the birth of Christ or the foundation of Christianity, but in fact are in ancient Pagan traditions, such as Saturnalia and Yuletide. These holidays all have the same thing in common: they all fall near the Winter Solstice, which falls on December 21 or 22 in the northern hemisphere, otherwise known as the shortest, or darkest, day of the year, as the solstice marks the day of the year when the sun is at its lowest altitude on the horizon at noon, resulting in the latest sunrise of the year, as well as the earliest sunset.
In addition to the solstice, many cultures had important feast days that fell on or around December 25th as well, though the origins of the choice of that date are unknown and cause debate among historical and religious scholars regarding the origin with many competing theories and ideas.
In ancient Rome, the celebration of the god Mithras fell on December 25, the end of the Saturnalia celebration, which took place the previous week, and the same day as the Christian nativity celebration, though the actual date of the birth of Jesus Christ is unknown, though some scholars think it may have even been in the summer. Even today, the Eastern Christian Church celebrates Christmas on January 7, though some attribute this to the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars, making January 7th on the Gregorian calendar the same day as December 25th on the Julian calendar.
The similarity in dates made it easier for early Christians to convert Pagans, as many very averse to losing the Saturnalia celebration, a week marked with generally poor behavior more analogous to a fraternity party than a religious celebration. Having the celebration of Christmas fall at the same time of year, those early converts didn’t have to give up their beloved holiday, and they could still celebrate Christmas, though many early Christians in Roman times still celebrated Christmas the way they would celebrate Saturnalia, which included some very un-Christian like behavior.
“The early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones,” the Reverend Increase Mather of Boston, a Puritan minister, observed in 1687.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas tree is a tradition that could have come from the Pagan tradition and been adopted by the Christians, or been a Christian tradition that was adopted by the Pagans, depending on what side you listen to, as there are competing theories to support both schools of thought.
One school of thought has trees as an object of worship in the forest for Pagans. The Druids, who were the priests of the ancient Celts, used evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life, and according to the History Channel, they would bring the trees into their homes and decorate them as a way to keep out evil spirits, such as witches and ghosts and even illnesses, something the Christian church then adopted as their own tradition, following the first theory, of the Christians adopting the tradition from the Pagans.
Another school of thought has the Christmas tree resulting from the story of the Garden of Eden. Following this view, Northern Europeans believed in the sacred tree of life. According to Saint Boniface, who proselytized Christianity in the Frankish Empire during the 8th century, the fir tree is a commemoration of the Holy Child. There is a story that the saint came upon a group of heathens gathered at an oak tree that they were preparing to sacrifice to their gods. As they did so, a young fir tree appeared, which became known as the tree of life, representing Jesus Christ. This then follows the second theory of the Pagans adopting the trees from the Christians.
Modern Christmas Tree
The origins of the modern Christmas tree go back to Germany in the 15th or 16th century. Martin Luther, of the Protestant Reformation, is often credited with being the first person to put lighted candles on a tree. The popularity of the tradition expanded beyond Germany in the second half of the 19th century as it became popular throughout Europe.
Christmas trees were a rarity in America as recently as the 19th century. German settlers in Pennsylvania displayed the first documented Christmas tree in the 1830s. Even into the 1840’s, many Americans, still under a strong Puritan influence, viewed Christmas trees as Pagan symbols and rejected them.
By the 19th century, the decorative trees were more common in England. The novelist Charles Dickens described a scene of children around a Christmas tree at that time, writing, “I have been looking on, this evening, at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas tree. The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers, and everywhere sparkled and glittered with bright objects.”
It wasn’t until 1846, however, that the popularity of the Christmas tree began to spread to America. That year, Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, who was German, were pictured in the London News standing with a Christmas tree. English royalty still had a large influence on what was fashionable, something some may still argue today, and after the illustration the popularity of the trees began to spread to the eastern coast of the United States.
Early Christmas trees were lit with candles, though today people use strings of lights that are significantly less dangerous and flammable. Many traditional Christmas trees also used edible decorations such as apples, dates or nuts. Candy canes, tinsel and garland, as well as an angel or star topper, to represent either the host of angels or the Star of Bethlehem, are older traditions that most Christian households still carry on today.
Cutting This Year’s Christmas Tree
Every year, in the weeks before Christmas, people make decisions about what kind of tree they are going to put up, including whether it will be real or artificial, and whether they will buy it pre-cut or cut it themselves. This is all before they even get to the decorations or debate where in the house it will look best.
The Hudson Valley is the home of many farms that provide trees of both types, pre-cut and cut your own. Many of these farms also feature rides, both for the kids’ enjoyment and for transporting the tree after it has been cut. There are also refreshments and Christmas decorations for all your holiday shopping needs.
Abel’s Trees
Abel’s Trees has been in the Abel family since 1850 and today is run by Stephen Abel and his family.
People that come to Abel’s Trees looking for the right tree can come in and go into any field that they want. The family keeps the farm sustainable in a very simple, even obvious, way. “Where someone has cut a tree, we plant a new tree,” Abel said. The result is that some fields have more mature trees than others, but they are generally a mix and allow people to find the size tree that suits their decorating needs.
“My father started planting some trees with the reforestation program,” Abel said. “I don’t think his intention was for people to cut their own trees, but in the seventies, people started doing that.”
Abel’s Trees has also worked with the Dutchess Land Conservancy to become an easement-protected property, which protects the property from development permanently. According to the Dutchess Land Conservancy, a conservation easement “is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a qualified not-for-profit conservation organization or government agency that permanently preserves land. The conservation easement restricts the use and development of a property in a manner that protects specific conservation resources.”
This process keeps the farm affordable for the Abel family to maintain, and is something many local farms use to protect themselves from development. According to Abel, many of the neighboring farms have done the same thing with their land. The organization then monitors the property every year to make sure nothing is being done with the land that shouldn’t be. It leaves the Abel family free to maintain their farm.
This includes maintaining their inventory. In the fall, they trim the trees, and when they have any problems, they figure out the best way to address them without “just throwing chemicals around.” In addition to the sell one, plant one method of maintaining their fields, the family has also planted additional fields to maintain their inventory and account for any losses that may result from disease or weather.
“We lose trees to natural causes, so we plant more than we sell,” Abel said. “We try to replant all the trees we sold.”
The farm opens on the Friday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Black Friday, though that’s the only Friday they are open.
“I wanted to keep the tree farm in the family,” Abel, who is a practicing veterinarian, said. “I enjoy cutting trees, so we’ve continued doing that.” Even though the tree farm is not his day job, so to speak, “I spend more time managing the farm and growing trees than I do anything else.”
The farm is set up to make the process of finding a tree both fun and as easy as possible for customers, providing both transportation and refreshments.
“We have wagons that we use to bring people to the fields and back from the fields,” Abel said. “We have a restored old barn with ancillary products like wreaths and tree stands. The last few years we’ve had hot food available.” They also have a caterer in to sell hot chocolate and coffee, as well as pulled pork and hamburgers and hot dogs. “My daughter is a pastry chef, and she does sweets, cookies and pastries and that stuff.”
In addition to growing Christmas trees, Abel’s Trees also digs trees for landscaping, keeping them alive in yards. This lets them expand their business a bit outside of strictly Christmas trees and is beneficial for the environment.
Abel encourages the experience of walking around the farm and enjoying the view of the 38-acre lake as well. “I was watching an osprey catch a fish this morning,” he said.
Bilmar Nurseries
Bilmar Nurseries is one of the largest Christmas tree farms in the area. It is a family-owned and run business with multiple tree farms under its domain. They have been growing Christmas trees for three generations. They have also received many awards from county and state fairs in the last 20 years, a list of which they proudly display on their website.
The farm originally began as a hobby in the early 1970s on the original Bilmar Farm, which has been in the family since 1941, when Dr. William D. Rawls and his wife, Mary Palmer Rawls, purchased the land. It was then that they decided to cut some of their Colorado Spruce and Douglas fir trees to sell as Christmas trees. At that point, they just sold them on the front lawn.
Now the farm is run by their descendant – their grandson, Scott Case.
“It’s just something I’ve always done,” Case, the manager of the farm, said of his time spent working on the tree farm, especially during the holiday season. “I like being outside all day. The kids come up and have a good time. Big kids enjoy it as well. It’s a fun time of year.”
Since the early days of selling Christmas trees in their front yard, they have expanded to include more than 100 acres and different varieties such as conifers and broadleaf evergreens. The farm grows five varieties of fir trees, including among them the Fraser Fir, for which they have won an award. There are also different varieties of white pine and spruce trees, giving the Christmas tree shopper many options. The website details the pros and cons of each tree type as well as giving a full description of the farm’s tree inventory.
Bilmar Farms expanded in 1984, when they purchased a tract of land to start a second tree farm. The new farm, with a new name to separate the new tree farm and allow it to stand on its own right, was named Fabulous Firs and is located in Poughkeepsie. Fabulous Firs is a smaller farm with Fraser Fir and Concolor Fir trees available.
To maintain the tree farms inventory and sustainability, the trees are planted in a ration of three to one, with planting done yearly. This ensures there are trees available every year and accounts for any losses from weather.
“We open up the day after Thanksgiving and we’re pretty much open through Christmas,” Case said. “The majority of cutting your own is done early. Most people come on Thanksgiving weekend and the following two weekends.”
For those with children, or just tired of walking after too many hours of browsing trees to find just the right one, not too tall, not too short, with just the right size branches, there are fire truck and hay wagon rides available on the weekends.
“We have an old fire truck that we have turned into a people transporter that we take people into the fields with,” Case said.
The farm also has a gift shop where there are fresh wreathes that are made from the farms own greens. They also allow tailgating and offer refreshments that are provided by the nearby St. Paul’s Church in Pleasant Valley. According to Case, the church usually serves cider, coffee and doughnuts. “Some people are here for a couple hours, some are in and out in 10 minutes,” Case said of the varying methods shoppers have in choosing the right tree.
The farm is very kid friendly, with a collection of old fire trucks that kids can climb on, as well as a railroad caboose. “We have Santa Claus come visit the middle two weekends of December, probably the 7th and the 14th,” Case said, though he noted that is only at the Fabulous Firs and Bilmar locations. “We’re hoping to get a petting zoo in the future. Give the kids something to look at.”
The farm is very animal friendly as well. Dogs that are leashed and well behaved are welcome to accompany you as you browse for the perfect tree. They can even accompany you on the hayride. “Last year, we had Golden Doodles, Labradoodles, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Black and Yellow Labs and others,” according to the web site. “It’s our plan to make a Rogue’s Gallery of this year’s visiting pets.”
Not to forget those crunched for time, but who still want a natural Christmas tree, there are also pre-cut trees available. They are for sale outside of the Christmas Shop, which also sells locally made goods including tree and wreath accessories.
“It’s a challenging business, of course, depending on what the weather’s like,” Case said. “This year we had a lot of rain.” Rain can make the business tougher, because people put off their shopping. “Someone is doing some activity, and if they miss that day, it’s hard for them to make it up. People might not get to us.”
For Scott Case, the tree farm is about the kids and the enjoyment they get coming to the farm and getting to ride on the trucks. He also enjoys seeing the repeat customers that enjoy coming to the farm year after year for the tradition of cutting their own Christmas tree with their family.
“Because of today’s world, a lot of people have gone to artificial trees,” Case said. “It’s nice to see that tradition continue, people coming out to cut a Christmas tree.”
Christmas Trees As a Cultural Icon
In addition to being an aspect of a religious celebration, Christmas trees have become a holiday tradition as well, becoming something that friends and family can use as a holiday decoration, whether they are Christian or not.
A recent popular example is the invention of the term “Chrismukkah” on the 2003 television show The O.C. The concept was created by the character of Seth Cohen, played by actor Adam Brody, because his mother was Christian and his father was Jewish. He combined the holidays into one giant holiday. Even before Chrismukkah, there was a similarly invented holiday on Seinfeld, called Festivus.
Both these pop culture inventions recognize a growing aspect of modern life where every member of a family may not share the same religion, but combining traditions, even for non-religious purposes, such as decorating a Christmas Tree, can be a family activity that brings people together in the very spirit of the holiday that many seek to find through all the commercialism that can assault us all around the holiday season.
Karen Fredrickson 