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The answer to this important Christmas tradition is Martin Luther. Luther was of course the great Protestant reformer of the 16th century. The tradition of having an evergreen in the home was established by the time of Luther. He enjoyed walking in the woods near his home in Wittenberg, where he taught at the University of Wittenberg. He and his wife, Katie, had six children and Luther was always looking for ways to teach his children the truths of the faith. He told them stories and, of course, wrote his famous Catechism for teaching his children. One December night he was walking in the woods and he marveled at the sight of the stars twinkling through the evergreen trees. He reflected on this extraordinary scene for some time. He and Katie had taken over an old convent in Wittenberg, where they raised their family. He decided to try and duplicate what he had seen in the snowy woods. So, he attached candleholders to the family’s evergreen Christmas tree limbs. He taught his children that the candles burning on the Christmas tree represented the light that Jesus had brought into the world. It was effective as a teaching device and it added beauty to their home. Hence, the custom of placing candles on Christmas trees began—and it swept across Germany quickly.
Christmas historian, Ace Collins, summarizes the details of how the tradition of putting lights on Christmas trees spread:
- Craftsmen began to produce ornate candleholders that were made just for using on tree limbs. Multi-colored candles also developed as the holders became more ornate.
- By the mid-1800s, the tradition of Christmas trees trimmed with ornaments and lit by scores of candles came to represent two things. (1) It represented the perfection and order of Christmas. Illustrations in magazines, newspapers, books and on Christmas cards consistently showed the brightly decorated and lit Christmas tree as the norm for Christmas. (2) It also represented a terrible hazard, for there were countless fires caused by the candles burning the trees and often the homes of families.
- In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and thereby changed Christmas tree decorations. One of Edison’s employees, Edward Johnson, determined to apply the light bulb invention to the Christmas tree. In 1882 Johnson produced a string of 80 small and brightly colored electric light bulbs and placed them on his home Christmas tree in front of a large picture window. Far brighter than candles, the effect was electrifying and almost magical! Because at that time so few even had electricity, the tree in Johnson’s home began to attract visitors and tourists who walked by Johnson’s home just to see the lighted tree.
- In 1895, President Grover Cleveland was the first president to have a lighted Christmas tree in the White House. The huge evergreen had more than 100 electric lights of red, blue and green hues. Those who were affluent throughout the nation sought to duplicate what the president had done for the White House. Some spent as much as $3,000 per tree to do so.
- By 1910, a string of 8 lights could be purchased for $12, but was still too expensive for most Americans. In 1912, Ever Ready, a company that would soon be famous for making batteries, introduced a cheaper line of Christmas lights but still the cost was prohibitive for most families. But by 1924, General Electric and Westinghouse introduced a new set of Christmas lights that would dominate the market for the next 50 years. These multi-colored long-lasting bulbs burned cooler and offered better lighting than any type of lights yet produced; and they were inexpensive.
- President Calvin Coolidge in 1923 began the tradition of lighting the national Christmas tree in a ceremony on the White House lawn. (Only the blackouts during World War II interrupted this annual ceremony.) Another similar tradition began in 1933 when Rockefeller Center in New York City began the lighting of their massive Christmas tree.
All of this draws us back to the original intent of Luther in the 16th century. The lights on the Christmas tree represent that Jesus is the light of the world and the billions of Christmas lights all over the world attest to that truth—whether people acknowledge that truth or not.
In thinking of Jesus as “the light of the world,” we are drawn to John 8:12ff. The phrase that Jesus uttered in this passage fulfills the Old Testament declarations of God being the light of salvation and that light is an attribute of God, as opposed to darkness as an attribute of Satan (see Exodus 25:37; Isaiah 9:2 and 42:6). Indeed, Isaiah tells us that the servant of the LORD was appointed as a light to the Gentiles, that he might bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth (49:6). Isaiah also sees the LORD as the light for his people (60:19-22). Jesus, therefore, manifested the dawning of a new era—the very kingdom of God. Jesus as the light of the world was a stunning and powerful metaphor in the 1st century; it is no less so in the 21st century. As we celebrate Christmas in 2009, let us remember powerfully and incontrovertibly that Jesus is the light of this desperately needy world; a truth the lights on our Christmas trees symbolize. I can think of no more significant message in this fallen and dark world than the truth that Jesus is the light of world. Merry Christmas and may 2 Corinthians 9:15 be your prayer of thanks to the Father this season.
See Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas, pp. 118-24. |
