Christmas tree art

CEBU, Philippines - There's an art form that preoccupies many people's minds at Christmas. Strictly, it's not any of the nine traditional arts that are widely acknowledged. But it's art just the same.

It's the art of decorating - decorating a Christmas tree. Decorating, in general, requires the same amount of creativity needed in all the other art forms. The same faculty of imagination is at work in putting together the various decorative elements.

The Christmas tree being the center of the celebrations during the holiday season, it takes masterly effort, patience and finesse - and time, too, of course - to set it up nicely. Just like literature or music or visual art or dance or any other art form, decorating a Christmas tree is an attempt to communicate. The task has to be accomplished beautifully, to put across the "message" or theme that it is intended to convey.

Those that simply buy a Christmas tree from the store still have work to do. They still need to put their own marks on their tree, making the whole thing like an installation art - their own signature artworks. Each Christmas tree decorator is an artist; the decorated tree bears his or her brand of artistry.

True, some Christmas trees look better than others. But even the prized works of art masters can look quite ordinary to some, while these are hailed by others. The Christmas tree as an artwork is subject to the same biases, too.

The concept of the Christmas tree reportedly originated in Germany in the 16th century. At the time, it became the practice of Christians to bring a freshly-cut tree to the homes and adorn it. They lighted it with candles to make the tree look luminescent.

The practice then spread to neighboring places, and soon the whole of Europe was doing the tradition. The Christmas tree became even more prominent when Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria of England, brought a tree to Windsor Castle in 1841 and had it adorned with candles, sweets, fruits and gingerbread. English homes quickly followed, and expensive items have since been used to decorate the tree and the homes at Christmas.

The Christmas tree then came to America. It was brought there by the German settlers of the state of Pennsylvania in the 1830s. The immigrants displayed it for the purpose of raising money for the local church. But the display was met with an outburst of anger by the local Christian community, who thought it was paganism.

In time, however, Americans learned to adopt the Christmas tree. By the 1890s, Christmas ornaments started to arrive in the US market. The Americans even made the Christmas tree tradition bigger than that of Europe. While Europeans liked to use small Christmas trees of up to four feet in height, Americans preferred gigantic Christmas trees, length of which varied enormously.

And, as the saying goes, the rest is history. Christmas trees are now seen in every corner of the globe, decorated differently according to the local culture and availability of materials. The upright triangular shape,  though, is standard everywhere.

In the Philippines, many homes decorate their tress with native treats that don't spoil easily, the most common of which are coconut candies and dried caramelized "kamote" or banana chips. In the countryside especially, the stalk of the mature maguey flower makes a lovely Christmas tree when decorated. Instead of fake snowflakes, some creative minds use silver-color spider web on their trees.

The kind of passion and dedication that is poured over every Christmas tree undoubtedly makes the outcome a work of art. Some trees may be an adaptation of another's work, others truly one-of-a-kind.  Decorating the Christmas tree really draws out the artist in everyone.