请用英语帮说圣诞树的由来 简短一点 谢谢

请用英语帮说圣诞树的由来 简短一点 谢谢
请用英语帮说圣诞树的由来 简短一点 谢谢

请用英语帮说圣诞树的由来 简短一点 谢谢
The History of the Christmas Tree
The tradition of having an evergreen tree become a symbol of Christmas goes back past recorded written history.
The Druids in ancient England & Gual and the Romans in Europe both used evergreen branches to decorate their homes and public buildings to celebrate the Winter Solstice.Over the years,these traditions were adopted by Christians,who incorporated them as part of their Christmas holiday celebration.
Trees used specifically to celebrate Christmas are mentioned in the early 1600's in Germany and surrounding countries.The families would set up these trees in a prominent location of their home and decorate them with colored paper,small toys,food,and sometimes candles.As these people moved or immigrated to other countries,they brought this tradition with them.
Through the years many different things were used to decorate Christmas trees.As the world moved into the 1900's,many trees were decorated with strings of popcorn,homemade cards and pictures,cotton to look like snow,candy in all shapes and sizes,and occasionally,fancy store made glass balls and hand blown glass figurines.Candles were sometimes used,but often caused devastating fires,and many different types of candleholders were devised to try to prevent tree fires.Electric tree lights were first used just 3 years after Thomas Edison has his first mass public demonstration of electric lights back in 1879.The early Christmas tree lights were handmade and quite expensive.
Today,Christmas tree ornaments can be found in nearly every size,color,and shape imaginable,and they are used to decorate the millions of Christmas trees used throughout the world.

Christmas
Although, for Christians, Christmas is not the most important of festivals, it is probably the most widely celebrated religious occasion in the West. This festival celebrates the birth ...

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Christmas
Although, for Christians, Christmas is not the most important of festivals, it is probably the most widely celebrated religious occasion in the West. This festival celebrates the birth of the messiah in Bethlehem Palestine about two thousand years ago. This messiah was Jesus Christ who, Christians believe, was sent to save mankind and absolve them from their sins. Nowadays, you might be forgiven for missing the religious element to this festival as it has descended somewhat into an orgy of consumerism and indulgence. Gifts are given amongst family and friends and cards wishing “Seasonal Greetings” sent between just about everyone. Father Christmas, otherwise known as Santa Claus, is said to squeeze his way down chimneys across the world on Christmas Eve and deliver presents to any children that have behaved well over the last year. Another important motif of the festival is the Christmas tree, around which traditionally people would dance around hinting at the pagan origins of this mid-winter celebration.
圣诞节
虽然对基督教徒来说，圣诞节并不是其最重要的节日，但是在西方，它却是一个最受广泛庆祝的节日。圣诞节庆祝的是两千多年前弥赛亚(犹太人盼望的复国救主)在巴勒斯坦伯利恒的诞生。这个弥赛亚就是耶稣(基督教信奉的救世主)。基督教徒相信，耶稣是被派来拯救人类并协助人们摆脱罪恶的救世主。如今，就算你已经忘记了这个节日的本来意义也不会有人怪罪你，因为，现在的圣诞节已经演变成为大肆消费、狂欢与纵情享受的节日。在这个节日里，亲人们、朋友间都会互送礼物，满载着“节日祝福”的贺卡也会送到每一个人的手中。“圣诞之父”（Father Christmas），也就是我们所熟知的“圣诞老人”（Santa Claus），据说会在圣诞节前夕顺着烟囱下来，给世界各地的孩子们送去礼物，这些收到礼物的孩子必定是那些在过去的一年中各方面表现都很优秀的孩子。圣诞节的另一个重点是圣诞树，在这一天，人们会围着圣诞树跳舞，这也表明圣诞树是圣诞节形成之前的隆冬节日的重要组成部分。

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Christmas tree
A Christmas tree or Tannenbaum is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. It is normally an evergreen coniferous tree that is brought into a...

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Christmas tree
A Christmas tree or Tannenbaum is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. It is normally an evergreen coniferous tree that is brought into a home or used in the open, and is decorated with Christmas lights and colorful ornaments during the days around Christmas. An angel or star is often placed at the top of the tree.
Dates
It is generally thought that Christmas trees were established in Britain after Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, brought the custom over from Germany. However, there are records of small fir trees being used to decorate houses before this and sailors used to affix one to the top of the mainmast of their ships. Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December), and then removed the day after twelfth night (i.e., 6 January); to have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck. Modern commercialization of Christmas has resulted in trees being put up much earlier; in shops often as early as late October (in the UK, Selfridge's Christmas department is up by early September, complete with Christmas trees). A common tradition in U.S. homes is to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and to take it down right after the New Year. Some households in the U.S. do not put up the tree until the second week of December, and leave it up until the 6th of January (Epiphany). In Germany, traditionally the tree is put up 24th of December and taken down 7th of January, though many start one or two weeks earlier and in Roman-Catholic areas the tree may be kept until late January. In Australia, the Christmas tree is usually put up on the 1st of December, which occurs about a week before the school summer holidays; except for South Australia, where most people put up their tree after the Adelaide Credit Union Christmas Pageant, which is in early November. Some traditions suggest that Christmas trees may be kept up until no later than the 2nd of February, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Candlemas), when the Christmas season effectively closes.[1] Superstitions warn of negative consequences if Christmas greenery is not removed by Candlemas Eve.[2]
Types of trees used
Both natural and artificial trees are used as Christmas trees.
Natural trees
The best species for use are species of fir (Abies), which have the major benefit of not shedding the needles when they dry out, as well as good foliage color and scent; but species in other genera are also used. Commonly used species in northern Europe are:
* Silver Fir Abies alba (the original species)
* Nordmann Fir Abies nordmanniana (as in the photo)
* Noble Fir Abies procera
* Norway Spruce Picea abies (generally the cheapest)
* Serbian Spruce Picea omorika
* Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris
and in North America and central america:
* Balsam Fir Abies balsamea
* Fraser Fir Abies fraseri
* Grand Fir Abies grandis
* Guatemalan fir Abies guatemalensis
* Noble Fir Abies procera
* Red Fir Abies magnifica
* Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii
* Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris
* Stone Pine Pinus pinea (as small table-top trees)
Several other species are used to a lesser extent. Less-traditional conifers are sometimes used, such as Giant Sequoia, Leyland Cypress and Eastern Juniper. Blue spruce can also be used as a Christmas tree, but has very sharp needles, making decorating uncomfortable. Virginia Pine is still available on some tree farms in the southeastern United States, however its winter color is faded. The long-needled Eastern White Pine is also used there. Norfolk Island pine is sometimes used, particularly in the Oceania region, and in Australia some species of the genera Casuarina and Allocasuarina are also occasionally used as Christmas trees.
Some trees are sold live with roots and soil, often from a nursery, to be planted later outdoors and enjoyed (and often decorated) for years or decades. However, the combination of root loss on digging, and the indoor environment of high temperature and low humidity is very detrimental to the tree's health, and the survival rate of these trees is low. These trees must be kept inside only for a few days, as the warmth will bring them out of dormancy, leaving them little protection when put back outside into the midwinter cold in most areas. Others are produced in a container and sometimes as topiary for a porch or patio.
European tradition prefers the open aspect of naturally-grown, unsheared trees, while in North America (outside western areas where trees are often wild-harvested on public lands [1]) there is a preference for close-sheared trees with denser foliage, but less space to hang decorations. The shearing also damages the highly attractive natural symmetry of unsheared trees. In the past, Christmas trees were often harvested from wild forests, but now almost all are commercially grown on tree farms.
Almost all Christmas trees in the United States are grown on Christmas tree farms where they are cut after about ten years of growth and new trees planted. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) agriculture census for 2002 (the census is done every five years) there were 21,904 farms were producing conifers for the cut Christmas Tree market in America, 446,996 acres were planted in Christmas Trees, and 13,849 farms harvested cut trees. The top 5 percent of the farms (100 acres or more) sold 61 percent of the trees. The top 26 percent of the farms (20 acres or more) sold 84 percent of the trees. 21% of the farms were less than two acres and sold an average of 115 trees per farm. [2]
In the UK, The British Christmas Tree Growers Association represents the interests of all those who grow Christmas trees in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Artificial trees
Artificial trees have become increasingly popular, as they are considered more convenient and (if used for several years) less expensive than real trees. Trees come in a number of colors and "species", and some come pre-decorated with lights. At the end of the Christmas season artificial trees can be disassembled and stored compactly.
Artificial trees are sometimes even a necessity in some rented homes (especially apartment flats), due to the potential fire danger from a dried-out real tree, leading to their prohibition by some landlords. They may also be necessary for people who have an allergy to conifers, and are increasingly popular in office settings[citation needed].
Feather trees
The first artificial trees were tabletop feather trees, made from green-dyed goose feathers wound onto sticks drilled into a larger one, like the branches on a tree. Originating in Germany in the 19th century to prevent further deforestation, these "minimalist" trees show off small ornaments very well. The first feather trees came to the U.S. in 1913, in the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog.
Modern trees
The first modern artificial Christmas trees were produced by companies which made brushes. They were made the same way, using animal hair (mainly pig bristles) and later plastic bristles, dyed pine-green in color, inserted between twisted wires that form the branches. The bases of the branches were then twisted together to form a large branch, which was then inserted by the user into a wooden pole (now metal with plastic rings) for a trunk. Each row of branches is a different size, color coded at the base with paint or stickers for ease of assembly.
The first trees looked like long-needled pine trees, but later trees use flat PVC sheets to make the needles. Many also have very short brown "needles" wound in with the longer green ones, to imitate the branch itself or the bases that each group of pine (but not other conifer) needles grows from. These trees have become a little more realistic every year, with a few deluxe trees containing multiple branch styles. Many trees now come in "slim" versions, to fit in smaller spaces. Most of the better trees have branches hinged to the pole, though the less-expensive ones generally still come separately. The hinged branched trees just need for the branches to be lowered, but they are a little less compact. Better trees also have more branch tips, the number usually listed on the box.
Around 2003, some trees with moulded plastic branches started selling in the U.S. Now there are also upside down Christmas trees. These Christmas trees are advertised to "Give you more space for presents".
Designer trees
The first artificial trees that were not green were the metallic trees, introduced about 1958, and quite popular through the 1960s. These were made of aluminum attached to metal rods, supported on wooden or aluminum central poles. Some were made with aluminum-coated paper, which was flammable. These posed a great fire hazard if lights were put directly on them, particularly the relatively hot bulbs sold in that era; warnings to this effect are still issued with some Christmas tree lights. They were instead lit by a spotlight or floodlight, often with a motorised rotating color wheel in front of them.
More recent tinsel trees can be used safely with lights, due to the use of flame retardant materials as well as improvements in the safety of the Christmas tree lights themselves.
Other artificial trees may look nothing like a conifer except for the triangular or conical shape. These may be made from cardboard, glass, plastic, or from stacked items such as ornaments. Such items are often used as tabletop decorations.
Outdoor trees
Outdoor branched trees made out of heavy white-enameled steel wires have become more popular on U.S. lawns in the 2000s, along with 1990s spiral ones that hang from a central pole, both styles being lighted with standard miniature lights. These lights are usually white, but often are green, red, red/green, blue/white, blue, or multicolored, and sometimes with a small controller to fade colors back and forth.
A few hotels and other buildings, both public and private, will string lights up from the roof to the top of a small tower on top of the building, so that at night it appears as a lit Christmas tree, often using green or other colored lights. Some skyscrapers will tell certain offices to leave their lights on (and others off) at night during December, creating a Christmas tree pattern.
Other gimmicks
Since the late 1990s, many indoor artificial trees come pre-strung with lights. Some are instead lit partly or completely by fibre optics, with the light in the base, and a rotating color wheel causing various colors to shimmer across the tree.
In 2005 Upside Down Christmas Trees became popular. They were originally sold as decorations for merchants that allowed customers to get closer to ornaments being sold. Customers then wanted to replicate the inverted tree. Retailers also claimed that the trees were popular because they allowed larger presents to be placed beneath the trees.
Past gimmicks include small talking or singing trees, and trees which blow "snow" (actually small styrofoam beads) over themselves, collecting them in a decorative cardboard bin at the bottom and blowing them back up to the top through a tube hidden next to the trunk.
A long-standing and simple gimmick is conifer seedlings sold with cheap decorations attached by soft pipe cleaners. Real potted ones are often sold like this, and artificial ones often come with a "root ball" but only sometimes with decorations.
Environmental issues
here is some debate as to whether artificial or real trees are better for the natural environment. Artificial trees are usually made out of PVC, a toxic material which is often stabilised with lead. Some trees have a warning that dust or leaves from the tree should not be eaten or inhaled. A small amount of real-tree material is used in some artificial trees. For instance, the bark of a real tree can be used to surface an artificial trunk. Polyethylene trees are less toxic, though more expensive, than PVC trees [3].
Artificial trees can be used for many years, but are usually non-recyclable, ending up in landfills. Real trees are used only for a short time, but can be recycled and used as mulch or used to prevent erosion [4]. Real trees also help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while growing.
Live trees are typically grown as a crop and replanted in rotation after cutting, often providing suitable habitat for wildlife. In some cases management of Christmas tree crops can result in poor habitat since it involves heavy input of pesticides. Organically grown Christmas trees are available in some markets, and as with many other crops, are widely held to be better for the environment. Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder and former president of Greenpeace, writes:Whether you choose a cut or growing tree to enjoy this holiday season, I believe that a sensible environmentalist would opt for renewable over non-renewable every time
Decoration and ornaments
A bauble decorating a Christmas tree
A bauble decorating a Christmas tree
Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used to decorate a Christmas tree. Delicate mould-blown and painted colored glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of Czech and Polish glass factories from the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous-name designers. Lighting with candles or electric lights (fairy lights) is commonly done, and a tree topper completes the ensemble. Strands of tinsel may be hung in groups from longer branches to simulate icicles, though this trend has gradually fallen off since the late 1970s. Baubles are another extremely common decoration, and usually consist of a fairly small hollow glass or plastic sphere coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, and then with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide coloration.
Individuals' decorations vary wildly, typically being an eclectic mix of family traditions and personal tastes; even a small unattractive ornament, if passed down from a parent or grandparent, may come to carry considerable emotional value and be given pride of place on the tree. Conversely, trees decorated by professional designers for department stores and other institutions will usually have a "theme"; a set of predominant colors, multiple instances of each type of ornament, and larger decorations that may be more complicated to set up correctly.
Many people also decorate outdoor trees with food that birds and other wildlife will enjoy, such as garlands made from unsalted popcorn or cranberries, orange halves, and seed-covered suet cakes.
[edit] Tree mats and skirts
A tree of poinsettias in San Diego
A tree of poinsettias in San Diego
Since candles were used to light trees until electric bulbs came about, a mat (UK) or "skirt" (US) was often placed on the floor below the tree to protect it by catching the dripping candle wax, and also to collect any needles that fall. Even when dripless candles, electric lights and artificial trees have been used, a skirt is still usually used as a decorative feature: among other things, it hides the tree stand, which may be unsightly but which is an important safety feature of home trees. What began as ordinary cloth has now often become much more ornate, some having embroidery or being put together like a quilt.
A nativity scene, model train, or Christmas village may be placed on the mat or skirt. As Christmas presents arrive, they are generally placed underneath the tree on the tree skirt (depending on tradition, all Christmas gifts, or those too large to be hung on the tree, as in "presents on the tree" of the song "I'll Be Home for Christmas").
Generally, the difference between a mat and skirt is simply that a mat is placed under the tree stand, while a skirt is placed over it, having a ho