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Christianity Today, December (Web-only), 2001 |

Christian History Corner: O Christmas Tree

A truly traditional tree would be unrecognizable—and flammable.

Elesha Coffman | posted 12/01/2001 12:00AM

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Related Elsewhere:

More Christian history, including a list of events that occurred this week in the church's past, is available at ChristianHistory.net.

Riga's account of the first decorated Christmas tree is available online.

It's almost impossible for any one account of a folk custom like tree-decorating to be absolutely authoritative. These sites offer some different ideas:

Information for this article was adapted from the Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Tanya Gulevich (Omnigraphics, 2000).

Christian History has examined the history and meaning of Advent before. Other articles are available in Christian History's holidays area.

The BBC has an online advent calendar where each day more history about Christmas is revealed

Christian History Corner appears every Friday at ChristianityToday.com. Previous editions include:

Christmas Countdown | When does the holiday season really start? (Dec. 7, 2001)

Serving God with Mammon | John Wesley's wisdom for hard economic times: earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can. (Nov. 30, 2001)

Eat, Drink, and Relax | Think the Pilgrims would frown on today's football-tossing, turkey-gobbling Thanksgiving festivities? Maybe not. (Nov. 21, 2001)

Where Are the Women? | The Christian tradition includes few female history-writers but plenty of female history-makers. (Nov. 20, 2001)

God Bless, More or Less | Irving Berlin's anthem captures America. (Nov. 2, 2001)

Festival of Fears | What's scarier than Halloween? The anxieties that drive it. (Oct. 26, 2001)

Forget 'Normal' | C.S. Lewis's warning against panic during World War II resonates in our new crisis. (Oct. 19, 2001)

Apocalypse Not | As speculations mount regarding the significance of recent events in God's plan for the end of the world, voices from the past urge restraint. (Oct. 12, 2001)

'He Does Not War' | In the Anabaptist tradition, a Christian must never fight back. (Sept. 28, 2001)

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December (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45

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