Cancún

Today, Cancun once more lives and remains an attractive option to local and foreign tourists from all over the world. This is comparable to the Old English poem The Dream of the Rood. It was estimated that Cancun will be completely ready to face the demanding vacationist wave on December 2005. Some churches use the same stripped Christmas tree as a Christian cross at Easter. People from all social strata helped carry water bottles to donate money in special bank accounts that principal banks created. Such individuals and Christian denominations are unlikely to celebrate Christmas at all, for the same reason, such as the United Church of God. The people's response was immediate and impresionant. Some Christians, again a minority, feel that since "Christmas Trees" are not biblically ordained, they should not be used.

to aid people who suffered. The only consistancies with Christmas tree customs seem to be that both are made of wood and both are decorated. There was an exhaustive campaign by the media that featured public figures, including the President Vicente Fox, actors, musicians, etc. They would also carry it from place to place as an object to be feared and worshipped. American actor Mel Gibson donated an important amount of money to help the people in distress. A full study of the passage shows that the people would cut down a tree and work it with a chisel to engrave an image in it. reconstruction has been possible. In other English translations of the Bible the verses more explicitly refer to the practice of making idols to be worshipped:.

However, thanks to the aid and support of local and state governments, the federal government, the Red Cross, and civil associations. Interpreting those verses as a ban on Christmas trees may be more common among individuals and Christian denominations that are part of the King-James-Only Movement. Many houses were devastated, and many jobs were lost. Some Christians, albeit a minority, feel that the practice of having "Christmas Trees" is prohibited by the Book of Jeremiah 10:1-5 which says,. It is estimated that after Wilma left Cancun, the local tourist industry lost over US $15 Million daily. A recent campaign spearheaded by conservative Fox News Channel contributors Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity has resulted in a backlash from some Christian groups and individuals who feel the designation "holiday tree" is part of an alleged war on Christmas. All the Airport and Harbor Operations were cancelled between October 21 to the 25 due to the worst weather conditions. The term holiday tree has, since at least 1990 (and perhaps before), been used by some in the United States, Canada and the UK to reflect the winter holiday season instead of any specific religious holiday.

Thousands of local and foreign tourists were hosted in improvised refuges. The term comes from the appearance of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree in the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas. Once the storm left the peninsula, some of the beautiful beaches of Cancun had been washed away. Some tree buyers intentionally adopt such trees, feeling sympathetic to their plights. It has been estimated that 95% of the tourism infrastructure was seriously damaged. The term Charlie Brown Christmas tree can be used to described any sad-looking, malformed little tree. The devastation was almost total with many of the principal roadways from the Hotel Zone completely flooded and damaged. President Jimmy Carter only lit the crowning star atop the Tree in 1979 in honor of the Americans being held hostage in Iran; in 1980, the tree was only fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been in captivity.

At least three deaths have been reported, numerous people have disappeared, and the insured damage is estimated at between US$5 and US$8 billion. Today, the lighting of the National Tree is part of what has become a major holiday event at the White House. Wilma made several landfalls, with the most destructive effects felt in the Yucatán Peninsula, particularly in Cancun. The United States' National Christmas Tree is lit each year south of the White House in Washington, D.C. The hurricane began accelerating in the early morning hours of October 23, exiting the northeastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula and entering the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm. In some cases the trees represent special commemorative gifts, such as in Trafalgar Square in London where the City of Oslo presents a tree to the people of London as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during the Second World War and in Newcastle upon Tyne, where the 15 m tall main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of Bergen, Norway in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from Nazi occupation. Some portions of the Yucatán Peninsula experienced hurricane force winds for well over 24 hours. In some cities festivals are organised around the decoration and display of multiple trees as charity events.

The eye slowly drifted northward, with the center passing just to the west of Cancún, Quintana Roo. Many cities, towns, and department stores put up public Christmas trees outdoors for everyone to enjoy, such as the Rich's Great Tree in Atlanta, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City and the large Christmas tree at Victoria Square in Adelaide. Portions of the island of Cozumel experienced the calm eye of Wilma for several hours with some blue skies and sunshine visible at times. The "First Christmas Tree in America" is also claimed by Easton, Pennsylvania, where German settlers purportedly erected a Christmas tree in 1816. The hurricane's eye first passed over the island of Cozumel, and then made an official landfall near Playa del Carmen in the state of Quintana Roo at around midnight on October 22 EDT with winds near 140 mph. Windsor Locks, Connecticut claims that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House, thus making it the home of the first Christmas tree in New England. On October 21, Hurricane Wilma made landfall on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, with winds in excess of 150 mph. There are several cities in the United States which lay claim to that country's first Christmas tree.

At its peak, it was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin and the tenth most intense globally, with the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere of 882 millibars (26.05 inHg) at sea level, exceeding the record previously held by Hurricane Gilbert that also impacted the Peninsula of Yucatán some years ago. Such patriotic prints of the British royal family at Christmas celebrations helped popularise the Christmas tree in Britain and among the anglophile American upper class. It was also the third Category 5 hurricane of the season, beating the records set by the 1960 and 1961 seasons. Images of the royal family with their Christmas tree at Osborne House were illustrated in English magazines, initially as a woodcut in the Illustrated London News of December 1848, and copied in the United States at Christmas 1850 (illustration, left). Wilma was the twenty-first named storm, twelfth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The generous Prince Albert also presented large numbers of trees to schools and army barracks at Christmas. Cancún is served by Cancún International Airport. In 1847, Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be".

Mayan dialects are also spoken between some workers and people born in the Yucatán peninsula. After her marriage to her German cousin, Prince Albert, the custom became even more widespread. The main language in Cancún is Spanish, although English is widely spoken throughout the tourist areas. All the presents being placed round the trees...". Here and there in the hotel zone are some ancient ruins. Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with the custom, in her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old Princess wrote: "After dinner...we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room...There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. Cancún's hotel zone also has an interactive aquarium where visitors can see the marine diversity of the area, swim with dolphins and feed sharks. In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced by King George III's German Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, but did not spread much beyond the royal family.

The temperatures are typically between 26°C and 36°C (78.8°F and 96.8°F). In France, the first Christmas tree was introduced in 1840 by the duchess of Orleans. The temperature of the city is warm, moderated by the marine breeze which circulates through its avenues. Princess Henrietta von Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816, and the custom spread across Austria in the following years. International brands in Downtown area are Radisson Hacienda Cancún, Best Western Plaza Caribe, Oasis America. In the early 19th century, the custom became popular among the nobility and spread to royal courts as far as Russia. There are also many clubs for all types of people, including gay clubs like Karamba or Glow, but the hotels are more accessible to all types of travelers, including some with lower rates. It was regarded as a Protestant custom by the Catholic majority along the lower Rhine, and was spread there only by Prussian officials who were moved there in the wake of the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Downtown Cancún gives us a different aspect. The Christmas tree remained confined to the upper Rhineland for a relatively long time. The drinking age in Mexico is 18; while in the United States, it is 21. Wax candles are attested from the late 18th century. For just about all of these students, drinking alcohol is usually the reason why they come to Cancún. By the early 18th century, the custom had become common in towns of the upper Rhineland, but it had not yet spread to rural areas. Around March and April, Cancún experiences a flood of college students (usually from the United States) who travel to Cancún to party. One Strasbourg priest, Johann Konrad Dannerhauer, complains about the custom as distracting from the word of God.

Downtown is home to less expensive places to shop like Walmart, Comercial Mexicana and Soriana, not to mention several flea markets like the one in the hotel zone. During the 17th century, the custom entered family homes. The hotel zone tends to be rather expensive as it is aimed at visitors and relies on the all inclusive hotels to keep them all in this area allowing prices to soar. The city of Riga, Latvia claims to be home of the first holiday tree, an octagonal plaque in the town square reads "The First New Years Tree in Riga in 1510", in eight different languages. The hotel zone is one of the most exclusive internationally, with upmarket restaurants, bars, and the like which have catered for quite a number of the rich and famous. Another early reference is from Basel, where the taylor apprentices carried around town a tree decorated with apples and cheese in 1597. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. It can be traced to 16th century Germany; Ingeborg Weber-Keller (Marburg professor of European ethnology) identified as the earliest reference a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small fir was decorated with apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers, and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas day.

In Cancún there are about 140 hotels with 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. The modern custom, however, although likely related, cannot be proven to be directly descended from pagan tradition. He discusses this and other issues at length on his website, http://www.cafecancun.com. According to one legend, Saint Boniface attempted to introduce the idea of trinity to the pagan tribes using the cone-shaped evergreen trees because of their triangular appearance. "You can see the bottom of the Caribbean off Cancún in satellite photographs," Siegel says. According to Adam of Bremen, in Scandinavia the pagan kings sacrificed nine males of each species at the sacred groves every ninth year. The underground water table is beginning to show symptoms of contamination, but by the standards of most populated areas in the United States the water is still relatively clean. Among early Germanic tribes the Yule tradition was celebrated by sacrificing male animals and slaves by suspending them on the branches of trees.

Although approximately 75% of the city has public sewer lines, many homes rely on septic tanks. Patron trees (for example, the Irminsul, Thor's Oak and the figurative Yggdrasil) held special significance for the ancient Germanic tribes, appearing throughout historic accounts as sacred symbols and objects. Sewage treatment is another danger point, he says. A branch of flowering Glastonbury thorn is still sent annually for the Queen's Christmas table in the United Kingdom. There has obviously been environmental damage and the situation could deteriorate rapidly, he reports, but at present (February 2005) Cancún's main problem is a breakdown of garbage collection and disposal as a result of political conflicts that will hopefully be solved by a new administration elected February 6, 2005. Medieval legends, nevertheless, tended to concentrate more on the miraculous "flowering" of trees at Christmas time. Although some environmentalists claim that Cancún is an environmental disaster, Siegel says that is not true. In Roman mosaics from what is today Tunisia, showing the mythic triumphant return from India of the Greek god of wine and male fertility, Dionysus (dubbed by some modern scholars as a life-death-rebirth deity), the god carries a tapering coniferous tree.

The city Cancun and its flourishing tourism industry were heavily damaged by Hurricane Wilma, which hit the area on October 22, 2005. The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of the ancient pagan idea that the evergreen tree represents a celebration of the renewal of life. A growing number are from the rest of America and Europe. After the holidays, dead trees can be put to other uses:. Most 'cancunenses' here are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. These tips will ensure the tree will stay fresh for several weeks. The city has grown rapidly over the past thirty years to become a city of approximately 750,000 residents, covering the former island and the nearby mainland. This tradition seems to be limited mostly to the United States.

Even outlets of restaurant chains such as McDonald's and Domino's Pizza are Mexican-owned. Flocking can be done with a professional sprayer at a tree lot (or the manufacturer if it is artificial), or at home from a spray can, and either can be rather messy. They do not usually own the hotels themselves. Typically it would be sprayed all over the tree from the sides, which produced a look different from real snow, which settles in clumps atop branches. Some observers believe that the resort is foreign-owned because they are confused by the hotel operating companies, which are international companies that supply administration and marketing services. In the 1980s some trees were sprayed with fluffy white flocking to simulate snow. The figure is close to 100% for the mainland. A plain mat of fabric or plastic may also be placed under the stand and skirt to protect the floor from scratches or water.

Despite initial skepticism that forced the Mexican government to finance the first eight hotels, Cancún soon attracted investors from all over the world, but approximately 70% of the Hotel Zone properties are owned by Mexicans, many of them local residents, Siegel says. Generally, the difference between a mat and skirt is simply that a mat is placed under the tree stand, while a skirt is placed over it, having a hole in the middle for the trunk, with a slot cut to the outside edge so that it can be placed around the tree (beneath the branches) easily. Siegel who was the translator of Fernando Martí's "Cancun, Fantasy of Bankers," municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city, he says. As Christmas presents arrive, they are generally placed underneath the tree on the tree skirt (depending on tradition, all Christmas gifts, or those too large to be hung on the tree, as in "presents on the tree" of the song "White Christmas"). Unfortunately, the original very sensible master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. A nativity scene, model train, or Christmas village may be placed on the mat or skirt. Development of Cancun started in 1970 and grew rapidly in the 1980s. What began as ordinary cloth has now often become much more ornate, some having embroidery or being put together like a quilt.

The belief that Cancun means "nido de viboras" (nest of snakes) is modern folklore, according to according to long-time resident Jules Siegel, author of the Cancun User's Guide. Even when dripless candles, electric lights and artificial trees have been used, a skirt is still usually used as a decorative feature: among other things, it hides the tree stand, which may be unsightly but which is an important safety feature of home trees. It is probable that some Yucatecan or Mexican Mayanist wrote the name as Cancu'en, which was turned into Cancún by someone at the predecessor of Fonatur, the Mexican government tourism development fund that created Cancun. Since candles were used to light trees until electric bulbs came about, a mat (UK) or "skirt" (US) was often placed on the floor below the tree to protect it by catching the dripping candle wax, and also to collect any needles that fall. The romanization of Mayan words varies, but it is common to use an apostrophe to indicate a kind of glottal stop. Many people also decorate outdoor trees with food that birds and other wildlife will enjoy, such as garlands made from unsalted popcorn or cranberries, orange halves, and seed-covered suet cakes. Cancuen refers to a snake totem, usually identified with Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl (the Plumed Serpent). Conversely, trees decorated by professional designers for department stores and other institutions will usually have a "theme"; a set of predominant colours, multiple instances of each type of ornament, and larger decorations that may be more complicated to set up correctly.

There's also a site in Guatemala called Cancuen. Individuals' decorations vary wildly, typically being an eclectic mix of family traditions and personal tastes; even a small unattractive ornament, if passed down from a parent or grandparent, may come to carry considerable emotional value and be given pride of place on the tree. The earliest known reference to Cancun called it Cancuen. Baubles are another extremely common decoration, and usually consist of a fairly small hollow glass or plastic sphere coated with a thin metallic layer to make them reflective, and then with a further coating of a thin pigmented polymer in order to provide colouration. In the case of a two-syllable word, you would only use an accent to indicate that the stress falls on the first syllable, as in López. Strands of tinsel may be hung in groups from longer branches to simulate icicles, though this trend has gradually fallen off since the late 1970s. In Spanish, the accent usually falls on the second syllable. Lighting with candles or electric lights (fairy lights) is commonly done, and a tree topper completes the ensemble.

The Spanish is not really correct either. Delicate mould-blown and painted coloured glass Christmas ornaments were a specialty of Czech glass factories from the late 19th century, and have since become a large industry, complete with famous-name designers. This is probably a result of the fact that English-language type faces available in the early days of Cancun did not have accented characters, or the operators did not know how to access them because the keyboard codes were different from the ones they were accustomed to using. Tinsel and several types of garland or ribbon are commonly used to decorate a Christmas tree. Although many international publications now spell Cancun as Cancún, in the area itself it is usually Cancún in Spanish and Cancun in English. Organically grown Christmas trees are available in some markets, and as with many other crops, are widely held to be better for the environment. On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is Nichupte Lagoon, which is used for boat and snorkelling tours of the area. In some cases management of Christmas tree crops can result in poor habitat since it involves heavy input of pesticides and herbicides.

A causeway was built to link Cancun to the mainland, and an international airport was built, along with what was at first a model city for workers, complete with housing, schools and medical facilities. Live trees are typically grown as a crop and replanted in rotation after cutting, often providing suitable habitat for wildlife. The government of Mexico decided to develop a tourist resort on Cancun, which was originally financed by a USD $27 million loan from the Inter-American Development Bank. Real trees also help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while growing. In the early 1950s Cancun was an almost unpopulated and undeveloped island just off the Caribbean Sea coast of the Yucatán peninsula, home to three caretakers of a coconut plantation and small Pre-Columbian ruins of the Maya civilization. Real trees are used only for a short time, but can be recycled and used as mulch or used to prevent erosion [2]. The mainland downtown commercial section (Cancún City), connected to the island by two bridges, has broad avenues lined with whitewashed shops, restaurants, and hotels. Artificial trees can be used for many years, but are usually non-recyclable, ending up in landfills.

Cancún is divided into two parts: The narrow 23-kilometer-long (14-mile) island section (Cancún Island) is lined with modern beachfront hotels surrounded by the Bahía de Mujeres (Bay of Women), the Caribbean Sea, and the Nichupte and Bojorquez lagoons. Polyethylene trees are less toxic, though more expensive, than PVC trees [1]. The beaches are almost 100 percent limestone; the porous quality of the limestone makes for cool sand even under the intense tropical sun. For instance, the bark of a real tree can be used to surface an artificial trunk. The average temperature in Cancún is 27° C (80° F) with more than 240 days of sunshine, and rain is rare, with late August through early October being the rainy season. A small amount of real-tree material is used in some artificial trees. . Some trees have a warning that dust or leaves from the tree should not be eaten or inhaled.

It is the municipal seat of Benito Juárez municipality and a world renowned tourist resort. Artificial trees are usually made out of PVC, a toxic material which is often stabilised with lead. Cancún is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo. There is some debate as to whether artificial or real trees are better for the environment. Wichita, Kansas, United States. Real potted ones are often sold like this, and artificial ones often come with a "root ball" but only sometimes with decorations. Miami, Florida, United States. A long-standing and simple gimmick is conifer seedlings sold with cheap decorations attached by soft pipe cleaners.

Past gimmicks include small talking or singing trees, and trees which blow "snow" (actually small styrofoam beads) over themselves, collecting them in a decorative cardboard bin at the bottom and blowing them back up to the top through a tube hidden next to the trunk. Retailers also claimed that the trees were popular because they allowed larger presents to be placed beneath the trees. Customers then wanted to replicate the inverted tree. They were originally sold as decorations for merchants that allowed customers to get closer to ornaments being sold.

In 2005 inverted trees became popular. Some are instead lit partly or completely by fibre optics, with the light in the base, and a rotating colour wheel causing various colours to shimmer across the tree. Since the late 1990s, many indoor artificial trees come pre-strung with lights. Some skyscrapers will tell certain offices to leave their lights on (and others off) at night during December, creating a Christmas tree pattern.

A few hotels and other buildings, both public and private, will string lights up from the roof to the top of a small tower on top of the building, so that at night it appears as a lit Christmas tree, often using green or other coloured lights. These lights are usually white, but often are green, red, red/green, blue/white, blue, or multicoloured, and sometimes with a small controller to fade colours back and forth. lawns in the 2000s, along with 1990s spiral ones that hang from a central pole, both styles being lighted with standard miniature lights. Outdoor branched trees made out of heavy white-enameled steel wires have become more popular on U.S.

Other artificial trees which look nothing like a conifer except for the triangular or conical shape, are also used as tabletop decorations, such as a stack of ornaments. More recent tinsel trees can be used fairly safely with lights. They were instead lit by a spotlight or floodlight, often with a motorised rotating color wheel in front of it. They were aluminium-coated paper, meaning that they also posed a great fire hazard if lights were put directly on them (warnings to this effect are still issued with most christmas tree lights).

The first trees which were not green were the metallic trees of the 1950s and 1960s. Around 2003, some trees with molded-plastic branches started selling in the U.S.. Better trees also have more branch tips, the number usually listed on the box. Most of the better trees have branches hinged to the pole, though the less-expensive ones generally still come separately.

Many trees now come in "slim" versions, to fit in smaller spaces. These trees have become a little more realistic every year, with a few deluxe trees containing multiple branch styles. Many also have very short brown "needles" wound in with the longer green ones, to imitate the branch itself or the bases that each group of pine (but not other conifer) needles grows from. Those first trees looked like long-needled pine trees, but later trees use flat PVC sheets to make the needles.

Each row of branches is a different size, colour coded at the base with paint or stickers for ease of assembly. The bases of the branches were then twisted together to form a large branch, which was then inserted by the user into a wooden pole (now metal with plastic rings) for a trunk. They were made the same way, using animal hair (mainly pig bristles) and later plastic bristles, dyed pine-green colour, inserted between twisted wires that form the branches. The first modern artificial Christmas trees were produced by companies which made brushes.

in 1913, in the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog. The first feather trees came to the U.S. Originating in Germany in the 19th century to prevent further deforestation, these "minimalist" trees show off small ornaments very well. The first artificial trees were tabletop feather trees, made from green-dyed goose feathers wound onto sticks drilled into a larger one, like the branches on a tree.

They may also be necessary for people who have an allergy to conifers, and are increasingly popular in office settings. Artificial trees are sometimes even a necessity in some rented homes (especially apartment flats), due to the potential fire danger from a dried-out real tree, leading to their prohibition by some landlords. In the U.S., about 70% of trees are now artificial. At the end of the Christmas season artificial trees can be diassembled and stored compactly, but some artificial-tree owners simply store the whole decorated tree covered in a large bag, ready for the next year.

Trees come in a number of colours and "species", and some come pre-decorated with coloured lights. Artificial trees are very popular, particularly in the U.S., where despite their lack of realism (both in looks and scent), they are considered more convenient and (if used for several years) less expensive than real trees. In the UK, The British Christmas Tree Growers Association represents the interests of all those who grow Christmas trees in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In the past, Christmas trees were often harvested from wild forests, but now almost all are commercially grown on tree farms.

The shearing also damages the highly attractive natural symmetry of unsheared trees. European tradition prefers the open aspect of naturally-grown, unsheared trees, while in North America (outside much of the Rockies) there is a preference for close-sheared trees with denser foliage, but less space to hang decorations. Others are produced in a container and sometimes as topiary for a porch or patio. These trees must be kept inside only for a few days, as the warmth will bring them out of dormancy, leaving them little protection when put back outside into the midwinter cold in most areas.

However, the combination of root loss on digging, and the indoor environment of high temperature and low humidity is very detrimental to the tree's health, and the survival rate of these trees is low. Some trees are sold live with roots and soil, often from a nursery, to be planted later outdoors and enjoyed (and often decorated) for years or decades. Norfolk Island pine is sometimes used, particularly in the Oceania region, and in Australia some species of the genera Casuarina and Allocasuarina are also occasionally used as Christmas trees. The long-needled Eastern White Pine is also used there.

Virginia Pine is still available on some tree farms in the southeastern United States, however it has poor winter colour and sharp needles. Less-traditional conifers are sometimes used, such as Giant Sequoia, Leyland Cypress and Eastern Juniper. Several other species are used to a lesser extent. and in North America:.

Commonly used species in northern Europe (including the UK) are:. The best species for use are species of fir (Abies), which have the major benefit of not shedding the needles when they dry out, as well as good foliage colour and scent; but species in other genera are also used. Both natural and artificial trees are used as Christmas trees. In Germany, the Catholic people takes their Christmas trees down by the 2nd of February.

In Europe, private Christmas trees are not usually put up until at least the middle of December and are usually taken down by the 6th of January. In more northern climates and into Canada, the tree (if not too dry) and other decorations are left up well into January. homes is to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November) and to take it down right after the New Year. The most common tradition in U.S.

Modern commercialisation of Christmas has however resulted in trees being put up much earlier; in shops often as early as late October. Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December), and then removed the day after twelfth night (i.e., 6 January); to have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck. . It is normally an evergreen coniferous tree that is brought into a home or used in the open, and is decorated with Christmas lights and colourful ornaments during the days around Christmas.

A Christmas tree is one of the most popular traditions associated with the celebration of Christmas. In coastal areas, trees can be used to protect sand dunes from erosion. Trees can be cut into small pieces and use for mulch or composted; some cities offer this service to their residents. Use the tree as a bean or pea support pole.

Use needles in a sachet. Use your tree as a bird feeder, hanging suet balls or other food from the branches. Place your tree away from heat sources, including radiators and windows that get a lot of direct sunlight. Only use plain water; research shows that additives such as sugar, cola and aspirin do more harm than good.

Check it daily. Make sure your tree has a sturdy Christmas tree stand that holds 4-6 litres of water. This allows the tree to continue taking up water, by removing the resin-soaked wood at the original cut. Just before placing it in the stand, cut 2-3 centimeters off the trunk.

Before taking your tree inside, gently bang the tree on its stump several times to dislodge any loose needles. If possible, the night before decorating, bring the tree into a partially heated area to allow it to adjust gradually to temperature changes. If decoration is not planned immediately, store the tree in a cool environment protected from the sun and wind. When transporting the tree, protect it from wind and road salts by covering it with plastic.

Stone Pine Pinus pinea (as small table-top trees). Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris. Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii. Red Fir Abies magnifica.

Noble Fir Abies procera. Fraser Fir Abies fraseri. Balsam Fir Abies balsamea. Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris.

Serbian Spruce Picea omorika. Norway Spruce Picea abies (generally the cheapest). Noble Fir Abies procera. Nordmann Fir Abies nordmanniana (as in the photo).

Silver Fir Abies alba (the original species).