History of the CHRISTMAS TREE [French Christmas Village Tour]

History of the CHRISTMAS TREE [French Christmas Village Tour]

Snow and Curt are on an epic French Christmas Village Tour in their camper van traveling across the Alsece Region of France! They will be visiting six different villages to give you a look at many different traditions as we get closer to Christmas Day. But, in this video, they show you the origins of one of hte most famous holiday traditions in the world… The History of the Christmas Tree! Why do we decorate with red, green, and white? Why do we hang balls on our trees? Just how old is the Christmas Tree? Millions of houses all across the world decorate a tree each year… it is perhaps one of our most iconic traditions. But, most of us do not know why! So, When Snow heard that they were near the ‘birthplace’ of the Christmas Tree… she knew they had to go and get the scoop! After you hear the story, you will likely never look at your Christmas Tree the same again… you will look at it with even more amazement! Happy Holidays form Snow and Curt’s Tiny House on Wheels to your house, wherever it may be!

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00:00 Opening
05:10 Obernai Market – Daytime
11:28 Obernai Market – Nightime
14:59 Selestat – Christmas Tree Story

Good morning in our last video if you missed it  we went to the largest Christmas Market in all   of France in the city of Strasburg now in this  episode first we’re going to run a few little  

Van life Europe errands and then we are going to  take you to two smaller Christmas Villages first   up though the weather’s a little chilly here  we got to get G money a jacket so when he goes  

On his walks he doesn’t get cold so we found  a pet store and we’re going to do that right now that one looks nice on you buddy  look at there oh that no don’t go in

There I think we found the one I think we  found the one what do you think Buddy you   in the pet store all right what we cut the  tags up and I’m getting back to the van okay  

Well I went to the grocery store and I spent  a total of 12 so maybe 13 or $14 and I have   successfully decorated our van for Christmas  it may not be the most beautiful decorations   ever but it’s festive it’s Blinky and I got  lots of Santa Clauses and reindeer so the  

Van is ready for Christmas guys I even  found this ornament that lights up that   has a little Christmas tree inside I don’t  know if it’ll come through on the video but   that’s our Christmas tree it’s about an inch  and a half tall perfect size for Van [Music] life Now early this morning we left Strasburg it was a  Monday morning we planned that trip so we were in   the city on a Sunday because parking for our big  van is a lot easier and cheaper when we do that  

City on Sunday and we think it may be that way  for a lot of cities here in Europe so we’ll be   checking out cities on Sundays and seeing how that  goes but we left there early ran some errands and  

We came to a little campsite to do some laundry  just outside of a town called oberling or oberan   tomorrow we’re going to take you down into the  Town Square to this little village to check out   this Christmas Market and then once we do that we  have another Christmas Market we’re going to go  

To the next day that has some pretty important  history to it if you’re a fan of the Christmas   tree but we needed a day to rest and get some  laundry done Kurt’s back here in the back doing  

Some video editing hey guys merry Christmas yes  yes so with that we’ll see you guys tomorrow for   another French Christmas Market Merry Christmas  all right guys this is our Campground and as you   can see there are a lot of campers here and  some are still showing up and I’ve got G out  

For a walk in the morning it looks like we have  some grapes Vines next door we are in the alace   region which is in the beautiful wine reion  region of France and also a place where they   have a beautiful tour or route of Christmas  Villages and we saw in northern France and in  

Southern Belgium where most of the campgrounds  were closed that is the case over here here as   well but there are a few open and it looks like  along here the ones that are open might be full  

Which is not our favorite I’m sure it’s good for  the company who has it but the bathrooms were a   little backed up and I should add that they are  good bathrooms good hot showers clean toilets   clean uh good facilities heated so everything’s  good on that note we have full electricity dump  

Stations water the full amenities it’s $1 a night  including Wi-Fi and so uh what’s really cool is   it’s a little area where to get G out and you  can see him doing a bunch of smelling and he’s  

Also getting used to his new jacket he’s not  sure what to think about that but for those of   you who’ve ever tried walking cats on the leash  that was a learning process as well so he’ll get  

It figured out if he wants to come outside and  it’s definitely better than him getting too cold   so all right we have left the campsite that was  maybe 10 minutes outside of town we’ve come in  

Town to where they have a nice free parking area  even for motor homes so this is where we’ll be   spending the night nothing glamorous but what’s  nice about it is it’s really close to the oberai   I think that’s how you say the name of this  Village Christmas markets so this one seems  

Like it maybe more of a daytime Market we’re  headed down maybe we’ll get some lunch at this   one let’s go I think it’s over [Music] day welcome  to overnight and look looks like an amazing little village so this is definitely more  of a quaint and small village and  

You come into this city you can see  it’s an old sort of medieval walled City and you come in through the gates and  immediately you open up to a beautiful Village   and this is smaller and quaint certainly  than strawberg wow and so this is as much  

Of a daytime Market as it is a nighttime market  and you can see it’s 11:30 and the sun is out   which has been so rare for us through Sunshine  since we landed in Europe which has been I don’t  

Even know how long over two weeks maybe 3  weeks I don’t [Music] know see you gratini [Music] thank you Mery Mer two onion soups [Music] you never try  on soup have to try with okay it’s like   um like we eat here okay yeah yeah yeah  yeah thank you I’m sorry we don’t speak   friendch so yeah yeah yeah it’s [Music]  okay M cheese yeah croutons croutons

Exactly where you from the United States Florida  you’re here for Christmas holiday no we actually   travel in a van fulltime so we just did Mexico  Central America and all of South America for 4  

Years four years and then we just put our van  on a ship and brought it here my it’s in the   parking lot the money for three or four [Music]  [Laughter] years all right we got two french  

Onion soups here from the market and a pretzel  arat it’s got cheese and little bits of ham or   something it’s so crispy and tasty PR is delicious  we’re about to taste the soup we’ll check back in   in one [Music] second oh my I can hear the  Crouton crunching from here how’s the soup  

Oh it’s so good and the good thing is it warms  your hands up it’s a little thick thicker than   I think we’re used to for a french onion soup in  the United States but we are in France and this is  

How she said they eat it with the cheese and the  croutons on top we we most it’s so good all right loo it’s warmed spiced wine and we are in the  wine region it’s got a little kick to it it’s  

Really really good but we’re just having one and  I’ll only have a few sips cuz you have to try this   when you’re here but guys this is really really  really [Music] good so as we travel down through  

Here I think one of the coolest things about these  little towns these little Villages is just how   unique they are and the structures with the wooden  beams and I guess that’s some kind of the concrete   or stucco between them but they’re just beautiful  little like medieval Villages and then when they  

Tuck away all this little Christmas themed stuff  all the pine and the warm wine and all the little   boots it just kicks it up a notch but I got to  tell you if you’re coming here through here in the  

Summertime this place is still unique and in warm  weather I’m sure they have the wine out here and   other Delights but this place is just a beautiful  little medieval walled City it looks like snow is   not leaving empty-handed no we got two little  sweet Fritter something other I think they’re  

Called bagnet magnets yeah I don’t know if these  have apple in them or not but this is topped with   Nutella and cinnamon sugar so we’re going to go  to the van and make a big pot of coffee and have  

A snack all right guys this concludes our daytime  tour not sure if we’ll come back here at night the   temperature is supposed to drop to 19° within  the next day or two and snow is in the forecast  

Tomorrow when I say snow I don’t mean the snow  you know I’ll be there though I mean the white   powdery stuff that makes it dangerous to drive so  anyway we’re excited to see some snow hopefully  

It will but we’re headed back to the van to get  warmed up all right we’re heading back in to see   the obai Christmas Market as the Sun starts to  set and the twinkle lights start to come on so  

We’re going to be able to show you a day versus  night on this little Christmas Market but as we   walk back in which one thing I want to tell you  is the parking here is amazing it’s only like a  

3 minute walk to the downtown little Center but  look at all these motor [Laughter] homes there’s   there’s our spot back there in the corner under a  tree so the kitties have some leaves to watch for  

Birds I got to tell y’all it’s getting chillier  and chillier got to layer up I’m all bundled up   got multiple layers haven’t gotten my winter  coat out yet so I got like five layers on and   they’re all color mismatch so sorry guys he’s  even pulled out the gloves if C’s putting on  

Gloves it’s getting chilly but to be honest the  cold weather’s kind of nice with the Christmas   spirit going on but I think some hot apple  cider might be in my evening and y’all got   to see this motor home up here it’s all decked  out for Christmas let’s go check it out jingle  

Bells jingle bells jingle all the [Music] way  oh what fun it is to ride in one horse oh sleigh   jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way oh  what fun it is to ride in a one horse open slay  

Dashing through the snow in one horse open sleigh  or the Fe fields we go laughing all the way bells   on Bob Tails ring making spirits bride what fun  it is to write and sing this laying song tonight  

Oh jingle bells jingle bells jingle go all the  way oh what fun it is to ride in one horse open   lay jingle bells jingle bells jingle all the way  oh what fun it is to ride in a onor open Sligh

Dashing through the snow in a onor open sleigh  over the fields we go laughing all the way we   are in our fourth alaan Village going to see  our fourth Christmas Market this one has some   very special history to it especially if you’re  like me and you love to decorate a Christmas  

Tree starting to notice a little theme in this  town there are Christmas trees everywhere now   I know in a Christmas Village you expect to see  Christmas trees but there’s a ton of them here   and it’s for a very special reason this town has  the first recorded historical event where it’s  

Written down and documented the very first time  someone decorated a tree for Christmas so this   town is the home of the Christmas tree and there  was no way I was going to miss going to the place   where one of my favorite things was started  so inside this church they tell the history  

Of how the Christmas tree started and through  the centuries to where we are now it looks like   this is the area where the first Christmas tree  started to be decorated they picked these trees   because of course they’re green in the middle of  winter and it was around I believe 15 1521 that  

The first time it is recorded of people for the  holiday holay decorating a tree and they started   by hanging apples on their trees it didn’t take  long by the end of the 1500s there were Christmas   trees in every town center in front of every  Church they were still decorating them with  

Apples to remind us of the original sin of Adam  and Eve but they had started to add the little   communion crackers to start to bring more of the  the church element into the Christmas tree [Music] by the 1600s the apples remained the communion  hosts I believe they’re called remained but  

They started to add bright colorful flowers  roses made out of paper they’re getting more festive in the 1700s they started to actually  create more of an artistic metal type decoration   for the trees and it started to take the shape  of a stars and such and all of this is tied back  

To religious elements throughout this time but  throughout the 17 yeah the 1700s you start to   see more and more different elements added to the  trees so towards the end of the 1700s and into   the 1800s a lot of the major religious elements  started to disappear from the Christmas trees and  

They became more known as being for the children  to celebrate Christmas and at this time you   started to see candy and sweets and gingerbread  decorations start to take over the Christmas   trees by the end of the 1800s the gingerbread and  the other treats the nuts and stuff were starting  

To be coated in sugar and choc and they were also  printing out pictures of famous people or famous   things and sticking them on the Suites usually  using a a sugar coating or a chocolate by the  

End of the 1800s in uh 1870 a War was happening  here and it had ended and the alsa held on to   the Christmas tree to kind of help recover from  the the turmoils of war and it was said that in  

Every alaan household you would find a Christmas  tree and this is when you started to see Angels   appear on trees and people were starting to make  ornaments out of small pieces of wood stars and   stuff like that and some carvings were starting  to appear of mangers and things like that so  

The Christmas tree was starting to take on a for  sure life of its own and was starting to spread   all across France the beginning of the 1900s is  when the Angel topper appeared it’s when people   started to put angels on top of their trees it’s  also when they kind of symbolically brought the  

Apple decorations back to the tree but they did  this with little glass balls so our traditional   Globe shaped colorful balls that you see on almost  every Christmas tree today started as glass balls   to resemble apples right at the beginning of  the 1900s throughout the early history of the  

Christmas tree from time to time you’d see people  go through spells of putting uh candles on their   tree but of course that would usually end in  fire but for centuries people have wanted to   light light up their Christmas trees and in the  60s and even more so into the 1970s the Christmas  

Lights arrived strands of bright colorful lights  for your Christmas tree and also this is when   the Christmas tree ornament really really took  shape and painting them and carving them in all   different colors became a thing so now you know  how the Christmas tree was born after learning  

All about the history of the Christmas tree  we had to stop in and warm up with two cups of   coffee and now we are headed back to the van now  this Christmas Market was definitely very small  

Only had like six little booth but that’s not  what this town is about this town was about the   Christmas tree which makes me incredibly happy cuz  I love a Christmas tree but with that guys I hope   you enjoyed these two markets and this special  holiday video release from us uh if you haven’t  

Subscribed to our Channel go ahead and do that hit  the notification Bell so you know when we put out   new videos we got a lot of cool stuff coming to  you guys from here in Europe we’re headed back  

To the van to get cozy snuggle up with our kitties  we’ll see you in a few days uh actually no we have   another special holiday release video we’ll see  you guys tomorrow from a really really cool and   supposedly very different Christmas Market cheers  guys if you like this video be sure to subscribe  

To our Channel and hit that notification Bell so  you guys know when we put out new videos and don’t   forget you can always follow us over on Instagram  to see what’s going on in between videos cheers guys