Some of you might get questions, especially from children, about the history of the Christmas tree. Today’s column will provide you with some history and trivia about the seasonal symbol we have come to cherish.

The decorated Christmas tree can be traced to the ancient Romans who decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus the god of agriculture. An evergreen, the Paradise tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve, held on Dec. 24 during the Middle Ages. Christmas trees were sold in Alsace, at that time a part of Germany, in 1531. Today it is part of France. The trees were sold at local markets and set up in homes undecorated. In the Ammerschweier in Alsace, there was an ordinance that stated no person “shall have for Christmas more than one bush of more than eight shoe lengths.”

John C. Coccaro is county Extension director. Write to him at 1100-C Grove St., Vicksburg, MS 39180, call 601-636-5442, or e-mail.

Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his family and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Some historians say the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Luther’s death in 1546.

The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg, France (Germany in 1605). The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies.

In Austria & Germany during the 17th and 18th centuries, the tops of evergreens were cut and placed upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper.

The first record of Christmas trees in America dates back to the German Moravian Church’s settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.

The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States by Hessian troops during the War of Independence. An early account tells of a tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Ill., the site of Chicago in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania.

In 1834, Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle. Some historians say, in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria’s grandmother, recalled that a tree was in the Queen’s lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800.

Charles Minnegrode introduced the custom of decorating trees in Williamsburg, Va., in 1842. By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States. In 1856, Franklin Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to the White House for a group of Sunday school children. The first national Christmas tree was lighted in 1923 on the White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge.