Tree chic: Christmas tradition keeps branching out

Kevin McDonald and Jane Foden of Scarborough cut their own tree, a tradition they are sticking to even if it is a lot of work.

The couple decorate with a hodgepodge of accumulated ornaments – some made by their now-grown children and some gifted over the years. They’ve been married for 37 years, so they need a big tree for all the ornaments, they said.

Melanee Waters of Saco goes artificial so she can leave the tree up for a while without needles falling onto the floor. And rather than just one tree, her family usually puts up two, she said.

Melanee Waters and her son Myles, 4, in front of their Christmas tree on Thursday at her home in Saco. Waters, who moved to Maine from New Hampshire in August, said that she has always loved holiday decorations and her movers even joked about all of her boxes of decor. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

“We love Christmas,” she said. “We like them up for a long time. We do white lights and red bows, with a traditional mixture of ornaments, some homemade.”

Decorating a Christmas tree is an indispensable tradition for many Maine families. But whether it’s trimming the tree right after Thanksgiving or on Christmas eve, buying an artificial tree or getting down in the dirt to cut a real one, adorning it with shiny new ornaments or decades-old handcrafted keepsakes, colorful lights or white, the long-held custom has infinite variations.

Like the holiday itself, the Christmas tree trimming tradition is centuries old and has changed significantly over its hundreds of years of existence, according to Christmas historians.

The ritual of decorating churches with fir tree branches, other greenery such as holly and ivy and sometimes whole trees dates to Germany in the early 1400s. The practice of decorating homes with trees goes back to the 1600s. In the early days of the custom, trees were decorated with apples, nuts, straw and wool thread and then later with candles. Some believe the tradition has its roots in the use of evergreen trees with apples tied to their branches to represent the tree of knowledge in plays about Adam and Eve in the 1400s.

The custom of decorating trees started popping up in the United States in the late 1700s and early 1800s, around the same time that the tradition of giving gifts on the holiday became widely practiced.

But what many say cemented the practice of celebrating Christmas with a trimmed Christmas tree is a mid-1800s magazine illustration of England’s Queen Victoria and Prince Albert with their children surrounding a decorated tree with presents underneath.

Phil Roberts, owner of Broadway Gardens moves a Christmas tree in the greenhouse on Thursday while organizing the trees. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

In recent years, there has been talk of a recurring shortage of the holiday season staple because of challenging environmental conditions and a decreasing number of wholesalers in the state. Some local nonprofits that sell trees as annual fundraisers couldn’t get them this year.

But Phil Roberts, whose family has owned and run Broadway Gardens in South Portland for about 60 years, said he hasn’t had any problems getting enough trees. Broadway Gardens and some other tree sellers still have plenty of inventory waiting for last-minute decorators.

Prices for trees have clearly risen along with prices for everything else, and even the nonprofit organizations charge at least $50 and up, depending on the size. Roberts stocked his two stores with around 8,000 trees from Maine and Quebec ranging from $10 tabletop trees to $300 20-footers.

Roberts purchases both Fraser firs and balsam firs, the two traditionally popular Christmas trees. Balsams, which give off an evergreen scent, are a bit cheaper and more popular than Frasers, but Roberts usually goes for a Fraser, which last longer even when cut and don’t drop their needles.

Like the shifting of the Christmas tree tradition over history, many people today continue to alter the practice. The largest change in recent years has been a move by some to using artificial trees, which can be used year after year rather than having to buy new one each season.

Anthony Patyi, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, left and his father-in-law Jonathan Block of Portland look over Christmas trees at Broadway Gardens on Thursday in South Portland. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographe

Portland resident Andrew Lessard said his family switched over from real to artificial because a real tree can dry out and his family likes to have it up for a long time, he said. His family puts the tree up the day after Thanksgiving.

KEEPING IT REAL

Mary and Tim Follo of Falmouth always go with the real thing. They have downsized their Christmas tree since their children are grown, but they still put one up.

“We love Christmas trees and evergreens,” Mary Follo said. “We decorate them with old ornaments, things from the kids.”

“It’s a very eclectic, a curated collection,” Tim Follos said.

Tree traditions are typically handed down through generations, but with variations made along the way.

Anthony Patyi, who was hunting for the perfect tree at Broadway Garden’s South Portland location Thursday, said his family had always used an artificial tree. But he recently married into a real-tree family. Patyi, who was with his father-in-law, said he was looking for a fat tree to bring home for the holiday.

Jeremy Schneider, an employee at Broadway Gardens in South Portland loads a Christmas tree on Thursday onto a customers vehicle. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Deborah and Phil Pendleton thought for a minute that they might get a tabletop tree this year. But when they called their grown son to tell him their plan and he put a stop to it.

“He said, ‘No, we’re having a real Christmas tree’,” Deborah Pendleton said.

The Pendletons’ son called around the Portland area to find out where trees were still available and directed them to Broadway Gardens. The Pendletons decorate their tree with “an endless array” of ornaments collected over the years, said Deborah, adding a few new ornaments to the lot every year and putting them up while sipping on homemade eggnog with bourbon and rum.

Staff Writer Bonnie Washuk contributed to this story.