Balsam-fir and Christmas

Already the wreaths are appearing at local markets. Christmas tree yards are advertising and we will see cut trees available on town and city corners very soon. The Christmas-tree industry in Nova Scotia began exporting in 1932 and the majority of the trees are balsam-fir. It takes 6-10 years to grow a 2-2.5m tree.

While the use of an evergreen tree to mark the winter solstice was a pagan tradition, by the mid 1800s Europeans were decorating trees inside with the Germans credited with originating it. Certainly Queen Victoria’s families popularized it and North America took notice.

Near the turn of the 20th century many German-made ornaments arrived here to decorate the floor-to-ceiling Christmas trees. Handmade ornaments were the norm and the Germans preferred to use edibles: nuts, fruit and cookies.

Balsam-fir has been used for probably a thousand years to decorate during festivals. It was originally hung upside down in homes in northern Europe. The resin has been chewed prior to the arrival of chewing-gum. The resinous knots in fir have been used as torches. The resin even served as a balm on injured limbs during the Civil War. Small fir boughs are used for stuffing ‘pine pillows’. It provides a deodorizing decorative item in homes. Many birds and animals use fir for browse, the cones for food and the thickets for shelter.

In our historic African Nova Scotian communities, many are gathering the balsam-fir boughs needed for Christmas wreath-making. Mrs. Mazie Simmonds explained to me that there are many teachers of the fir wreath-making and many of these teachers continue to make wreaths into their 70s and 80s.
Her wreaths use no frame except for the limbs themselves. They are tied in place and decorated with rose hips and a plant she called Running Christmas (one of our clubmosses), common in our forests and barrens. They too are evergreen. Sometimes she adds ribbon and even doubles two wreaths into one.

Mrs. Simmonds’ wreaths are available at markets in Dartmouth, or directly. She lives in North Preston and even delivers.

For more information on Christmas tree traditions, please refer to http://extension.illinois.edu/trees/facts.cfm and for industry information in Nova Scotia see http://novascotia.ca/natr/christmastrees/tradition.asp

Balsam-fir, photo by Beth Cameron

Mrs. Mazie Simmonds, grandsons and wreaths, photo by Marian Munro

Back of fir wreath, photo by Marian Munro