You have probably heard the argument that Christmas and its symbols, like the decorated Christmas tree, stem from pagan traditions and should not be embraced by Christians. Critics often point to the religious practices of the Egyptians, early Romans, and northern Germanic tribes who used evergreen trees and branches during their pagan worship during the winter solstice or ‘Saturnalia’.
However, there is a significant historical event in missionary history that changed Europe forever, when a Christmas tree was used by the first missionary to Germany to point unreached people to Christ. This missionary story is not about convincing you whether or not to celebrate Christmas or to buy a Christmas tree. Most underground house church believers in China celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and do not use a Christmas tree.
However, there is a significant missionary story about the traditional Christmas tree that highlights one of the best cross-cultural mission stories since the Apostle Paul and even cuts at the heart of the recent climate change movement!
That missionary is named Boniface – “Apostle to Germany.”
When people think of the early Christian missionaries, they usually think of loving, kind, meek, weak, bony men who walked around malnourished and smelling flowers. They rarely think of the first missionary to Germany who was a controversial, offensive, fearless, axe-wielding, hammer-breaking, tree-crushing, converter of heathens like Boniface.
Born around 680 AD in England, Boniface was called by God to go and preach the Good News in the land of the barbarians – now known as modern-day Germany – that even the Romans could not conquer. The Germans were ruthless warriors and put their faith in the war-god Thor. Anyone offending their religion risked dying a horrific death, but around the year 723, Boniface did just that when he stood against the god of Thor.
Boniface was preaching the Gospel in the region of Lower Hesse among a heathen tribe near Geismar who, in the middle of winter, would make a human sacrifice (usually a child) to the thunder-god Thor at the base of their sacred oak tree, the “Thunder Oak.”
The large tree was not just any tree. It represented the power of Thor and nature. The people lived in fear of the tree. They had to appease the tree by offering human sacrifices to it and asking the tree permission for everything they did. In the old Norse religions, many gods were represented by trees and nature. Odin, the wise father god was represented by an ash tree while his son, Thor, was represented by an oak tree. In this way, the people were ruled by nature.
On December 24, 723, Boniface arrived at the base of the “Thunder Oak” just in time before the people could perform the human sacrifice. He boldly preached the Gospel and warned them not to murder any child as a sacrifice to appease the gods and nature. Traditionally, it is said that the child sacrifice would happen when a pagan priest would take a small child, place it at the base of the tree and smash it with a hammer, allowing its blood to water the roots of the tree and appease the gods.
Just as the priest was in mid-swing with the hammer and coming down with a crushing blow to the child’s skull, Boniface stuck out his staff and stopped the hammer. A mix of anger and fear immediately shot through the crowd. The pagan priests shrieked with cries to kill Boniface for his blasphemy, but Boniface didn’t back down. He proclaimed that there was only one true God and His name was Jesus Christ and that neither Thor nor the tree had any claim over him.
Boniface stood firm on the words of Isaiah 45:5, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no god.” Boniface also broke the control of nature worship where Genesis 1:28-29 records God’s clear command to mankind to ‘fill the earth and subdue it’ – not to submit to it and worship it by giving human sacrifice.
To the shock and horror of the people there that day, Boniface in clear defiance to the culture and religion of the people, picked up an axe and said, “Here is the Thunder Oak, and here the cross of Christ shall break the hammer of the false god, Thor.” Without saying another word, Boniface began chopping down the scared Thunder Oak. After only the first swing, a large wind blew, pushing the tree over – roots and all!
The people stood in shock as they saw the symbol of their god fall to the ground.
After chopping down the tree, he turned and boldly proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus by preaching one of the most powerful messages in German history. It was a message that changed the religion of the pagan Germans forever when Boniface preached, “Hearken, sons of the forest! No blood shall flow this night save that which pity has drawn from a mother’s breast. For this is the birth-night of the Christ, the son of the Almighty, the Savior of mankind. Fairer is He than Baldur the Beautiful, greater than Odin the Wise, kinder than Freya the Good. Since He has come sacrifice is ended. The dark, Thor, on whom you have vainly called, is dead. Deep in the shades of Niffelheim he is lost forever. And now on this Christ-night you shall begin to live. This blood-tree shall darken your land no more.”
The “Apostle of Germany” continued to preach to the astounded Germanic peoples, who were amazed at the boldness of Boniface, but as he was talking, there was something special that had suddenly popped up in the soil where the Thunder Tree was laying. It was a small unassuming fir tree, with it’s deep dark green standing out in contrast to the dead cold ground all around it. The strong wind knocked over Thor’s tree, but it did not destroy the small evergreen.
Looking at the tree, Boniface said, “This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy tree tonight. It is the wood of peace… It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.”
In those days before printed books, Boniface did not have Bibles or tracts to send with the people to remind them of that day, so he sent small evergreen trees pointing out that the triangular shape of the tree represented the trinity of God and that the triangular-shaped tree pointed to heaven. This would be used to remind the German people of the one true God in heaven.
Instead of celebrating a child sacrifice, the Germans began a new tradition that night of celebrating a child birth, one that stretches to the present day.
The earliest records of Christians bringing a fir tree into their homes, decorating it with candles and ornaments, and celebrating the birth of a Savior, trace back to Germany, but it was not popularized in western culture until Queen Charlotte of England brought the first Christmas tree tradition from Germany to the British Royal Family in 1800. Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s German husband, truly popularized the fir tree in the 1840s, after decorating it in his German tradition with candles, fruits, and gifts, becoming the standard for the modern Christmas tree.
So, though many Christians might still contend that the Christmas tree is a pagan tradition, it must be understood that it is indeed a symbol of one of the greatest missionary stories ever told.
There is quite good authority that Boniface felled, or helped to fell, a tree sacred to pagans somewhere near present day Hesse in Germany. There is an account in Willibald’s Life of Boniface, written in 765 AD, 11 years after Boniface’s death. The account of him calling a fir tree the tree of Christ is entirely fictional and originates in a short story by Henry Van Dyke, published in 1897.
What a wonderful reminder that our God can use anyone and anything to show his glory and save his people!