The Christmas Tree In pre-Christian Europe, people believed that trees （fruit trees and ev

The Christmas Tree

In pre-Christian Europe, people believed that trees (fruit trees and evergreens in particular) were embodiment of powerful beings. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the designated miracle play for December 25 was the story of Adam and Eve and in this play the chief prop was an apple-hung evergreen called the paradise tree. In the sixteenth century, German families began bringing evergreens into their homes during the Christmas season. By the seventeenth century, they were known as Christbaiime (Christ trees) and were being decorated with fruits, candies, cookies, candles and wafers resembling the eucharistic host.

The first Christmas trees in America were set up by German immigrants in the 1820s and the almost universal adoption of the custom dates from the 1910s. Now at Christmas time decorated trees stand in about two-thirds of American homes. The modem American tree is usually covered with colored balls and strings of colored lights. The star on top represents the Star in the East which guided the three Wise Men to Bethlehem.

Christmas is traditionally celebrated on______.

A．December 24

B．December 25

C．December 30

D．December 31