e-Wreath- Wreath History

     The wreath has a long history and many religious associations dating back to the ancient cultures of the Persian Empire. Originally, the circlet was called a "diadem" and took the form of fabric headbands which were sometimes adorned with jewels. Beginning in 776 B.C., wreaths made of laurel leaves were used to crown victors of Olympic Games. Later, when the Games began to move to different cities, each host city would award head garlands made of branches of local trees.
     Exactly when the transition from head ornament to wall decoration occurred is unclear. It is likely that celebration attendees simply hung the leafy headbands on their walls as souvenirs. Today, beautifully decorated wreaths are not only an integral part of the December holidays, but they're popular thoughout the year, decorated to fit each season.
     Perhaps the loveliest use of this symbol is the Advent wreath. Although its true origin is not know, some believe it was inspired by the Swedish Crown of Lights, a candle-bearing crown worn by young Swedish girls on St. Lucia's Day. St. Lucia was a young Christian martyr who gave her entire dowry to the poor.

     Recorded history reveals that the tradition of decorating fir trees became popular
in the early 16th century in old Baltic Sea port cities as well as in Germany.
     In the early 1840s, Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, who was German, is
credited with introducing the custom to England at Winsor Castle. However, in reality, he only popularized a custom already practiced by other members of the English royal family for at least half a century.
     Prince Albert's Christmas trees, although about eight feet in height, were placed atop tables. Branches were decorated with dozens of candles as well as elegant receptacles for expensive candies and glace' fruits. Gilt gingerbread and eggs filled with sweetmeats were hung with variously colored ribbons. Atop each tree stood the small figure of an angel with outstretched wings.
     These most familiar symbols of the holidays were popularized in America around the turn of the 20th century by newspaper accounts of the German and English royal families.

The vines and berries of mistletoe were sacred to the ancient Druids who used them in their sacifices to the gods as well as to celebrate the winter solstice. Druid priest, dressed in ceremonial white robes, went into the forest in the dead of night and climbed trees to cut clusters of mistletoe with silver and gold sickles. The mistletoe, which was also believed to have miraculous healing powers, was then placed over doorways to ward off evil and bestow health, happiness, and good luck.
Because embraces of welcome occurred at doorways, the custom evolved into balls of greens and berries hung wherever an enterprising lad might surpise his lass. In eighteenth century England, kissing balls were made of evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments with sprigs of mistletoe tied to the bottoms of the balls.

The ancient Druids believed that holly was sacred, probably because it was evergreen and, therefore, favored by the sun. And since being sacred meant being inhabited by spirits, the Druids brought holly branches indoors in winter to give the spirits shelter from the hardships outside. Holly was also believed to have magical powers to drive demons away. Centuries later, northern Europeans considered holly to be a good-luck charm against the hostile forces of nature. When sprigs of holly were tied to bed posts, it was believed to guard against ghosts and demons, the voices of which could be heard screaming out in the winter winds and storms.
An old English tale declares that, for the sake of marital harmony in a home, "he holly" (that with prickles on its leaves) and "she holly" (that with smooth-edged leaves) must be brought into the house at the same time. If only one gender of holly is brought into the home or if one is brought into the home before the other, the corresponding gender spouse will rule the home.

The Shiny blown-glass ball ornaments, which are so common today, were invented and first produced over 150 years ago in Lauscha, Germany, a quaint village 60 miles north of Nuremberg high in the Thuringian mountains and deep in a forest of 80-foot-tall trees. Over the decades, almost every family in the village became involved in ornament making. By 1930, approximately 2,000 families in the village were engaged in the ornament trade. For their homes, typical families could produce approximately 40 ornaments per hour and would work between 8 and 15 hot and tedious hours a day, six days a week.
Lauscha-produced ornaments first reached America around 1860 and were sold on street corners in German communities. In the late 1800s, they were popularized by F.W. Woolworth in his chain of variety stores. Following World War I, companies in Vienna, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Japan began to copy the Lauscha-produced ornaments. In the late 1930s, Max Eckardt, an importer of German Christmas tree ornaments, and F.W. Woolworth convinced Corning Glass to mass produce the round glass Christmas tree ornaments by machine.

The legend of Santa Claus began in the fourth century with a man called Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. He lived in Asia Minor (now Turkey) and was known for his wisdom, charity, generosity, and compassion. Legend has it that he came from a wealthy family and gave all his money to the poor. One legend relates how Nicholas saved three daughters of a poor man from lives of prostitution by tossing bags of gold through a window of the family's home on three separate occasions, thus providing a dowry to procure for each daughter an honorable marriage. The ideal of the saint as a bearer of gifts in the middle of the night may have its origin in this legend, and around the world, various nationalities have developed their own versions of this gift-bearing philanthropist.
In America, the idea of Saint Nicholas was gradually transformed from the thin, stern-looking bishop to a rotund, jolly fellow. First, Washington Irving described the saint as a plump and jolly old Dutchman in his comic History of New York. Then in 1823, Clement Clarke Moore further redefined the saint in his famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas." In the 1860s, cartoonist Thomas Nast drew pictures of St. Nicholas, whom he called "Santa Claus," for the illustrated Harper's Weekly, and first created a visual image. Finally, in the 1920s, artist Haddon Sundblom created a series of advertisements for Coca-Cola in which he gave Santa the haevy mustache, crinkled eyes, and distinctive curl on the lower forehead. It was with these ads that St. Nicholas' image as a plump and kindly old elf was immortalized.