My DS11 wants to know why people put up Christmas trees

[Anita in NC]

I vaguely knew but ended up looking it up on Wikipedia to refresh my memory.

We have a little fake one up just because the smaller kids like to decorate it.

[wyld thang]

First off, I like to have a tree IN the house--a REAL one, selectively cut/thinned from our land. Ever since I was a kid I always loved sleeping outside, the thought of being a forest dweller...so this kinda feeds that. I decorate my tree with things that mean something(not just pretty shiny stuff) like

angels, to remind me of the spiritual realm around and within us
birds, because I love birds
stars, because I love stars(and my name is Celeste)
baby booties and socks I made for my kids
ornaments they made for me
ornaments I made
natural ornaments, like lichen and pinecones and acorns
ornaments made from old things, like this year I got some little silver shaped baking cup things from my grandma that I'll string on some ribbon

anyways, personally I see the tree as a symbol of how I chose to live life, my values, and also a time to reflect on memories of my family and people who made things for me. I like to turn some knickknacky things I've inherited into ornaments, because then they don't gather dust, and I can take them out once a year and enjoy them(and the memories/thoughts)

SO that's why I do it, but as for historical, isn't it just basically a "thankfulness" tree--ornaments represent our blessings through the year? It's also a teaching tree, to teach the basic Christmas story through symbols?

It's fun too! ANd I love the lights!

Maybe we could post pix of our trees and explain that's special to us? I"ll post one later