Evergreen

The Trees That Shaped America

By Trent Preszler

Category: History | Reading Duration: 16 min

About the Book

Evergreen (2025) explores the history of a Christmas ritual – putting up a tree. Reflecting on humanity’s long-running relationship with evergreens, it raises questions of belief, tradition, and environmental responsibility.

Who Should Read This?

Tree lovers
People interested in history
Anyone who wants to make more environmentally friendly choices

What’s in it for me? The story behind an evergreen tradition.

Every December, millions of us drag a tree into our homes without giving it much thought. We string it with lights, admire it for a few weeks, and then haul it back outside again. It’s a familiar, almost automatic ritual – but why do we do it? What’s the story behind the Christmas tree?

In Evergreen, Trent Preszler invites us to look more closely at evergreen trees themselves. How did a single type of plant come to shape entire civilizations, spiritual traditions, engineering feats, and even the rise and fall of empires? In this Blink, we’ll trace evergreens from prehistoric forests to modern New York City, revealing how these trees became both powerful symbols and essential raw materials for human ambition. And in an age of plastic stand-ins and vanishing forests, Evergreen asks us to reconsider our relationship with this remarkably resilient tree – one you may never look at the same way again.

Chapter 1: A cherished tradition

Imagine if extraterrestrials paid a visit to Earth at Christmas. Imagine the scene through their eyes – countless trees vanishing from forests, then reappearing in houses and shop windows, covered in shining decorations. To visitors from another planet, it might seem that they’d stumbled across some sort of cult – a civilization that worships evergreens. And they wouldn’t be entirely wrong.

Around the world, Christmas trees have come to define the season. In New York City, just after Thanksgiving, crowds gather outside the Rockefeller Center to watch as a huge evergreen tree is decorated with 50,000 lights. This particular tradition began in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. One winter, construction workers at the Rockefeller Center were facing tough times, and they needed something to celebrate. The workers pooled together their money and bought a twenty-foot fir, decorating it with simple garlands and tin cans. This humble Christmas tree was a symbol of hope and resilience.

Over the years, the Rockefeller tree became taller and shinier. It’s now a public ritual, and as much a part of American Christmas as Santa Claus. In the lead-up to Christmas, the head gardener at the Rockefeller Center is tasked with finding the perfect tree – one with “personality. ” Once the tree has been selected, and inspected for structural integrity, it’s cut down and carefully transported to Manhattan. The convoy is sometimes led by police escorts, and followed by camera crews. After the tree has been erected and decorated, there’s the tree-lighting ceremony – a spectacle attended by hundreds of thousands of people, while about 7 million viewers watch at home.

But despite these celebrations, by this point, the evergreen tree itself has become almost incidental, overshadowed by everything else. Few people consider the deeper significance of the Christmas tree. And by mid-January, it’s all over. The once-iconic tree is taken down and dismembered, to begin another career as floorboards or picnic tables. There’s something poignant about the ephemeral nature of the Christmas tree – so important for one month of the year, then gone and forgotten for the rest. These trees represent both a celebration and a farewell.

Chapter 2: The history of evergreens

By this point, you’re probably wondering about the origins of the ritual. While the Christmas tree, as we’ll soon discover, is a relatively recent tradition, our relationship with evergreens goes way back. But first, let’s go even further back – 385 million years ago. Long before humans existed, Earth was dominated by a towering tree called Archaeopteris.

Botanists have identified this as a precursor to modern evergreens. Millions of years ago, forests of Archaeopteris transformed Earth’s soil and atmosphere. But even when it went extinct – very suddenly, during the Carboniferous Period – it left a lasting legacy. Very gradually, the dead trees turned into peat, which then became coal. The trees’ nutrients fed ancient marine life – organisms that were transformed into crude oil. So, here’s an interesting way of looking at it.

Essentially, the coal and oil that powers modern civilization is made from fossilized Christmas trees. The descendants of Archaeopteris didn’t just survive, but thrive. While Earth was battered by ice ages and natural disasters, new trees began to take root – evergreen conifers. There are about 600 species of conifer, including firs, pines, and cypresses. Like all evergreens, conifers keep their foliage year-round, and they’re remarkably hardy trees. Their seeds are protected in tough cones, which display Fibonacci spirals.

Ancient civilizations recognized that there was something special about these trees. They became symbols of rebirth, immortality, and enlightenment. The ancient Romans, for example, thought that the spiral patterns of pine cones held mathematical secrets. Fountains and temples were decorated with pine cone motifs. Today, if you visit a courtyard in the Vatican, you’ll find a majestic relic – an ancient, thirteen-foot-tall pine cone made of bronze. Other cultures, from the Assyrians to Norse civilizations, also revered the conifer, and its ability to withstand the winter.

During the coldest, bleakest months of the year, evergreen trees became symbols of hope and vitality. If the trees could survive the winter, so might everyone else. In the Roman Empire, pagan rituals began to emerge – winter solstice festivals such as Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, and Saturnalia. With the arrival of Christianity, pagan rituals were absorbed into Christian traditions. It’s no coincidence that in the year 340 CE, Pope Julius I fixed the 25th of December as the date of the Nativity. The pagan tradition of celebrating evergreen trees was also repurposed.

Over time, the trees were given new roles in Christian celebrations. Myths emerged to explain the trees’ significance. Apparently, Martin Luther – the Protestant reformer – appreciated the spiritual symbolism of evergreens. Luther saw a parallel between the trees’ enduring color and the ever-lasting nature of God’s grace.

Chapter 3: The rise of the Christmas tree

The history of the evergreen – and its evolving relationship with winter celebrations – is long and complex. However, it’s generally agreed that the Christmas tree tradition originated in Germany, where the earliest documented evidence dates back to 1419. Villagers in Freiburg decorated an evergreen tree with apples and gingerbread as part of their Christmas Eve festivities. In Germany, the Christmas tree, or Weihnachtsbaum, became a well-established tradition.

But across the Atlantic, they didn’t catch on straight away. In the 17th century, the US Governor William Bradford labelled Christmas celebrations “pagan mockery. ” The General Court of Massachusetts even went so far as to criminalize Christmas. But gradually, these puritanical attitudes shifted. The 19th century saw an influx of immigrants from Germany, and a change in social norms. Christmas trees started to become a more common festive fixture.

But it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the Christmas tree really took off in America. The Illustrated London News published a picture of Victoria, Queen of England, and her husband Prince Albert, standing next to a lavishly decorated spruce. The tree had been imported from Germany – Albert’s native country. In the United States, the image was republished in an influential magazine with a simple caption: “The Christmas Tree. ” The tree quickly became fashionable – and, before long, traditional. Until surpringly recently, however, not all Christians embraced the evergreen.

For much of its history, the Vatican viewed Christmas trees with suspicion, dismissing them as pagan or distinctly Protestant symbols. That stance shifted only in 1982, under Pope John Paul II, when the first Vatican Christmas tree appeared in St. Peter’s Square. Today, of course, the Christmas tree is popular among people of many different beliefs, not just Christians.

It has become an almost universal symbol of the festive season. Yet for some, these trees now signify something more: growing concern about the environment. And as we’ll soon see, that tension is anything but new.

Chapter 4: The cost of consumption

So far, we’ve been focusing mainly on Christmas trees. But over thousands of years of human civilization, evergreens have also served a much more practical purpose – construction. Throughout history, humans have used various types of wood and stone as building materials. But some materials are better than others, and the wood from conifers has proven to be particularly useful.

Conifers grow in neat, straight columns, which makes them easy to harvest for timber. The wood itself is also remarkably strong and consistent, thanks to its cellular makeup. Conifer wood contains billions of tracheids – microscopic interlocking cells. They’re stacked on top of each other like Lego bricks, and the way they’re bound together makes the wood both strong and flexible. Ancient construction workers recognized the unique properties of evergreens. In Egypt, whole pine forests were cut down to create timber.

Among other things, this wood was used to transport the stone blocks of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The ancient Greeks were also enthusiastic harvesters of evergreen timber. And while pine was popular, the most revered construction timber in ancient times was Lebanese cedar. Not only was the wood of this tree extremely strong, resilient, and water-resistant, but it also had the most wonderful fragrance. The Lebanese cedar is celebrated in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and referenced in the Bible 70 times – more frequently than any other plant, animal, or object. During the Roman Empire, timber harvesting and construction took place on an industrial scale.

Evergreen lumber was needed for scaffolding and mechanical cranes, while the Roman elites used cypress and cedar for their lavish abodes. Wood was also needed for fuel. In order to power their bathhouses, and a variety of industries, the Romans burnt through an astonishing amount of firewood. Eventually, people began to realize that this relentless consumption came at a cost. By the 5th century, the forests of southern Europe had mostly disappeared. Without timber, production ground to a halt.

It might be argued that Rome fell not just because of political problems, but because they ran out of trees. Earlier, Roman philosophers such as Seneca and Lucretius had commented on the ecological costs of human greed. And earlier still, the Greek philosopher Aristotle made an observation that remains relevant today: “Men pay most attention to what is their own; they care less for what is common. ” Forests are “common” – owned by no one, used by all. Unless we can learn from the mistakes of the past, perhaps their depletion is inevitable.

Chapter 5: An evergreen ending

Now, as we reflect on our environmental impact, let’s go back to Christmas trees. These days, many Christmas trees originate not in the forests of Europe or North America, but in the factories of Yiwu, China. This industrial city produces 60% of the world’s Christmas decorations, including polystyrene trees. The first artificial Christmas trees made their appearance in the 20th century.

Early versions were either conspicuously fake, or potential fire hazards. But by the 1970s, safe and aesthetically pleasing plastic trees were being mass-produced in the US. And in recent years, manufacturers have started producing high-end artificial trees, complete with realistic imperfections. They’re almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Many people have come to see artificial Christmas trees as a more convenient, environmentally friendly alternative. But the reality isn’t quite so simple.

Most artificial trees are thrown away after just ten years. They end up as part of the 300 million tons of plastic waste generated annually. Plastic waste degrades into microplastics, releasing toxic chemicals into the soil and water. In a sense, plastic is evergreen too – it lasts forever. So, before buying a plastic Christmas tree, maybe we should think again. Is it worth it?

Buying a real tree, from a local farm with sustainable practices, might be a better option. There’s nothing quite like a real evergreen – the scent…the nostalgic associations…and the way it helps us to feel connected not just to an enduring tradition, but to the earth itself. At the end of its lifespan, an artificial Christmas tree ends up as landfill. But once a real tree has lost its needles, it has a much more natural ending. The tree might be chopped into mulch for a garden, or burned in a winter bonfire. The evergreen does what it’s meant to do, returning to the earth.

Final summary

The main takeaway of this Blink to Evergreen by Trent Preszler is that… Humanity’s long relationship with evergreen trees is both practical and symbolic, culminating in the modern Christmas tree. In the US, one of the most iconic is the Rockefeller Center tree – a Depression-era gesture of hope that evolved into a major cultural ritual. However, this is a relatively recent development in the history of evergreens. The ancestors of today’s conifers can be traced back to prehistoric forests of Archaeopteris.

These trees ultimately became the fossil fuels that power modern life. Across civilizations – from ancient Rome to Norse cultures – evergreens have symbolized endurance, rebirth, and spiritual meaning, later becoming absorbed into Christian celebrations. The first Christmas trees appeared in medieval Germany. The diffusion of the tradition in the United States was gradual, and not without controversy. Evergreen trees have also served a more practical purpose. Historically, people have relied on conifer wood for construction and fuel.

Overconsumption contributed to environmental crises as early as the Roman Empire. These days, many people opt for artificial Christmas trees. But while plastic trees promise convenience, their long-term environmental cost is significant. Preszler argues that real, sustainably grown evergreens preserve both ecological balance and a deeper connection to nature and tradition.

Okay, that’s it for this Blink. We hope you enjoyed it. If you can, please take the time to leave us a rating – we always appreciate your feedback. See you in the next Blink.

About the Author

Trent Preszler is Professor of Practice at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. He specializes in sustainable business and environmental economics and policy. Preszler’s memoir Little and Often was selected as one of the best books of 2021 by USA Today.