Christmas Tree Day

What Is Christmas Tree Day?

December 7th is "Christmas Tree Day" (Kurisumasu Tsuri no Hi) in Japan. The date is said to come from December 7, 1886, when a Christmas tree was put up at Meiji-ya in Yokohama. Meiji-ya had been founded the previous year, in 1885, by Isono Hakaru in Yokohama's Bandai-cho; it dealt in food and drink and supplied provisions to ships. The tree is said to have been prepared for the foreign sailors then staying in Yokohama.

Which Tree Was Really the First?

The Meiji-ya tree is often called Japan's first, but another account puts the first in 1860, when the Prussian envoy Eulenburg decorated one at his legation. A tree also appears in records of an 1874 Christmas party at a school in Tsukiji, so no single "first" is settled. When Meiji-ya opened in Ginza, Tokyo, in 1900 and put up a tree there, Ginza's Christmas decorations became widely known.

The Tree, and the Lights on It

The oldest known record of a Christmas tree dates to 1419, when a bakers' confraternity in Freiburg, Germany, decorated one at an almshouse; by the 1600s records appear across Germany. The earliest record of candles hung on a tree is from 1660. Electric lights arrived in 1882, when Edward H. Johnson, vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs onto a tree at his home in New York City.

• The star on top: said to represent the Star of Bethlehem that announced Christ's birth
• Baubles: thought to descend from apples, with one account tracing them to the fruit of the tree of knowledge
• Candy canes: shaped like a shepherd's crook, with various readings of the red and white
• Garlands and tinsel: understood as the glitter of stars and snow

Four Milestones on the Way

Laying out only the episodes that survive in the record, the Christmas tree took root in Japan gradually -- over roughly forty years rather than in any single year.

• 1860: the Prussian envoy Eulenburg decorates one at his legation
• 1874: a tree appears at a Christmas party at a school in Tsukiji, Tokyo
• December 7, 1886: Meiji-ya in Yokohama puts one up for foreign sailors
• 1900: Meiji-ya opens in Ginza, and Ginza's Christmas displays become widely known

Tips for Marking This Day

• Put up a tree in the office lobby or at home -- the trick is not to overload a small tree
• Work from the top down, placing large ornaments first, then medium, then small
• LED strings draw little power and stay cool; choose weatherproof ones for outdoors
• Go see a tree somewhere -- the Western-style houses of Yokohama's Yamate, or a local illumination display

A Light That Spread from Yokohama

One tree set up for visiting sailors has become a whole city's worth of lights. December 7 is the day to remember that first one -- and to bring out this year's.