Over time, Christmas trees evolved from simple evergreen boughs and wooden pyramids decorated with pine branches to live evergreen trees and, by the 19th century, artificial trees.

Long before Christmas existed, many cultures used evergreens to celebrate the winter solstice (the shortest day and longest night of the year) on Dec. 21 or 22.

The green branches symbolized the sun starting to shine more and new plants growing.

The first written record of a decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia, in 1510. The tree was decorated with roses and people danced around it in the marketplace.

According to 16th-century folklore, Martin Luther is often credited with being the first to decorate a Christmas tree indoors. After walking through a forest of evergreens beneath a sky filled with shin

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