CHRISTMAS TREE 101

Did You Know?

Loading up a freshly cut tree at Allen Hill Farm in Brooklyn, Connecticut, a family-run operation now in its sixth generation. For a state-by-state roundup of other great places to cut your own tree, go to newengland.com/tree-farms.

A NEW ENGLAND–CENTRIC COMPENDIUM OF TREE TRIVIA

n The first indoor Christmas tree in America is thought to have been put up in 1777 in Windsor Locks, CT, by a German POW captured at the Battle of Bennington.

n Harvard professor Charles Follen of Lexington, MA, is credited with popularizing the spread of decorated Christmas trees in the U.S. after a description of his tree in 1832 was published by a visiting journalist.

n Another Harvard professor, Hermann Bokum, further boosted the Christmas tree’s profile with his 1836 holiday book, A Stranger’s Gift, which included the first Christmas tree image published in the U.S.

n New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce reputedly was the U.S. president responsible for introducing the Christmas tree to the White House, back in 1853.

n In 1923, Calvin Coolidge held the first National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on the White House lawn. Back then, the tree was a 48-foot cut balsam from Coolidge’s home state, Vermont; today it’s a living blue spruce from Pennsylvania.