Tracing The Roots Of

The Fake Christmas Tree

By Samantha Critchell Associated Press

Love them or not, today’s artificial Christmas trees don’t have the uniform — and unrealistic — appearance of their forbears a generation ago.

High-end trees now do their best to mimic the inconsistencies of a natural tree, with uneven branch sizes, individually shaped needles and variation in color.

And the biggest change in faux trees over the last few decades is the move away from the jigsaw-puzzle tree of many little pieces toward a typically three-part tree that opens like an umbrella, says Janet Denton, Christmas buyer for Sears.

Prelit trees also have caught on, she says.

An artificial Christmas tree first appeared in Sears’ 1910 catalog. It had a wooden base, five candle attachments, 25 branches, and was decorated with red berries.

The price? 23 cents.

By 1915, some of the trees, mounted in large white pots with thick branches covered with heavy imitation foliage, could cost up to 98 cents, according to Sears’ records. In the 1945 Christmas catalog, the retailer was touting trees with branches covered with a dark green strawlike yarn that was supposed to imitate pine needles.

Glamorous nylon net trees were advertised in the 1950s, and 1960s artificial trees were a mix of aluminum, plastic, and vinyl. All sides of the tree had a uniform shape in 1968.