ALL THAT GLITTERS, BUT NEVER GROWS

Everyone gather around the kitschy Christmas tree

BY LINDA KAST

Christmas trees—the natural version—have been around for centuries and were especially popular in Germany. They became tradition in England and elsewhere after 1848, when the Illustrated London News ran a colorful engraving of Queen Victoria with her husband, German-born Prince Albert, and their children next to a decorated pine tree surrounded by presents. Artificial holiday trees go back to about the same period in Germany, where makers crafted trees using wooden dowels as the trunks, wires for branches and dyed goose feathers as leaves. In the 1930s, U.K.-based Addis Co. used its toilet brush-making machinery to form artificial trees. These brush-bristle trees were popular during World War II, when real trees were hard to come by. By the war’s end and the ensuring space race, our perception of traditional holiday style was leaning…

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Reminisce (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2022/January 2023

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