Where putting lights on a Christmas tree came from (A theory)

Back in 2001-2002, me and my cousin was out four-wheeling in the snow. Anytime a snow storm would come, we would load the cooler with beer and drive around the mountains having fun. One night, we stopped in a little holler below my house and pulled up into an old logging road. We just sat there in my jeep drinking our last beer and listening to music and talking before making our way to drop him off, and then me going home. (drinking and driving is stupid, I know, but I was good at it).

As we sat there in the pitch black night, I saw a flash of green light coming from the direction of a huge, tall pine tree that was covered in a thick layer of wet snow. I rubbed my eyes and thought it was just my eyes or something. Then I saw it again. I alerted my cousin to it, so we watched and waited patiently. Then, in all it's glory, the snow covering that pine started glowing the most beautiful green I had ever seen. It lit up the night!

We couldn't believe it! As we sat there and watched, it started blinking, while other parts of it was solid green---it was incredible. The day before, it had snowed probably 22 inches of snow, but somehow that night, it felt warm outside, but the snow wasn't melting. It felt warmer than it actually was---and no, it wasn't the beer!

So, I grab my flashlight out of the console, and we get out and make our way to this tree. It was probably about 75 feet or so from where we were sitting. After high-stepping through the snow to get there, I kicked a hole through the snow layer at the bottom of the tree and climbed in. It was warm in there! What we saw was an educational experience. It was lightning bugs!!

Now I never googled the habits of lightning bugs, so I don't know much about them, other than they are beautiful and mysterious(a bug that makes it's own light is strange, you have to admit). I think where it was so warm under that blanket of snow that the lightning bugs came out of the ground and started climbing up the tree and it's branches. They were having a party in there and we crashed it. We sat there and watched for a little bit and talked about never having seen nothing like that before and how strange it was.

I know some here say pic's or video, or it never happened. I didn't have my camera/dvr with me that day, so, I never got any footage or images of it, sorry. How could someone even come up with something like this if it weren't true??? I just recently thought about it again and decided to post it here to hear what you all think about it and what some of your theories may be. I actually went back there during the last snow storm we had here in the mountains of W.Va for a few hours to see if I could document it, but never seen anything and I gave up and came home. I guess the conditions were right that night.

I'm thinking that at some point in history, some people witnessed this and that's where the idea of putting lights on a tree came from. But....I don't think there was any snow in the middle-east when Jesus walked the earth(IDK), or when the idea came into play during Christmas, so, I don't really know if one thing has anything to do with the other or not.

At any rate, has anyone here ever seen this phenomena before or know anything about lightning bugs??

Do you mean fireflies?
Maybe a new kind, I happen to see them during the summer.

Well, I knew the idea came from germany. So I did some digging. Amazing how one mans idea can become a custom.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

History of Christmas Trees

Originally posted by zilebeliveunknown
Do you mean fireflies?
Maybe a new kind, I happen to see them during the summer.

edit on 3-12-2012 by zilebeliveunknown because: (no reason given)

Yeah, fireflies. We call them lightning bugs here. lol The ones I seen are the same ones that I've seen in the yard, field, etc..


@elouina
Thanks for posting information. I had no idea who came up with the idea. I could've googled it, I guess, but don't have time and fighting a sinus infection.

I was taught in school that the idea of decorating a tree originally came from the vikings, who used to pull the intestines out of their slaughtered enemies and wrap them around trees like tinsel.

They had an interesting sense of humour, to say the least

Well I couldn't find any pictures of it taking place on an evergreen but I found one of a deciduous tree in Malaysia.


That must have been awesome on a pine tree surrounded by snow, you guys really lucked out with this one.

reply to post by Josephus


Are those lightning bugs(fireflies)? If so, wow. Incredible. But yeah, we were pretty blown away by it. I know a lot of bugs hibernate in the ground but it just didn't dawn on me that lightning bugs did, at that time. It took us a few seconds until we looked closely for us to realise how it was happening.

Originally posted by elouina
Well, I knew the idea came from germany. So I did some digging. Amazing how one mans idea can become a custom.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

History of Christmas Trees

I doubt Biblical scholar Martin Luther would do such a thing, as this was done by the Chaldeans centuries before. Christians are warned not to partake in the vain tradition

Jeremiah 10 3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

reply to post by Fylgje


I'm not too sure on the exact history of lights in trees. A search of google, wikipedia, and various other sources claim that it is a 1600s traditions which gained fame and widespread use during the 1800s in Germany. I see no reason to think otherwise.

As for the use of a pine tree, I would definitely say that custom probably developed among the Norse or the Druidic Celts, as both had a special place for the pine tree in their various mythologies. Odin, Thor, and Tyr (the Old Norse gods of thunder, oaths, war, honor, valor, wisdom, strength, and other physical-and-leadership traits) were all associated with the pine tree. To the Druids pine was a tree coming to prominence during the end of summer (Aug 24 - Sept 02), and the end of winter (Feb 19 - Feb 29). It symbolized hard work, perseverance, the need for caution and safety, and ultimate wellness. All of which are things necessary for surviving the harshness of summer, and the cold depths of winter.

At the same time, you have Norse holidays like Sinterklaas, Yule, the Wild Hunt, and Modranicht which occur on December 06th, December 21st, December 22nd, and December 25th; and Celtic holidays like Samhain and the winter-solstice occurring from October 31st through December 22nd which most likely introduced many of the customs that Rome adopted while attempting to spread the influence of Christianity to all of its subjects. Feast days like Saint Nicholas day, and Christmas itself, most likely are based on Sinterklass and Yule/the winter-solstice.

I don't have a problem believing that a majority of modern Christmas traditions (pine trees, lights, garland, mistletoe, eating ham or pig of some kind, the fire and yule log, etc.) came from Celtic and Norse traditions which Constantine adopted so that the Celts and Norse would fall in line with Christianity, the state-religion.

~ Wandering Scribe

In the book of Jeremiah in the bible they talk about cutting down a tree and decorating it with silver and gold.

OP,that sounds beautiful in regards to the lightning bugs/fireflys.This thread has certainly given me a few new ideas about the artifical three foot tall Christmas tree in my living room.I think entrails of the Vikings enemies would clash with the decor though.