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In the 7th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the Word of God. Legend has it that he used the triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the Fir tree as God's Tree. By the 12th century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmastime in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity.

By the mid 1800's the German tree had become a status symbol among the wealthy and a "must have" for the not. It's true meaning already lost, the German tree was beginning to suffer from mass destruction. It had become the fashion to lop off the tip off a large tree to use as a Christmas Tree, which prevented the tree from growing further. Statutes were made to prevent people having more than one tree.

Today we grow Christmas trees for harvest, killing the entire tree to replant at a 3 to 1 ratio, believing that what is taken is being replenished. One estimate indicates that a large tree whose trunk is 39 inches in diameter at breast height releases 0.67 pounds of oxygen each day. A smaller tree of 9-12 inches diameter at breast height releases only 0.13 lbs each day.

Not only are trees important for oxygen manufacture, but also they improve our environment. Trees absorb odors and pollutant gases (nitrogen oxides, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and ozone) and filter particulates out of the air by trapping them in their leaves and bark. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air. Trees also help reduce erosion - on hillsides or stream slopes, trees slow water runoff and hold soil in place.

Over a 50-year lifetime, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion. ~ The price tag for our national Christmas tree without, shipping/handling, trimming, electricity, maintenance etc. $162,000. Times that by all the state capitals, county court houses, plazas etc.

Currently our national forests are only handling approximately %25 of the green house gasses we produce here in America.

If every American family let their Christmas tree live, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs annually. This is almost 5% of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year.

I am not against long held traditions, if the true meaning of that tradition has survived. Sadly, the Christmas tree and everything surrounding Christmas has lost original meaning and has become all about status ~

When I was young, I considered our Christmas tree as a reminder of the life lost for us not only by Christ but everything I ate, drank, wore, and lived in. Like Christ, these things should not die in vain and most definitely not for vanity. I wonder if god would approve of us killing a tree under the guise of honoring his son?

Learn more about this author, Beth Williams.
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