how did the tradition of decorating a tree for christmas get started?

German mercenary soldiers brought the tradition with them in the 18th century to America. While camped outdoors in a forest during the holiday season, the longed for the traditions of home. They began decorating the trees that were around them.

See link below to find out the origin of Christmas trees throughout the world.

It is basically a German tradition which had its roots earlier on. When Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert, he was very popular with the English people, being as he delayed the wedding so he could learn to speak English correctly. Since he was German (Saxe-Coberg) he set a tree up at the palace as was his native custom, and it became a custom with the subjects to copy it in their homes, too. When America started out with many different immigrants, the German immigrants also brought the custom with them, and it grew to include most Americans who celebrate Christmas.

It evolved of time from the from two Christian traditions - the paradise tree hung with apples as a reminder of the tree of life in the garden of eden and the triangular shelf that holding figurines decaorated by a star. In the 16th century these were merged into the present tradition.

Its history comes from several cultures. The primary influences are in Roman paganism. On the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year, the Romans would decorate their villages with evergreen tree branches, candles, fruits and other decorations, to chase away the darkness and gloom. Druids also had a winter celebration on/around the solstice where evergreen tree branches and even small trees would be brought into the home and decorated with fruits, leaves, winter flowers, etc, as evergreens represented eternal life. As Christianity spread, the religious leaders found it too hard to completely suppress Druidic and Pagan rituals; they blended those influences with Christianity and sort of blended the high Christian holiday with the high holidays of those other faiths, to make it easier to convert people to Christianity. As Christianity took hold in Europe, people got used to celebrating *something* in late December, and using fruits, candles, gemstones, and the like to decorate an evergreen tree. The fruits were soon replaced with glass balls, as fruits couldn't be used for decoration for very long without spoiling.

It has been around before 'we' can remember.

The evergreen is a symbol in that time of year to celebrate the return of life in nature. Decorating it was a part of that.

it start with star on the top of the tree

christmas come from all froms of pagan feast rolled in to one

the christ mast tree is independent of santa clause which comes from i think walsh tradition

the evergreen is used to celebrate new life and the renewal of the pagan year thats why our new years seemed to be so closely linked to christmas and other pagan feast

Here you go-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree

Some idiot brought a tree that had a big hole in it so they but thing over it. Then they noticed that it was more noticeable so they decorated the whole tree lol.

Martin Luther, a founder of the Protestant faith, was walking through the forest one Christmas Eve. As he walked he was awed by the beauty of millions of stars glimmering through the branches of the evergreen trees. So taken was he by this beautiful sight that he cut a small tree and took it home to his family. To recreate that same starlight beauty he saw in the wood, he placed candles on all its branches.