Christmas Greens in Song & Story

During the Christmas season, images of fresh cut Christmas trees and holiday greenery are everywhere—in traditional carols, stories and even in favorite television and movie classics. From the beloved Welsh carol, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly,” to the more recent “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the air and the airwaves are full of vivid images of families hanging greens and preparing holiday celebrations. You can almost smell the heady fragrance of fir or pine.

The classic German carol “O Christmas Tree” was written many years ago, and it still resonates. Translated into English the first verse goes:

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us.
They’re green when summer days are bright:
They’re green when winter snow is white.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us.

Fast forward one hundred years. During the dark days of World War II, the country was reassured by the plummy voice of Bing Crosby singing longingly of familiar rituals:

I’ll be home for Christmas
You can plan on me,
Please have snow and mistletoe
And presents on the tree

Baby Boomers, the first generation of Americans to grow up with television, now gather with their children and grandchildren every year to watch the 1965 TV classic, “It’s Christmas Charlie Brown,” and see the perennially hapless Charlie Brown and his friends learn the true meaning of Christmas. The message becomes plain as the “Peanuts gang” transforms the tiny forlorn Christmas tree that Charlie Brown picked for his school’s Christmas play into a splendid holiday symbol.

In another classic, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the evil small-hearted Grinch steals all the Christmas trimmings from the sleeping Who’s, making sure to take even the last Christmas tree. Of course, the Grinch finds out the true meaning of Christmas when the Who’s begin rejoicing despite the absence of decorations, presents and even food. But rightness is only completely restored when every tree, swag and wreath is returned to its rightful place.

We sing and tell stories about Christmas trees, boughs of greens and holly, mistletoe and wreathes not because we need them to celebrate the holidays, but because we never stop needing the things they represent—beauty, tradition, faith and family.