CHRISTMAS TREES WERE ORIGINALLY ‘ANTI-SLAVERY TREES’

CHRISTMAS TREES WERE ORIGINALLY ‘ANTI-SLAVERY TREES’

DALLAS (Wireless Flash) – It’s time to brush up on your knowledge of Christmas trees. A holiday historian says, contrary to popular belief, people first put up decorated fir trees to protest slavery, not to celebrate Christmas. Kevin Orlin Johnson, author of the book Why Is This A Holiday (Pangaeus Press), says the tree tradition started with the “Freedom Trees” displayed at a Boston anti-slavery fair on December 25, 1834. The trees were decorated with political slogans printed on colored strips of paper and became a staple at the yearly Christmas-time anti-slavery fair. Orlin Johnson says the Freedom Trees soon became Christmas trees thanks to a Unitarian minister in Massachusetts who decided to adopt the abolitionist’s trees as his own holiday tradition. Other Protestant ministers followed suit, and the Christmas tree custom was born.

Tue 12-18-01