LADY BUG: TREES AND PLANTS IMPORTANT PART OF THE HOLIDAY TRADITION

Traditional plants of Christmas have a long history that is woven into religion and legends dating back to ancient Greece. Outstanding among the plants is the traditional Christmas tree.

History of the decorated tree is an old one. It started in the tenth century, when an Arabian geographer told this story--

On the night Christ was born, trees in the forest bloomed and bore fruits. To recreate the tale, people began decorating their trees around their homes. Germans were the first to decorate trees indoors. They used apples, sacramental wafers, candles, gold foil, paper roses and sweets. Through the years, the apples were replaced by oranges, then by decorative balls. Cookies, made into various shapes, replaced the wafers.

A legend of the Christmas tree comes to us from the early days of Christianity in England. It is--

One of those helping to spread Christianity among the Druids was a monk named Wilfred. One day, surrounded by a group of his converts, he struck down a huge oak tree, which in the Druid religion, was an object of worship. As the oak tree fell to the earth, it split into four pieces and from its center there grew a young fir tree, pointing a green spire toward the sky.

The crowd gazed in amazement. Wilfred let his axe drop, and turned to speak.

"This little tree shall be your Holy Tree tonight. It is the wood of peace, for your houses are built of the fir. It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are evergreen. See how it points toward the heavens. Let this be called the tree of the Christ Child. Gather about it, not in the wilderness, but in your homes. There it will be surrounded with loving gifts and rites of kindness."

And to this day, that is why the fir tree is one of the loveliest symbols of Christmas.

According to a well known legend, Martin Luther was the first man inspired to have a decorated tree indoors. It is said that he saw a snow-laden evergreen gleaming in the moonlight while walking in the woods on Christmas Eve and tried to simulate it in his home with a small fir tree and candles.

Evergreen boughs with bright decorations were used before Martin Luther's time in church plays to symbolize the creation of the world. Some say these plays ceased after the fifteenth century when people began imitating them by having decorated trees in their own homes.

The use of tinsel on Christmas trees began with this story--

Late on Christmas Eve, a mother decorated a tree to surprise her poor family. During the night a spider wove a web around the tree. The web turned to silver in approval of the mother's goodness.

The Christmas tree was brought to America by homesick Hessian troops from Germany when they were fighting here in the Revolutionary War, but the idea did not really spread until the middle 1800's.

President Franklin Pierce placed the first Christmas tree inside the White House in 1856, and in 1923 President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge began the custom of lighting a National Christmas Tree on the White House grounds.

In the early 1900's modern colored electric lights replaced candles, and the traditional community Christmas trees were born. Californians led the way with San Diego being the first in 1904.

Since 1929 Wilmington, N.C., has lighted what it claims to be the world's largest living Christmas tree--a 300-year-old water oak.

Kansas City, Mo., boasts the tallest decorated tree, a 99-foot northern pine, located in Crown Center.

The National Christmas Tree is not to be found at the White House in Washington or at Rockefeller Center Plaza in New York City. Rather, it towers 267 feet over General Grant National Park near Fresno, CA.

When George Biltmore opened Biltmore House to visitors for the first time, it was Christmas Eve, 1985. More than 60 fireplaces within his 250-room French renaissance chateau warmed his guests with the spirit of Christmas. Almost 100 years later, guests traveled from all over the world to see, hear and smell the grandeur of a Victorian Christmas. Many of the natural decorations which adorned the house in 1895 have been recreated this year.

Today at least 15 varieties of evergreens are used for Christmas trees. Most popular are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, white pine, balsam fir and Fraser fir.

Remember the first artificial trees? They resembled bottle brushes of an-off green color. Today's artificial ones, made of non-biodegradable plastics and metals, can hardly be told from the real ones. The new ones that are skinny can fit into smaller places, and go well with the skinny Santas so popular this year.

Whether it is a natural tree, one grown on a local farm, one shipped from northern climates, an artificial tree or a living tree for the yard, remember that you are participating in one of the oldest and most meaningful traditions of our country--that of preparing the family Christmas tree at this holiday season.