“The most beloved symbol of the American family Christmas–the decorated Christmas tree–came into its own during the Civil War. Christmas trees had become popular in the decade before the war, and in the early 1860s, many families were beginning to decorate them. Illustrators working for the national weeklies helped popularize the practice by putting decorated table-top Christmas trees in their drawings” (http://dburgin.tripod.com/cw_xmas/cwarchristmas.html).
Here’s a poem inspired by the information presented above.
`Round that Tree
Me and a few boys got ta thinkin’ –
we need ourselves a tree all dressed up
like Christmas time. Found ourselves
a stout pine on the skirts of camp,
but spent more than a minute scratchin’
our heads what ta hang on it.
Jasper hung his hat on a limb.
Smiling, we all done the same.
Started collecting hats from this fella and that –
they all gave`em too, once they
knew what we was doin’. We all stood
`round that tree for a bit,
even when the wind strated ta bite.
All said and done, for a time
none of us thought
about the blood and chunk
we usually gotta juggle.
Damn nice tree it is.
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Pingback: Christmas and the Civil War: Chapter Three | Lint In My Pocket – Artillery On The Ridge
We recently visited Belle Meade plantation in Nashville. It was decorated for Christmas as it would have been during the Civil War. The most interesting fact was that giving presents, even to children, really wasn’t a part of the holiday then. The Christmas tree was a rather new novelty imported from Germany, and the entire season revolved around celebrating the birth of Christ.
Good way to celebrate Christmas!! Thanks, Mike.