欧美国家的人对圣诞节树的香气都很了解，由于每年一到这时家家户户都会摆一棵打造氛围。关于圣诞节树，大家有不少美好回忆，但圣诞节树的历史你了不了解？
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1. THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH DID NOT LIKE CHRISTMAS TREES.
早期的基督教徒不喜欢圣诞节树
Evergreen trees used to be seen as pagan symbols that had no place in a religious celebration. As far back as 1647, preacher Johann Conrad Dannhauer of the Strasbourg Cathedral criticized trees as “child’s play” that were getting more attention “than the word of God and the holy rites.” But as the tradition persisted, church leaders decided that if they couldn’t beat the decorated trees, they would adopt them as part of their own Christmas celebrations.
常青树曾被视为异教徒的象征，因而不在宗教庆祝活动中用。早在1647年，斯特拉斯堡大教堂的传道士约翰·康拉德·丹豪尔批评圣诞节树是“儿童的游戏”，得到的关注比“上帝之道和神圣仪式”还要多。但圣诞节树传统一直长盛不衰，最后教会领袖决定，既然他们没办法打败这种装饰过的树木，索性将它纳入圣诞节庆祝活动中。
2. IN SOME HOMES, CHRISTMAS TREES WERE HUNG.
有些人家会把圣诞节树挂起来
In southwest Germany during the 17th and 18th centuries, it was popular, particularly among the lower classes, to hang smaller trees from the ceiling or rafters. this allowed for a flashy display and kept the goodies in the tree out of the reach of children. Some families even hung the tree upside-down, since “pointing the root toward heaven was supposed to imbue the tree with divine powers,” according to Bernd Brunner, author ofInventing the Christmas Tree.
在17、18世纪的德国西南部，不少家庭，特别是平民百姓家，喜欢把小圣诞节树挂在天花板上或房梁上。如此一来既能够展示好看的装饰，也能让孩子们够不到圣诞节树里的糖果点心。有的家庭甚至会把圣诞节树倒着挂，据《创造圣诞节树》的作者贝恩特·布鲁纳说，如此做是由于“树根朝哪个方向天堂会赋予树神圣的力量”。
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3. A PRINCE IS CREDITED WITH POPULARIZING CHRISTMAS TREES IN AMERICA.
圣诞节树在美国时尚起来要归功于一个亲王
Britain’s Prince Albert is credited with helping bring the Christmas tree from his native Germany to the English-speaking world, making it a well-publicized tradition in the royal household of his wife, Queen Victoria.Godey’s Lady’s Bookeditor Sarah Josepha Hale—one of the main advocates for a national Thanksgiving holiday—played an important role in promoting Christmas trees in the US when her magazine published an illustration of the British royal family with their tree in 1850. She edited out Victoria’s crown jewels, Albert’s mustache and sash, and any reference to the familys identity, transforming the picture from a piece of royal marketing to a paragon of middle-class, American, Christmas celebration.
英国维多利亚女王的老公阿尔伯特亲王将圣诞节树从他的祖国德国带到英语国家，并使其成为英国王室家庭里的一项广为人知的传统。《戈迪女性手册》杂志主编莎拉·约瑟法·哈勒为圣诞节树在美国时尚开来发挥了要紧用途，她也是促进感恩节成为全国性节日的主要主张者之一。当时哈勒的杂志上发表了一张描绘1850年英国王室家庭和圣诞节树的插图。哈勒把维多利亚女王的王冠、阿尔伯特的胡子和肩带，与任何会暴露王室身份的细节都去掉了，把王室宣传图改导致了美国中产阶级庆祝圣诞的完美画面。
4. THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE MARKET LAUNCHED IN 1851.
1851年出现了第一个圣诞节树集市
One thing slowing the adoption of Christmas trees was the burden most families faced of havin to find and chop down their own trees. That began to change in 1851, when a logger from New York’s Catskill Mountains loaded dozens of fir and spruce trees from his land and hauled them down to New York City’s Washington Market. The harvested trees, ready to set in a living room and decorate, sold out fast and kicked off the practice of Christmas tree farms, which proliferated throughout the country.
过去圣诞节树在美国的同意度不太高，由于多数家庭不能不自己去探寻和砍伐圣诞节树。1851年这样的情况开始改变了，当时纽约州卡茨基尔山上的一个樵夫从我们的土地上砍了数十棵冷杉和云杉树拉到纽约市华盛顿市场上去卖，供大家放在客厅里自行装饰。这类树非常快就卖光了，自此圣诞节树林场开始兴起，后来遍布美国各地。
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5. CHRISTMAS TREES CAN BE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
圣诞节树可能隐藏危险
From their earliest days, Christmas trees have been fire hazards. Before electric lights were introduced, many families set open candles on their trees to illuminate them, which meant that each Christmas morning, the newspapers included stories of homes going up in flames when the branches ignited. Even when families abandoned the obvious hazard of open flames on the trees, the conifers could still cause major trouble once they dried out. In Philadelphia in 1878, Christmas trees caused two fires on the same street, first when a gas jet ignited a tree in a brownstone, then later that day when a dressmaker’s in-store tree went up. Today, trees can still pose a hazard if they are allowed to dry out.
打从刚开始，圣诞节树就一直是失火隐患。在引进电灯以前，很多家庭都是把蜡烛放在圣诞节树上点亮，这意味着每一个圣诞早晨，报纸上都会有因圣诞节树枝被点燃而致使家里失火的新闻。即便大家不在圣诞节树上放点燃的蜡烛，针叶树在干枯后仍然会引发大麻烦。在1878年的费城，圣诞节树曾在同一条街上引发了两场失火，先是一盏煤气灯点燃了一幢褐色砂石房子内的一棵圣诞节树，晚些时候一家裁缝店内的圣诞节树又失火了。到了现在，假如放纵圣诞节树不管让其干掉，依旧可能引发失火。
6. GIFTS USED TO GO IN THE TREE, NOT UNDER IT.
过去大家把礼物挂在圣诞节树上，而不是放在圣诞节树下
In its first decades in the US, Christmas trees held gifts in their branches more often than under them. Typical 19th-century reports describe a “monster Christmas tree despoiled of its pendent treasures of candy, dolls, and toys of all descriptions” and a “mammoth Christmas-tree whose branches hung heavy with Christmas toys and presents for the little ones”. Often these gifts included fruit, cakes, and candy that children would just pluck directly from the tree and enjoy.
在圣诞节树刚被引进美国的那几十年，大家总是是在圣诞节树枝上挂礼物而不是把礼物放在树下。19世纪的典型报道中是如此描述的：“巨大圣诞节树上挂的各色糖果、娃娃、玩具等宝贝被一抢而空”或者“超大圣诞节树的枝头沉甸甸地挂着给小朋友筹备的圣诞节玩具和礼物”。这几种礼物一般包含水果、蛋糕和糖果，孩子们可以直接从圣诞节树上摘下来享用。
英文来源：Mental Floss
翻译编辑：丹妮