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The First Christmas Tree
Prince Albert, English Queen Victoria’s consort, is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree into England in 1840. However, the honor of establishing this tradition in the United Kingdom rightfully belongs to ‘good Queen Charlotte’, the German wife of George III, who set up the first known English tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December, 1800. Legend has it that Queen Charlotte’s compatriot, Martin Luther, the religious reformer, invented the Christmas tree. One winter’s night in 1536, so the story goes, Luther was walking through a pine forest near his home in Wittenberg when he suddenly looked up and saw thousands of stars glinting jewel-like among the branches of the trees. This wondrous sight inspired him to set up a candle-lit fir tree in his house that Christmas to remind his children of the starry heavens from whence their Saviour came. Certainly by 1605 decorated Christmas trees had made their appearance in Southern Germany. For in that year an anonymous writer recorded how at Yuletide the inhabitants of Strasburg ‘set up fir trees in the parlours ... and hanged thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets, etc.’ In other parts of Germany box trees or yews were brought indoors at Christmas instead of firs. And in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, where Queen Charlotte grew up, it was the custom to deck out a single yew branch.
Charlotte was a patroness of the arts and an amateur botanist who helped expand Kew Gardens. She was distressed by her husband’s bouts of physical and mental illness, which became permanent in later life and resulted in their eldest son’s appointment as Prince Regent in 1811. George III and Charlotte had 15 children in total, 13 of whom survived to adulthood. She was the mother of two future British monarchs, George IV and William IV. Her other children included Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, and Charlotte, Queen of Württemberg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_of_Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Alison Barnes sets the record straight on who was really responsible for introducing this popular custom to Britain. Alison Barnes | Published in History Today Volume 56 Issue 12 December 2006
Yews (Taxus spp.) are an evergreen species that can grow to either shrub or tree-like proportions, depending on the variety. They are one of the slowest growing (and longest lived) ornamental plants, offering a very formal appearance to gardens with their uniform shape and deep green needles. The foliage, seeds, and bark of yews are extremely toxic, so these plants should not be planted where children or pets may be tempted to sample them. Yews have a dense, shrubby appearance and a uniform growth habit with one-inch
needles year round and attractive red berries in fall. Only female plants produce the berries, but only if they are pollinated by a male nearby. In the nursery, they are often labeled as to whether they are male or female, so check the label before making a purchase
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